Porsche Cayenne
 

The lovely Mrs Winner wants a bigger car, so off we went to look at a few cars. We had a go in a Range rover sport and TBH I was really underwhelmed. It felt all rigid and plastic inside and you need a step ladder to get in (and Im 6'2")
Whilst we were there we saw a Cayenne S, Being a porsche fan I talked the Mrs into having a go and as it turned out she loves it.
Now my question is this, Does anyone know any horror stories about them? I have had a good old look about and cant see any major issues with them.

Are we right to go for the 4.5 v8? What was the option pack to look out for? We are looking at a 2 or 3 year old model to save of the hideous residual issues.

Any other cars we should look at?
We have discounted the following
Range rover sport
Q7
Volvo thing
X5
ML

Any wild cards?

Cheers
Tim

We run an "S" for my mum through work, a 53 plate purchased from new.

Personally I would happily put a Swan Vestas to it, but she (as well as all the girls oddly) seems to like it.

Highlights include:
Engine let go at 30k miles. Porsche didn't seem to agree that a £55k car should not lunch itself, but were kind enough to offer us a new motor for a "heavily discounted" £8k. Fitting not included. We bit the bullet.
It's now on 38k miles and rattles and squeaks more than my Nova.
It eats tyres and petrol for fun. Expect 13mpg and 12k to a set of rubber.
Porsche servicing costs are a joke.
Image (if that bothers you) is awful.
Looks hideous.
Has broken down on several occasions, usually immobiliser related. Always starts as soon as the AA man arrives.
Sills have gone rusty.
If you live in Cheshire, it makes E90 3 series Beemers look rare and exclusive.
Loads more I could mention.
The worst thing: she wants to chop it in for a new 'un.

Other than that, it's great :)

Well if that don't put you off................

Slightly smaller is the Audi Q5 and the XC60, or what about the Disco? Failing that you are into Japanese stuff like Shogun and Landcruisers.

Audi Q3? Is that out yet?!

Also, my parents own a VW Touareg Altitude which in the two years they have owned it from new has had atleast half a dozen visits to the dealers.
It eats tyres, first set went in under 9k and also loves to drink diesel.
Having spent 35k you would expect more from VW.
Nik.

Oops I mean the Q5

Wild card? A 1997 2.8td Pajero SWB. I love driving about in it, a proper pikey wagon. You can see for miles, it'll pull anything, and no-one but no-one will get road rage with you as they think you might be a pikey nutta ;)

Depreciation, what's that!

Have you thought about a proper range rover.

i agree with you the range rover tdv8 vouge is the one to go for over anything hands down:thumb:

proper wild car and rather exclusive

Mercedes G wagon.

Full Fat RR or Discovery 4?

I drive a 2.7DTV6 D3 and love it

I tried the Cayenne (3.6) and the ToeRag (V10), the VW was a better ship and wow what performance but MPG was 14-17 which is stupid in this day and age.

We are going to try a vogue this weekend, I will see if that sways her. I am worried about the breaking down thing and I think if she has to get one we will look for one will 50 - 60k on it. From what I can gather on Porsche forums that seems to be the safe benchmark as far as engines go, If it has got to 50k and not blown up then you have got a good one, so they tell me.

We have looked in to LPG too, I can get it done for £1500 and they claim it gives you running costs 44mpg equivalent

I wish Ferrari made one, That would solve all my problems. !!!

44mpg sounds a bit optimistic to me

I ran a Vogue LSE 4.2 for 6 years on LPG (obviously both engine and LPG technology have moved on) but I achieved a pro rata MPG of 29mpg

based on a petrol consumption of 16/17mpg

the consumption on LPG was about 14/15mpg -- but I was buying it at half price at 39p a litre -- With petrol at 75 to 85p

still well worth it and I must have saved myself 1000's

Sounds like Porsche are having problems with all their engines these days.

Remember when a Porsche was described as "Bullet proof". That was back in the Air cooled days.

This is the reason I didn't buy a second hand 911/Cayman.

Ran a 4.5S for a while, it had more recalls for niggly trim and electrical problems than i care to remember, i would'nt get a 3.2, it's just as thirsty but slower, i dont know if running cost's are a worry to you, but you're obviously aware of Porche servicing cost's, the coil packs are quite a common problem, and will cost around £1200 to replace and budget £600 for tyres every 8000 miles. Having said that i'm looking at the same sort of cars you mentioned on your list, and i think iv'e narrowed it down to a XC90 4.4 Executive or an X5 4.8, unless anyone else has some good ideas?

Does anyone else think that these things are too much car for the job they do, hence why they are so hard on fuel, brakes and suspension ?

