seattle951

I am considering purchasing a 2008 Cayenne S so that I can attend PCA events with my wife and son. My son has gotten too big to fit in the back of my 944. I have two daily drivers, a Suburban that I use for business trips and a new Mustang GT for when I am local. The Cayenne will only be driven about 4,000 miles a year. I have looked at few Cayenne Turbos and Turbo S', but the cars within my price range are too beaten up to be practical. I have found a promising Cayenne S with under 90,000 miles that appears clean at a reasonable price. What are the desirable options? From a maintenance cost perspective, what options should be avoided? When inspecting the car, what should I be looking for? My Porsche mechanic does free inspections for me. However, getting him a car is a bit of hassle. I want to qualify the lead before taking the car to his shop for an inspection. Any insights would be appreciated. Thanks.

TRINITONY

Forget clean, focus on what's under the hood, see the sticky above on buyer's guide.

seattle951

When I say "clean", I am referring to condition of the paint and leather interior. For the "under the hood" check, I will leave that to the Porsche mechanic that will do the pre-buyer's inspection. If I am looking at the right "sticky", it covers mechanical issues that will be addressed by the inspection. Any insights into desirable/"need to avoid" options? Adjustable air suspension is an option, correct? Avoid?

v10rick

I would try to locate a one owner Cayenne with service records. Forget about options (no pano roof) quality units under 100K mi. will be few.

Cylinder scoring was still an issue with 2008s, especially with Cayenne living in the northern climates.

Air suspension was not problematic.

Wisconsin Joe

Avoid the pano roof. It's awesome when it works, but awesomely expensive if it breaks.

Air suspension is not known for problems. The shock units are pretty robust. The compressors have issues, but there's a rebuild kit that's a lot cheaper than replacement.
PDCC is really nice, but not too common on the S.

Overall condition and records are probably the most important.

Turbodan

That seems like a lot of trouble to attend PCA events. Those cars are a nightmare...I had a Touareg so it had the VR6 but the other things are a pain: sunroof drains, battery wiring harness, transmission throttle body, cheap wiring in headlights. Not worth it if you ask me.

Pillow

CS > Suburban. Really you will consider selling the Suburban in short order.

Dont be afraid to put miles on the CS as they are robust and I don't see any real collector value in the long run.

FWIW the infotainment is better in the 09/10 models for about the same money.

RSbob

There is a thread on bore scoring which includes the most affected VINs. The very first thing you should do is check to see if the VIN you are looking at is on the list.. If it is, don’t walk, run.

my 08 CS fortunately was not on the list, but if I found it was, it would have been gone yesterday.

Found TomF’s contribution on bore scoring pasted here:

Here is the list from the TSB of engines through 2014 that have the newer structurally honed cylinders. Note that my 2008 that had a failure was not one of these, and smooth-honed.

"Only engines with structurally honed cylinder liners are used in vehicles as of the shown engine numbers:
References:
92AAH1, 92AAI1, 92AAL1, 970110, 970111, 970120, 970121, 970410, 970411, 970420, 970421, 970430, 970431, 970440, 970441, 970450, 970451, 9PAAH1, 9PAAH7, 9PAAI1, 9PAAL1, 9PAAL7, 9PAAN1, 9PAAS1
Model year as of 2008"

Cheers,
Tom
__________________
Best regards

Tom F