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Test Drive: PORSCHE Cayenne Diesel - 2009
Table of contents:
- PHOTO GALLERY
- INTRO / HISTORY / BRAND
- EXTERIOR
- INTERIOR
- IN THE CITY
- OPEN ROAD
- COMFORT
- TECH FACTS
- GADGETS
- SAFETY
- CONCLUSIONS
- GUEST EDITOR OPINIONS
OCTOBER 2009
INTRO / HISTORY / BRAND 8/10
Few people know this, but Porsche has been making all-wheel drive vehicles for more than a hundred years now. Sure, there was no such thing as a "Porsche" brand of cars a century ago, but there was a certain Ferdinand Porsche, who among other things was named as the automotive engineer of the century and the father of the modern Porsche sports car brand. He was also designing all-wheel drive hybrid and 100% electric cars before the twentieth century had arrived.
Even fewer people know that, originally, instead of being designed to be built on the same platform that's underpinning the Volkswagen Touareg and the Audi Q7, the Porsche Cayenne was to become just a sportier version of the world's first premium SUV, the Mercedes-Benz M-Klasse. Since at the time when Porsche was considering an SUV of its own Mercedes was busy buying into the AMG brand, the deal to build the Cayenne on the same platform as the ML fell.
Porsche immediately took out their war-hatchets and went to Volkswagen with their plans, so the Touareg/Q7/Cayenne trinity of premium SUVs was born. Although it wouldn't be fair to consider the Cayenne just a 1/3 part of the aforementioned trio, it does share most of its components with the other two cars.
What it didn't share with them at all in the beginning were its engines, which were all but one made exclusively by Porsche. The 3.6-liter gasoline V6 was the only powerplant borrowed from the VAG group to power the Cayenne, while all the other had nothing but "Porsche" stamped on them. Then 2007 came and with it brought quite a large modification to the whole Cayenne range, including plans for a hybrid (kind of late, huh?) and the world's first diesel Porsche engine. Or is it?
Well, not quite, if you take into account the number of Porsche diesel tractors they have been making for years. Also, it's not even made my Porsche, since the three-liter oil-burner under our test car's hood is actually designed and built by Audi.
Some people already consider the Cayenne a blasphemy in the Porsche model range, but what about a diesel Cayenne, does that count as double-blasphemy? Well, we took one to the test and you can read on to see what we came up with as conclusions.
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VISUAL IMPACT (EXTERIOR) 5/10
The 2007 facelift-ed Cayenne won’t seem strikingly different to the casual observer at first look, but Porsche has moved the 911 996-looking headlamps farther outboard in the fenders and canted their now-clear covers at a more rakish angle to emulate the never-completely-changed-but all-so-very-new 911 997-exterior appearance. As a personal opinion, the new headlamps make it look more “sea-ready” now, almost like it's about to hit the waves.
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Looking at it from the side, the wheel openings have been reshaped. On the whole, the front-end design is a bit more aggressive with three large sewer-grate-looking grilles only kept for the Cayenne Turbo (the lesser-equipped models like our Diesel look a little bit more differentiated between them in the front), and there are minor design tweaks to the mirrors, the roof spoiler and the stoplights with integrated LEDs.
If the critics are "meh", at least the wind tunnel is happy with the results: according to Porsche, the drag coefficient for the eight-cylinder versions has been dropped considerably. From close to 0.40 to approximately 0.35. Talk about design efficiency.
The all-new-for-2008 aluminum wheels with ten spokes do a stupendous job at showing off the Turbo’s red hot chili pepper brake calipers. We obviously had nothing to show, since the Diesel comes standard with 18-inch wheels. Not that those are too small or anything, but on a juggernaut as large as the Cayenne they look a bit petite.
The white color chosen for our test model wasn't the best choice to hide its humongous size either, making it look like a beached albino whale from certain angles. On the whole, we would call the Cayenne facelift a much better-looking car than the 2002 version. Of course, this is like saying that regular flu is a much better disease than swine flu...
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DEEP IMPACT (INTERIOR) 7/10
All the interior changes for the facelift do add up to a spicier blend of Cayenne, especially on the MY 2009. The never-will-be-changed standard of the “start the engine with your left hand” is of course still there, like in any other Porsche. For the ones who don't yet know, the left-hand-starting-key feature is a throwback to the beginnings of the 24 Hours of LeMans, where the racing driver’s right hand was always busy nudging the shifter into first gear after jumping into the car following a short sprint.