We went looking for a new family car and had 30 grand plus to spend, spent twenty on a Ford Galaxy Ghia 2.0 tdci and love it, looked at the XC90 and wasnt that impressed, the others at that point were out of the budget so Galaxy it was, I know people look down ther nose at People Carriers but to be honest they are bit anonymous compared to the statement some of the big four by fours make and that is a statement that isnt good these days, I would rather not drive Range Rover Sport, only the Disco kind avoids the negative connotations by being a bit plain as does the Volvo.

Icant see the fascination, we had the early M class and it was pointless, thirsty, boring dollop of a car, I know the new ones are better but still retain the dollop status, I wouldnt entertain a Galaxy other than the fact we need the space with three kids and dog and as soon as we dont need it its back to a proper car, it is amazing at the kids school how many of the cars are big daft four by fours, about 50 percent are Range Rover Sports, there is even a white one !

I would suggest a BMW 5 Series Estate, A6 LeMans 3.0 Tdci, Merc E class Estate etc, a Mondeo would do the job, as would many others but I reckon a lot of these cars are bought for the badge and the status, rather than whether they are any good as by and large, judging by a lot of the reports they just arent compared to their conventional counterparts.

Hi, Jacko, i understand your comments above, but i do actually need a 4x4 really, as i live in the sticks, and sometimes need to tow a large horse box with two 16hh horses, and the local rivers around here are prone to bursting there banks on a regular basis, so the ground clearance comes in handy, i actually drive a ten year old Landcruiser at the moment which does everything i need, but want to change to something newer. :)

If you want a big, practical, useful car... check out the Discovery. Fits 7 adults, tows a track car / boat and comfy.

Fair enough, Disco then !

i had a LWB 7 seater 2.8 exceed a few years ago and I loved mine too :)

Used to do a few off roading trips with POCUK round Derbyshire and Yorkshire and they are unstoppable. The 4 wheel drive system is fantastic, they can go places you can barely walk, cruise on the motorway all day in comfort, reliable and cost next to nothing to buy.

Pajero off road 1st time up there I nearly sh1te myself :eek:

:D +1

Take out the new D4 3.0TDV6

or if you love the V8, tryan older D3 4.4 V8 and LPG it..:thumb:

Iv'e looked at them in the past, and Range Rovers, but just can't bring myself to buy one, because i know so many people who have had shed loads of trouble with them and crap service with the dealers. It seems you either get a really good one, with no problems at all, or a really bad one, which turns out to be nothing but expensive trouble! Although to be fair it can happen with any manufacturer, but is does seem to be a lot more common with Land Rover, and their aftersales service always seems to be terrible.

The more I look into it the more I am glad we have not gone for a RR sport for that very reason.
Its too much money for a 50/50 gamble.

Some good vid there. I noticed the Suzuki Vitara, I used to have a sj413, nible little things, but crap on motorways.The Pajero is a totally different proposition though, can pull anything and you feel very solid. I can't quite get why someone would spend 20-30k on an offroad type vehicle when something costing £2k or less does much the same thing. Mine even have standard Recaros ;) If you want one with pace get a Pajero Evolution for circa £6k.YouTube - Mitsubushi Pajero Evolution 4x4 320BHP doughnuts :D

I was considering an X5, but just spent a couple of hours scouting around the net, and found some right horror stories, to to put the RR to shame, are they still built by BMW?

Subaru Tribeca and get it gassed by Subaru for £1500. Considering the initial cost they are now chicken feed. £15000 for vehicles with only 15k on the clock.

Completely left field but this is ScoobyNet :D

You'll find horror stories for any car if you look for them. All cars are inherently unreliable... but still much better than they used to be.

I think that sums it up, All the cars we have looked at we have made the mistake of googling..... Its like doing a google search when you have a cold and reading its a symptom of gangrene.

We have put 142k on our 06 impreza and its never let us down but we have never left a review of how good it is.. however... My old Audi was a piece of crap and I would tell anyone that would listen.

I think we will take the AA man with us and buy a big warranty, not a lot else you can do.

We did that but by the time we decided to go for LPG they were asking about £4k for the conversion! It was originally about £2.3k. We're happy to pay for the fuel now - my wife gets 16-17mpg stop-start commuting and we manage about 25-26mpg fully loaded on holiday trips. Lots of kit and nice and comfy.

On the original subject, the new X5 makes most sense to me. Well built, practical and some cracking engines. We would have got one when we bought the Tribeca if we weren't such cheapskates :)!
The Tribeca does most of what the X5 can do for less than half the price. We paid less than £20k (with a very generous trade-in) a couple of years ago for a one year old top spec car with 5k miles on it. It has been faultless - but doesn't drive anywhere near as well as the X5. The X5, however, would cost in excess of £50k to the same spec.