PORSCHE Cayenne Diesel Review

The Porsche 911 might seem like a cold-hearted mechanical beast that only cares about keeping its engine at the back despite the automotive industry’s trends, but in fact it’s also THE practical supercar (or sportscar, depending on the engine). We know we’re testing the Cayenne, not the 911 here, but it all makes sense.

You see, the 911 is a wild animal and Porsche has trained itself very well over the years and years in which it worked to tame the car. All that experience has now gone into building the Cayenne and we can tell you that it all shows.

We went out and asked the bartender for a cocktail: we said we wanted something with Porsche Active Suspension Management and an air suspension and we were offered a mix that manages to be more comfortable than the Mercedes ML or the Range Rover’s one, yet more dynamic than these.

As for the seats, these are cosy enough to sustain a trip longer than you can justify over the use of a flight and also offer enough lateral support, but they didn’t feel quite as armchair-like as those of a Range Rover, which did lack the support of these ones, we have to admit. Since we're here, we'll also mention their heating and ventilation functions.

Another rabbit coming from the 911 was also translated here: Porsche’s obsession for details – let’s take the rear bench for example – this doesn’t just slide backwards and forwards, but the backrest can also be set at three different angles.

Then there’s the soundproofing – Porsche made sure that the driver is fully aware of the car’s intentions through its steering and chassis and so, having dealt with this, isolated the cabin from the exterior as if all customers were record studio owners.

Take the visual feeling you get when you’re in the airplane and you enter the clouds and turn it into an audio one – this is what the Cayenne does and it’s great but dangerous – even with this diesel under the hood, you end up speeding without noticing because of this.

It’s very pleasing to see all these cosy bits placed over a large amount of tech goodies, and this is what also brings you psychological comfort.

For the new model year, Porsche’s engineers played with the diesel unit a little bit, installing a new turbo, increasing the pressure in the common-rail injection system, as well as an increase in pressure for the common-rail injection system. In addition to that, certain components such as the crankshaft, have been lightened. Besides a modest increase in power, this has brought a faster throttle response, as well as a small efficiency increase – for example, the CO2 emissions have dropped from 195 to 189 g/km.

Underneath, we have an platform that’s a heavily modified version of the one used by the previous generation, but Porsche has worked hard to make the car lighter. The company has managed to impress - keep in mind that the Cayenne customers want luxury, so engineers couldn’t pull stunts such as stripping the interior like they do with the 911 “RS” models and they also had to face an increase in size.

The unit is matted to Porsche’s Tiptronic eight-speed automatic gearbox, and we have to tell you that, regardless if you press the “Sport” button or not, they make a great pair, as the transmission always knows when to stay in gear and when to shift.

Our test vehicle wasn’t fitted with one of the Cayenne’s most valuable assets, the Porsche Torque Vectoring System, which basically lends a pair of hands to the rear axle, allowing it to grab the road and play with the car as it likes. Diesels might be known for the torque, but this was not an option somebody forgot to tick - Porche doesn't offer the system on the diesel!

Thus, when we wanted to adjust the car’s driving settings we could play with the air suspension, which offers five levels of ride height, the Porsche Active Suspension Management, which allows us to select between three ride modes, as well as a sport button, which played with the leash of the engine and gearbox.

Of course, the vehicle was also loaded with other tech stuff, but we’ll describe these goodies in the “Gadgets” chapter.

The Porsche Cayenne looks like it was trapped by a digital flood while on the production line. Porsche allows customers to choose between multiple levels of gadgetry, and we’ll start by explaining the infotainment side of this story.

We have the Polo T-Shirt, the standard audio system, which goes for most occasion, offering a decent layout. Then there’s a designer shirt, the optional Bose sound system, the one we had on our test car, which provides q high level of refinement. Finally, we have the tailor-made button shirt, the Burmester High-End Surround Sound-System, which promises to turn the car into a concert hall. As you know, Porsche likes to brand everything, so the whole story goes under the Porsche Communication Management name.

The same three-option scheme is used for the climate control system, which can come with two, three or four zones, with the latter being fitted on our test car – the passengers in the back also get ventilation openings on the B-pillars.