The dials in pretty Porsche-like attractiveness have an overlapping design and succinctly show critical information on the dashboard. The tachometer runs up to a highly-optimistic 6,000 rpm, while the speedometer has a maximum reading of an equally non-achievable 270 km/h (168 mph).
The steering wheel still has three spokes and offers shift buttons for the 6-speed automatic "Tiptronic" transmission, but the extra eight buttons or so to handle some of the improved multimedia functions were missing from our test car, since it was a lower-equipped level. The navigation screen on the center console area is swallowed by almost three dozen small buttons: Porsche did not subscribe to the iDrive, Comand or even the MMI school-of-knob controllers, although it is pretty much the same car as an Audi Q7 in some areas.
Drivers can choose from no less than three damping modes for the pneumatic suspension and there’s also a very welcomed extra “Sport” button, which provides altering to transmission shifting, the firmness of the damping system, the ride height... and how fast the stability management control intervenes when you're starting to get crazy behind the wheel.
The leather trimming upholstery on the seats, dash and door-panel surfaces is a more than welcomed addition and all the seams are as straight as a German engineer's smile. Matte-finished silver accents are another elegant and non-kitschy touch.
The pedals are trimmed in polished metal, which adds to the sporty feeling. The really odd touch is a pair of grab handles adjacent to the center console, which serve no real function unless you're driving like a madman and the left-passenger has run out of breath. The 540 liters (19.1 cu ft) of luggage space are enough even for a family of five and the access is great thanks to the wide hatch opening.
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IN THE CITY 6/10
The stable under the hood - down 50 horsepower from the lowest powered gasoline engine – makes the Cayenne Diesel the least powerful Porsche in recent years. Not so nice, right? Well, it also makes this the most economical Cayenne in the whole range. During the city course on our test drive we managed a fuel consumption of approximately 13 liters per 100 kilometers (US 18.1 mpg).
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That's pretty good considering we're talking about a 2315 kilograms (5100 pounds) wildebeest on wheels. Sure, the official Porsche figures are a bit better, with only 11.6 liters of diesel used every 100 kilometers (US 20.3 mpg), but we should also take into account the fact that we drove it in a highly traffic-congested city. Unfortunately, throttle response at the low end of the rev scale, before the turbo begins to spool up, is sluggish, and the six-speed automatic tends to start in second gear unless manually controlled or fingered (no pun intended) by pressing a steering wheel shift button into first.
The Cayenne Diesel’s over 5,000 pounds of weight feels burdensome even for an engine this mighty though. But once it’s energized (read: over 2000 rpms), the 550 Nm (405.6 lb ft) of torque can rock this SUV back on its rear wheels while hurtling out of tighter city turns.
A second annoyance is steering that’s maybe a little bit TOO direct. Some drivers will require a day or two to adjust their reflexes. The Cayenne feels as if it’s tuned more for the race track and mountain road use than ordinary urban driving or suburban commuting. The key is to steer with tidy wrist action instead of major elbow motion. Fast drivers will love it, patient cruisers most likely won’t.
Porsche condones towing up to almost four tonnes ( 8,000 pounds) with the Cayenne, which might seem excessive for the V6 model, but not for the new torquey Diesel. The overall visibility is great thanks to the large windows and the gargantuan side-mirrors. Our test car was also fitted with front and rear parking sensors. No standard rear-view camera sadly, so lateral parking can become a bit of a pain sometimes, at least until you start getting along with the car's sheer size.
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OPEN ROAD 7/10
Even though it may look like it can haul a lot of cargo (which it does, actually), it does however haul... umm... the bacon. The superb all-wheel-drive system with dual-range, the more-than-precise steering and firm braking power give the Cayenne Diesel a surprising dexterity both on and off road. Its speed-rated tires do limit some of its gargantuan ability to go rock-crawling, but it is possible for it to navigate all manner of terrain into which a sane person should never, ever take a vehicle so expensive.
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The new Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control system works with the optional air suspension to hydraulically limit body roll through the turns. There are up to four different ride heights available, of which only three are selectable - depending on the speed - from the cockpit. The system also improves driver control by isolating the steering, not to mention the passengers, from the jolts of undulating surfaces. The chassis control system is a big upgrade in the handling and performance dynamics.
