Hi forum,

Probably like many owners of older cayenne I'm attracted as they are quite cheap and I'm wondering if they will suit my purposes.

I'm seeking a lump of a 4x4 as a second car to ferry dogs about, tow a boat the odd time, remove the back seats and chuck stuff in the back. Maybe the odd snowy road or gravel path.

The car will be 80% Road driving with the rest on gravel paths, with no mud plugging.

What is attractive to me is: the brand and the fact they are good driving, quick, comfortable and large. Also it not a Range Rover - which I hate.

What puts me off is cost of ownership and repair. The fuel costs don't concern me, it more servicing etc.

How do these compare to other older 4x4s which now seem to command the same money regarding purchase price. Is it folly to think that thay can compete with something like a shogun etc?

 

I have an '05 with the base VR6 motor. I have 175k miles. I put all manner of things in it and behind it. It's needed only normal maintenance and it costs me very little to run. I just finished a 1,000 mile round trip, towing a 928 on the way home.

 

I have an 04 Turbo since '14. Been completely reliable with minimal maintenance.
Parts are more expensive than my Hondas but then again they tend to be stronger, heavier better made parts.
If it died tomorrow, my first thought would be to look for another one so thats a pretty good endorsement

 

Seems like you've answered your own question. It's good at all those things but it comes at a premium. Won't be a cheap as a 4runner or a tahoe but it'll outperform them.

 

Whether you will have a happy ownership experience or not depends a HUGE amount on how well maintained the vehicle was that you purchase AND how much has been replaced. At the age range you are looking at, virtually 100% of the plastic parts under the hood are are pretty much guaranteed to fail at the worst possible time if they are the original parts installed when the vehicle was new. A combination of time and under-hood heat & cold cycles ages and weakens the plastic parts and adhesive used on some hose joints instead of threads and thread sealer. If previous owners have replaced everything, you have at least SOME time before any of those things will be a problem again. But if somebody, say, removed the intake manifold and replaced ONE broken pipe, there are many more items under there in the same condition that should ALL be replaced... conscientious shops and DIY owners will always handle those sorts of things that make sense, why remove the intake manifold more than once to refresh everything under there.

There is a TON of information in the sticky for prospective Cayenne owners. Just be aware that when people say parts are expensive... $1600 for a replacement alternator from a dealer. There are 9 servo motors under the dash to open and close various flaps as needed for the climate control system. These drop dead periodically and sell for around $350 each from a dealer. Any "typical" shop won't research the fact that Pelican Parts or even Rock Auto carries the same part made by the same Porsche supplier without ever touching Porsche hands and it might be half the cost of the Porsche-specific part. They will call some import parts supplier and pay a little less than the dealer price, then mark it up to cover their costs of acquiring the part. So you won't have the benefit of having the shop realize the part you need is common to the VW Toureg and is priced far cheaper than the Porsche dealer price. So your cost of maintenance on a Cayenne can be prettty freakin' damn high if you take it to a dealer. It will be painfully high at "European Import" service shop. Or it can be almost affordable if you DIY and don't mind if the vehicle is inoperative for a week while you are finding good prices on parts to install yourself.

You have to know that the instances of the coating on one or more cylinders (often begins with a knocking sound from cylinder 8) begins to separate from the engine block. Once that happens, there is no easy fix. The bores are "hard coated", so you can't just bore the offending cylinder(s) and get a slightly larger piston and ring set. You'd have to reapply the factory coating at the same thickness it was put on when the engine was manufactured. Used engines are no bargain cost-wise or in regards to the used engine not developing cylinder scoring the week after it is installed.

Over the years, when a vehicle has problems with engine failures and people are fed up with it, swapping in a Chevy V-8 was almost a universal fix. But Cayennes and any other model of similar age have such tightly integrated electronics, it's impossible for a typical DIY person who is good with the mechanicals and maybe even some of the electrical and electronic devices to make a Chevy V-8 compatible with the rest of the Cayenne electronics. Somebody may well have done just that somewhere, but unless they wrote step by step instructions, most people won't be able to figure it out on their own. So read the info for people considering buying a Cayenne--everything you want to know is there.

 

Shawn, the new 928 looks like a beauty.

 

It's very nice, but of course it needs a little of this and that. The dash and pod need to be recovered, the paint is 10-foot, and the P.O. has the exhaust set up a little louder than I like. But, he did a lot of engine and suspension maintenance. Overall, I think it'll be a good car. I'm looking forward to driving it to 928 gatherings!