We also have to mention the parking assistant, which mixes the rear view camera with the audible and the visual representations of the parking sensors in one of the most intuitive ways we’ve ever seen, as well as the heated steering wheel, the heated and ventilated seats.

To get an idea of how obsesses the Germans are with every detail of the interior, we’ll tell you that the small console above the interior rear view mirror, as well as the vanity mirrors, come with special strips of light, which seem borrowed from a photo shoot.

Of course, the Cayenne also comes loaded with safety features, with the list being headed by various active safety systems that aim to complement the driver’s skills.

In the Cayenne, it all starts with the active safety. In spite of placing its focus on the rear axle, the four-wheel drive system works with the Porsche Active Suspension Management and the Porsche Stability Management to make sure that the car follows the driver’s orders. Since we’re here we’ll also mention that the electronic nannies can be nicely deactivated in the typical Porsche fashion – you push the button, without any 60-second drama and you’re free t let the tail out.

Systems such as the adaptive cruise control and the lane departure warning, as well as the blind spot monitoring come as an extension of your five senses – the last one is really necessary, as the rear view mirrors aren’t too generous.

Thus, the Cayenne will do its best to keep you away from touching anything but the surface of the road, but if you do fail to keep control of this potent robot, you’ll have to rely on an army of 10 airbags. The vehicle hasn’t been tested by the Euro NCAP, so we’ll only have to rely on this data, with one strong argument that should offer peace of mind being the German’s engineers determination to play with torsional rigidity, with the cross members and torsion beams being like a puzzle that’s easy to solve for them.
Thanks to its dynamic abilities, the Cayenne feels like one of the most DDDD SUVs to drive, so you’ll only have to worry about the human part of this equation.

However, this car does come with an asset that can turn to a drawback –One of the conclusions you get after driving the Cayenne is that it isolates you from the exterior world in a way that few vehicles can and while it does communicate with the driver very well, the sensation of speed is almost unperceivable, which means that, even in this Diesel version, you’ll be going way over the speed limit without noticing.

The Cayenne will remain in the history books as the car that solved Porsche’s financial problems, but this is just one of the multiple personalities that the German carmaker has fitted its SUV with.

Many fans and even customers dream that the Cayenne is a 911 in an SUV form. Well, that’s not true, because that would’ve required magic. Instead Porsche relied on engineering and gave us one of the most capable SUVs on the market. In fact, the Cayenne offers the best compromise in its segment, managing to be brilliant on and off the road.

In addition to the sheer Autobahn, B road or rough terrain performance, the Cayenne also impresses through the way in which it delivers this. It communicates with the person behind the wheel all the time and involves him or her in the process of driving regardless of the surface under the wheel.

On the road and with the right engine, they Cayenne manages to deliver a level of performance situated at the upper tier of the sports car class, while off the tarmac it manages to follow names that come with decades of tradition, and tops that with an unique suppleness that provides a special off-road agility, not just plowing through abilities.

And that’s not all. You see, the Porsche Holding also has a wing that plays in the real estate business, covering dealership buildings and it seems like this has shared a few insights to the people who created the Cayenne, as the vehicle comes with an interior that could easily be mistaken for a five-star hotel room.

However, all this will teleport your bank account to an unknown place in the Universe. In the case of our test driver car, this means a base price of EUR 69,000 (USD92,500), but this is literraly just half the story - Porsche is well known for its black hole-like optionals' list and the vehicle we drove came loaded with EUR46,000 (USD61,500) of optionals, which meant that the overall price tag reached EUR115,000 (USD154,000). At this price, you really need another engine, despite the efficiency of the 3.0-liter V6.

Especially when coupled with a diesel engine, the Cayenne is an excellent long distance partner. In fact, the oil-burning version’s efficiency is in line with Porsche’s general obsession for efficiency, but this is also the vehicle’s Achilles’ Heel.

You see, the 240 hp oil burner manages to provide a decent dynamic experience, but only just, so you’ll never actually get to experience the Porsche spirit. While this doesn’t matter for many customers, it is a sacrilege for others, who could otherwise overlook the concept of a diesel engine in a Porsche.

However, the muscle aspect will be solved later this year, when Porsche is set to introduce a beefier diesel engine, a move that should’ve arrived a long time ago and will bring the Cayenne in line with other “performance” diesel SUVs.