The Americans hated the lack of third-row seats and the fact that the loading floor is a bit too high, but the Cayenne Diesel remains a competent SUV from the let's-go-for-a-ride-with-the-family point of view. The 8.3 seconds needed from naught to 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) aren't anything spectacular, nor is the 215 kilometers per hour (134 mph) top speed.
Still, when we think about the fact this is quite a heavy SUV and the three-liter turbo-diesel engine under that curvy hood "only" makes 240 horsepower those numbers seem plenty. The fuel economy isn't all that bad either. At highway speeds we managed a fuel consumption of around 9 liters per 100 kilometers (US 26 mpg), which is just a tad worse than the advertised 7.9 liters per 100 kilometers (US 29.8 mpg).
On the whole, the addition of diesel engine as a more economical choice for the regular V6 Cayenne is not such a bad idea from the costs or performance point of view. In other words, the Cayenne Diesel offers better fuel consumption and similar (OK, slightly lower) performance compared with the gasoline Cayenne V6.
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FEED ME LIES (COMFORT) 7/10
The rain of buttons on the center console doesn't do much for the Cayenne's integrity as a modern SUV, so its real inner age does show from this point of view. With this in mind, the interior is a very nice place to sit in. The quality of materials is top-notch and the standard list of features is quite long, even for a car that costs as much as some small houses.
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The optional pneumatic suspension does a great job of keeping any road imperfections from leaking in the interior, at the same time as keeping the 5,000 pound beast on all four 18-inch wheels.
As we said earlier, the cabin design is complemented by the usual Porsche turn-on-the-engine-with-your-left-hand, and as odd as that seems, it doesn't hurt your personal comfort as long as you get acquainted with the procedure as soon as possible.
Speaking of creature comforts, the audio-system does a great job at providing an entertaining atmosphere whenever the driver doesn't feel like throwing his passengers in the trunk by using the pedal from the right.
Each of the three modes for the pneumatic suspension provide enough damping for your average passengers and it makes the car quite independent of the quality of roads it's being driven on. Also, the two electrically-controlled seats in the front are nice and cozy, adding to the feeling that the Cayenne, even in Diesel form, is a comfortable piece of machinery.
DEUS EX MACHINA (TECH FACTS) 7/10
From the technical point of view, the facelift-ed Cayenne, especially in Diesel-guise, is an almost entirely new model. Remember, this is the first ever diesel-powered road-going Porsche, but the sheer blasphemy of the things doesn't take away from the fact that this is a very good engine.
Three liters of displacement, 240 horsepower and no less than 550 Nm (405.7 lb ft) of torque available from 2000 to 2250 rpm can haul quite a lot of a**. Sadly, now that even Porsche themselves have switched to the double-clutch "PDK" system for their gearboxes, the six-speed tiptronic transmission doesn't feel so special anymore.
It has the tendency to start in second gear and the shift times feel like forever compared to a PDK-fitted Porsche. Not to say this is a slow slushbox by the way, since the old-school torque converter-based gearbox is still faster than any human would be with a manual. Plus, the gear shifts are almost seamless, making for a very comfortable trip.
The pneumatic electronically-controlled suspension does a pretty good job at eliminating the body roll you were bound to experiment on almost any public road with this amount of weight to haul. It is also very effective at improving comfort, since the hydraulic actuators in the suspension keep the Cayenne flat whenever you're changing lanes, reducing the sea-sick inducing motions of a regular fullsize SUV.
USEFUL TOYS (GADGETS) 7/10
Starting with the HID headlights with light sensor and the windshield wipers aided by a rain sensor, the Cayenne Diesel we tested had just about anything you might want from a premium modern SUV. The real surprise came when we heard it was barely fitted with about half of the amount of gadgets it might have.
For example, our test car was fitted with the dynamic cruise control but without the extra eight or so buttons for the steering wheel, with which you can in theory control quite a lot of the car's functions. The only buttons present on the steering wheel were the two plus/minus Tiptronic switches for the automatic transmission.
Other than that, we had a highly capable dual-zone automatic air conditioning unit, four automatic windows and a self-closing hatch for the luggage compartment. No, it wasn't actuated by a button or from the interior since you still had to pull it downwards, it just closed itself electrically. Yeah, we didn't get it either.
