DHA Posted February 13, 2006 Report Share Posted February 13, 2006 Cayenne V6 Review Today I had a Porsche Cayenne V6 as a loan car from my dealership. It was the base model and was painted in Arctic Silver Metallic paint with black leather interior. My initial impression of seeing the car in silver was that it looked quite nice. I know that there is a huge debate on the looks of the Cayenne and this review is not here to address that (do so in another thread if you must) but I personally like the look of the car. After the service person explained how to operate the parking break, a foot and hand operated mechanism not dissimilar to Mercedes systems, I was off. The V6 engine was fairly responsive around town but I initially felt that the tiptronic gearbox was very jerky. I expected this to improve once the oil had warmed up but this was not to be the case. The gearbox, when compared to the tiptronic ‘box in my old S4, was not as smooth as the Audi version however the tiptronic buttons to control up and downshifts manually seemed to respond quicker than I recall the ones in the S4 doing. The interior was very spacious but I was a little disappointed but the quality of the dashboard plastic. Whilst it was a base model it was far below the quality of finish I have in the Boxster and the Cayenne has the same on the road price as my car. It was very evident that a number of the interior parts, including the flip key, have been sourced from the VAG group, but despite the poor quality dashboard plastic overall it was a well laid out and functional interior. Around town I was very aware of the size of the car and I felt that the front and rear parking sensors would be a huge help when parking despite the very good visibility provided by the large windows and mirrors. On the open road it felt very car like, there was minimal body roll and the steering felt fairly direct when you turned the wheel. On the motorway however the V6 showed that it did lack top end punch. Above 70mph the acceleration was not very impressive and you did feel less willing to move out to overtake if there was a car not too far behind. One thing to note is fuel consumption, I believe the fuel tank has a 100 litre capacity, I put £15 of unleaded in and did 70 miles on this. Overall the Cayenne is a good car and if I was in the market for an SUV then this along with the Range Rover Sport would be on the list. However I would opt for at least the Cayenne S with the V8 engine just to give some more power for higher speed driving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alastair_A3 Posted February 13, 2006 Report Share Posted February 13, 2006 Good review. I personally like the looks of the cayenne, but in black. Hate to think what the MPG is like for the cayenne turbo. The V8 models have a lovely burble to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabster Posted February 13, 2006 Report Share Posted February 13, 2006 I had one as a loaner for two days I agree completely. They make you drive slow, you just want to cruise by slow. Did you notice the key looks like a little Cayenne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DHA Posted February 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Did you notice the key looks like a little Cayenne. [/ QUOTE ] Yeah thinking of it yes it does Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sitas3 Posted February 14, 2006 Report Share Posted February 14, 2006 Dave you missed something.. What an utterly ugly vehicle! urggh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallachie Posted February 14, 2006 Report Share Posted February 14, 2006 Good review! I'm surprised to hear the interior quality isn't up to scratch! Poor show by Porsche on that front! A V6 in a huge monster like the Cayenne must be totally gutless though, it would have to be a V8. I wonder if Porsche will ever make a derv version, if they coupled a V8/V10 derv engine and a new front end then it could be a great combination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DHA Posted February 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2006 Yeah I do wonder if they will bring a diesel out when it gets a facelift this year. Would make sense but its not very Porsche, then again nor is the Cayenne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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