DiegoPasquel

Hi! I am looking into a 2003 Cayenne S with 86k miles. What should I look for before buying it? How is the reliability and maintenance cost?

Lionworks Auto

Search is your friend. Read the stickies.

ventoGT

Search and there are a bunch of threads. Don't let that super low mileage give you confidence that all of the plastic and other bits aren't degraded by age over the last 14 years.

ygmen313

Read the forum as the above have stated. Have a 2009 with 98k on it and the only major item was drive train at 65k. But that is to be expected around 60. You will go through tires and all service will be expensive. That said, its a great suv!! The only problem is that there are so many more on the road now.

prosled8

Service records for work done to the car. CarFax sometimes has service listings attached. Most would say pay for a PPI, or you had better be a pretty savy used Porsche buyer. Coolant pipes, cardan shaft, coils, anything made of plastic or rubber under the hood. Engine failure due to cylinder bore scoring is a substantial issue in very cold climates. Suspension is probably worn by now. This is restoration mileage IMO, lots of stuff to replace but this usually greatly extends the life of the car. Most of the basics are solid but it IS a high maintenance German car.

Truly not stellar... It will break and if you have to pay to have it fixed you will spend a lot of money on it. You should have a back up transportation plan, seriously.

Parts costs are high but not outrageous, generally. Repairs are generally very labor intensive. Good labor is not cheap or easy to find.

If you have the time tools and space to DIY it is a great car. I bought a turbo and am rather enamored with it despite a couple of repairs just 4000 miles in on my 68k mile purchase. I knew going in but I had something to drive and took two weeks to fix on it. I know it was done right and I spent under $100 for what would have been $4-5000 at the dealer. That's the story on the Cayenne, definitely pay to play, but very rewarding nonetheless. Great all around vehicle.

deilenberger

A cheap used German car can end up being the most expensive car you'll ever own.. (me)

The 2003 was the beta year of the Cayenne. Has lots of issues that were later worked out of the truck. Most of them by this time have had the issues addressed. As Prosled pointed out - these are not inexpensive cars to run. You may pay a quite reasonable price for an '03 - but the repair costs are no less on them than a brand new $100k+ one would cost. Tires and brakes haven't gotten any cheaper, and if you drive enthusiastically - these are things you should plan on regularly replacing. It's a big HEAVY vehicle and you can't overcome the laws of physics - rolling parts on the car are going to wear.

That said - the "build quality" (how well it's put together and the general quality of materials) is really stellar. It's a very satisfying truck to drive because of that - and also if you're of a mechanical bent - not a bad truck to wrench on.

Luckily for big-ticket items on an '03 there are lots of donor vehicles available (lots were sold, and lots are hitting the junkyards about now) so big parts - engines/transmissions/transfer cases - aren't outrageous to find used. It's the other stuff that will cost you (suspension, electrics on the '03, and the aforementioned brakes/tires) - and used isn't reasonable to do with these items.

That all said - very few people hate their Cayennes. Most love them to death even as they dump quite unreasonable sums of money into them for repairs/maintenance.

Ideally - you want a 1 obsessive owner vehicle, with complete receipts for every item ever done to the truck, right down to gas fill-ups and windshield wiper blades. You don't want a recordless one right off "Joe's Buy-Here Pay-Here Everyone's Credit is Good" used car lot. Lots of the early ones that haven't made their way to the junkyard have made their way to Joes.. avoid those.

It may seem odd advice - but on an '03 I'd also avoid the PCM (GPS/radio) in favor of a simple radio (which was an option.) The GPS in the PCM is grossly outdated by now, very costly to update the mapset, not clear how much longer new maps will be available, and generally beaten hands down with a simple smart-phone app. The audio quality was OK with the Bose option - but you could get Bose with the simple radio too - and to me that would be the best option. Fixing the PCM is silly expensive - a better option is to find a plug-in Android based system and just dump it.

Have fun looking - let us know what you end up with.

Rod Croskery

i bought an '04 Cayenne S built in 2003 last July and had it shipped to Eastern Ontario from Vancouver. The car seemed very good cosmetically, with solid exhaust system, tires and brakes. I've done quite a bit of minor work on it in the interim. No single repair has cost much except when I replaced the battery (one of two) and it may not have needed that.

Here are the repairs as I recall them, with approximate costs:

rear hatch struts $68. USD Amazon
front lower control arms $196 USD Amazon
4 wheel alignment $113 CDN at a front-end specialist All other repairs and maintenance I did in my shop.
ignition coils (1 needed of 8 purchased) $195 CDN eBay.ca
parts for Jimi Fix of driveshaft $30 CDN or less at any auto parts store
boots for right front half-axle at local Napa Auto Parts store (I'd buy from Porsche next time for better fit.) $80. CDN
2 wheel alignment $85 CDN
front diff fluid $29 maintenance
2 litres VW power steering fluid for flush maintenance $80 CDN
1 litre brake fluid for flush maintenance found on shelf Needs #4, not #3.
AC servo boxes set of 7 off 2008 model eBay.com $100 CDN
11 physiotherapy treatments to undo pinched nerve: $650
fuel filler door switch on order from local Porsche dealer $63 CDN
12 volt battery $360 CDN
set of used Goodyear winter tires and generic rims $800 CDN
oil change supplies: filter wrench $40 9 litres oil $65 filters, canister, washers $65 approx.
wrenches for specific triple-square applications approx $120 CDN
parts to complete the factory-installed trailer hitch eBay.ca $50 CDN approx

That list looks like a lot, but most of it involved catching up with deferred maintenance. The only dreadful job was the air conditioning repair. The rest went very well, though my son and I have a well-equipped shop, tools for Porsche repair, and a good hoist.

Since the car arrived I've driven it almost exclusively, leaving the Lexus, the Tacoma and the Scion to gather dust. We love the thing. It's a very good tow vehicle.

I've posted a series of blog entries about the repairs to "Ruby" at https://rodcroskery.wordpress.com/ca...ayenne-review/ in reverse-chronological order.