Hi. New to the MBs. My dad has been toying with the idea of a CS for the last week. I'm 16. The car is perfect for us, as we live in Billings, MT, and our Carrera is not a C4, so we can't drive it in the snow, or take long trips in a luxury car. Anyways, We've been closing in on purchasing a CS the last few days until my mom read the JD Powers report which slammed Porsche and mainly the Cayenne. With all the problems found and the fact that we live 500 mile away from service, is not good. I've been trying to get them to buy it all week, but the prospects are looking bleaker and bleaker.


My questions: What are the main problems with the CS? I've heard they aren't mechanical, but what else. Are they enough to scare us away from purchasing, and what would you recommend?? Should we forget about the Cayenne or wait for the 05 model CS, hopefully with a majority of the problems fixed??

Thanks

 

Since you live 500 miles away from service, I suggest you wait for the 05 Since Igot my Cayenne I had to visit my dealer a bunch of times.. airbag light,rear hatch open automatically, brakes squeeking etc. But ofcourse these are very minor problems and should not affect your decision to get the Cayenne. Anywayz i would never drive 500 miles a 7hr ride just to get a stupid fault fixed

 

ninerfan88,

I concur with jamy85. I have a 2004 Cayenne S that I bought used. My dealer was very honest with me and said that there had been issues with the early vehicles. Nothing that can't be fixed but you need patience. After the install of four new tires, a Cardan Drive shaft, a four wheel alighnment and balancing of all four tires and then a return trip to re-balance the front tires, my Cayenne rides smooth as glass now. However, all this required three trips to the dealer. I was given a loaner but that doesn't help you with your distance.

The Cayenne is a great vehicle, unfortunately, the early ones did have issues. Thankfully, my dealer was very responsive to fixing mine. With your dealership so far away, you may want to wait for the 05 model. Most of the issues have been addressed by Porsche. To convince the 'rents, buy the latest MotorTrend. They tested the Cayenne against three other SUV's and choose it #1.

Good luck, and yes, Porsche rules.

 

My CS has almost 2k miles on it now. It was a 3/04 build and has not had any problems. On top of that, it is a blast to drive. I wouldn't hesitate if you are ordering, I think they already have most of the bugs out. I don't have quite the drive you do but my nearest dealer is a 6 hr drive to Denver.

 

I own a very early 2004 and have had no issues with it. My personal experience with the survey results like JD Powers is that a handful of cars typically skew the data. Even Porsche's "bad" result of 159 defects per 100 cars is minuscule. So, on average, all the cars in the survey will need to visit the dealer once to get 1-2 defects fixed. Considering the defect "opportunities" that exist on these cars, that is insignificant. Since you have such a long drive, just re-stress to the dealer that they need to fix it right the first time.

 

A module running the xenon was faulty so replaced(driver side), squeaky brakes-pads replaced, had condensation on bixenons but miraculously gone away. Those are small stuff I can live with in a car as long it's not mechanical-that would bother me. Car has about 6k miles. Regards. Mike

 

Just as a quick additional info. The Cardan Drive Shaft problem did not manifest on my Cayenne S until 10,000 miles. Apparently, it takes a little while for the soft bearing of the early vehicles to cause the vibration problems. FYI.