PORSCHE Cayenne GTS Review

The Porsche Cayenne S is already an automotive equivalent of the Swiss Army knife and the GTS model sharpens some of the most important blades, those used for generating emotions behind the wheel.

With this second iteration, Porsche has brought us a truly accomplished Cayenne GTS - this emotional-focused model takes full advantage of the weight savings and technological boost brought by the generation change.

If you’re aiming for brute force, you’ll be better off with a Turbo badge, but if you prefer enjoying the thrills rather than the numbers, the GTS is the Cayenne for you - The engine output vs exhaust sound battle between the two is the simplest way to exemplify this.

The Porsche Cayenne GTS offers a sharp handling and driving experience in general. It's so good that, when you’re indulging in pedal pleasures it’s hard to believe that you’re driving a car that belongs to the SUV segment. Nevertheless, you’ll be fully convinced it’s an SUV from the first moment you step off the road.

The Cayenne is an excellent tool for carving a path through uncharted territory and you don’t even need too many storm navigation skills to access its rough terrain performance.

However, the best part of the Cayenne GTS is definitely its uncompromised character. Despite offering a slight premium in terms of response and handling, the GTS loses none of the polyvalence offered by the Cayenne S.

The only thing that the Porsche Cayenne GTS doesn’t provide is perhaps an extra dose of brutality for on-demand availability - Porsche’s efficiency philosophy is translated into the setup of the car, which means that while you will enjoy the sporty driving, you won’t be tempted to take the abuse too far. For example, the voice of the GTS is phenomenal, but you won’t want to play with the throttle as much as you would in a Mercedes G63 AMG, for example.

As for the worst side of the car, this award goes to the GTS badge itself. Since, like we said, it doesn’t ruin the all-rounder aura of the Cayenne S, all the exclusive features offered here could’ve already been built into the S model as further options.

It seems that Porsche created the GTS specifically as a way of fully exploiting the Cayenne S’ potential, since not so many customers are ready to tick the full list of options for the S. In fact, if you try to configure a Cayenne S using all the optional features that are offered as standard on the GTS, you’ll end up paying considerably more and you won’t receive any of the GTS’ dedicated performance upgrades.

Speaking of the financial side, the Porsche Cayenne GTS comes with a starting price of $82,050, plus a $975 destination charge. If you live on the other side of the pond, you’ll have to pay at least EUR90,774, with the price including 19 percent VAT.

The Cayenne GTS is like a great actor, you can offer it any kind of role - a long distance companion, a performance car, or an offroader - and it will shine on each and every occasion.