Apart from that, our test car was also fitted with the latest Porsche Communication Management system with touch screen, integrated hard disk drive and navigation system. Pretty neat stuff, albeit we didn't get why it had both touch screen and button-based controls.
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ON THE SAFE SIDE (SAFETY) 8/10
Considering this is a 2.5 tonne SUV, you shouldn't be afraid of the results that its VAG platform brothers got on the EuroNCAP crash testing. The Audi Q7 barely got four stars out of five and the Volkswagen Touareg received five stars after a second testing session. The “common platform” thingy shouldn't be taken as a literal sign of weakness, since Porsche's engineers didn't exactly copy/paste the whole car and used badge engineering to pass it on as a real stand-alone model.
In other words, the Cayenne is actually more different than the other two than you might actually think. On our test car, there was a combination of six standard airbag (two frontal dual stage, two lateral and two head curtains), with the possibility of adding another two lateral ones in the rear.
As for active safety, there's standard anti-lock braking system, electronic brake distribution and Porsche's own electronic stability programe (PSM - Porsche Stability Management). If that's not enough to convince you... did we mention the 5,000+ pounds of “aluminium und schteel” prepared to annihilate any compact car unlucky enough to get in your way? Trust us, the Porsche Cayenne is safe enough.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (CONCLUSIONS) 7/10
What's the best part about the Cayenne Diesel? Well, you'll probably don't believe it, but it certainly isn't its engine. Not that it's a bad one, it's just that it doesn't stand out with pretty much... anything. It has an OK fuel consumption, offers decent performance for an SUV this heavy and it's far from being noisy. No, the best part about the Cayenne Diesel, and about the Cayenne range in general maybe, is its ability to both haul the kids to soccer practice in style AND crawl out of an off-road scenario good-enough for a disaster movie. It's probably the best compromise between on and off road.
The worst part about the Cayenne Diesel we tested is obviously the shame. The shame its owners must feel when entering a gas station and filling it up with... diesel fuel. Come on guys, it's Porsche! Cars wearing that badge shouldn't use the same fuel as tractors, they should be as hardcore as possible!
In the end, one question remains: who exactly needs a 240 hp diesel in combination with a two-speed transfer case for off-road trips into the wilderness, but with 18-inch alloy wheels shoed in high-performance tires suitable only for asphalt driving? Oh, and all that with a Porsche badge on the hood, we should add. The short answer: the same individual who wears a $20,000 Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner with no urge whatsoever to check its waterproof capabilities by diving into the ocean with it. Of course, if you believe in automotive induced global warming and think that a 5000+ pounds of a gargantuan four-wheeled beast is a bit politically incorrect, you obviously aren't in the market for a Cayenne.
GUEST STAR EDITORS' OPINIONS AND RATINGS
| Sir May B. Bach strongly believes this car is worthy of a rating of 2 / 10 "A Porsche badge on an SUV? Blasphemy, am I not right? A disgrace to car fans all over the world. Then I test drove a Cayenne Turbo and I completely... ahem... changed my opinion, it's like it had brainwashed me or something... " Read more >> |
| Mary broke a nail, complained a bit and then gave a rating of 8 / 10 "OK, I am now blushing! This is one of my favorite Sport Utility Vehicles on the market! It's almost as high on my buying-priority list as the stage-two breast implants! With a Cayenne I could take the totally classy trips to the mall AND give envy attacks to all my female co-workers!" Read more >> |
| Lou Cheeka knocked, knocked some more and finally shouted a rating of 7 / 10 "Ahahahahaha! You guys make me laugh with this... monstrosity! Thirteen liters every 100 kilometers (US 18.1 mpg) with a diesel engine? Only five seats for this much metal? What kind of chump would spend his money on this? A twenty year old 'merican truck is more road-worthy than this Japanese piece of junk. " Read more >> |
| Charles Darveight pondered gravely, nearly fell asleep and then submitted a rating of 2 / 10 "So, you take a tractor engine from the hillbilly cousin who only does push-ups and takes steroids (Audi) and then you mount it on one (slightly modified) body straight from the uncle who lives in some godforsaken mountains. " Read more >> |
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09.10.2009 | 09:39 GMT
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09.10.2009 | 14:57 GMT
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