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In my quest for a weekend vehicle that can haul around our family of 3 with camping gear, ski stuff or mountain bikes, as well as tow a small A-Frame trailer, I stumbled across the Cayenne. And after what seems like hundreds of hours of research and deliberation, I’ve pulled the trigger on a 2009 CTTS.
I’m importing one from Japan, because having the luxury of living in Canada, and being able to import after 15 years, it only made sense. Save a bit of money (even after shipping/duties/fees) over purchasing one here, and get ZERO rust (everything from 2009 here is fairly rusted), and 1/4 the mileage. Also, it’s still a LHD model (NA spec) because it was cross-imported to Japan.
So, that’s how I ended up snagging this 67,000km, completely rust-free CTTS:
Got a super detailed inspection report and tons of video and images sent over before bidding. One owner car, clean history, all maintenance records. Interior is in great shape minus the drivers seat backrest which has fallen off. Leather is in decent shape (I strongly dislike the look of the ruffled leather option and may change the seats with one from a wrecker unless they are the most comfortable things I’ve ever sat in), no cracking anywhere or tears/stains.
Exterior is also in very good condition. A couple small scuffs/scratches (easily polish those out), some door dings, and that’s about it. Appeared to be mechanically 100%, but once it lands I’ll do my own inspection. I did specifically choose a mid-2009 957 to hopefully mitigate a bunch of the more common issues (chiefly bore scoring, fingers beyond crossed).
Once it lands (mid-end June), it’ll be full inspection time, swap all fluids, plugs and coils, full polish and ceramic coat and throw some PPF on it (Alberta driving ≠ Japan road conditions lol), and get rid of those 21’s on it for a couple sets of 20’s for winter/summers sets.
I’m sure I’ll be making great use of this forum over the coming years!
SCORE! You've bought the best model of the best series of Cayenne ever made.
Prepare to be amazed at what a 5k pound vehicle can do.
Do spark plugs, air filters, and front and rear diffs and transfer case fluids, along with engine oil and filter when it arrives and you'll be in good shape for the next 30k miles.
Check the age of the battery and be prepared to replace it with an H9 AGM.
Sweet deal indeed, 67000km is only 41000 miles. keep us updated. How do you find the used car in Japan and import that?
So there are a few companies out here (in western Canada) that specialize in importing vehicles from Japan, since with the 15 year rule in Canada it’s a somewhat popular option for people (who know about it) looking for a project car, more unique car, etc. Basically they handle the entire import process: buying the vehicle, paperwork, shipping, etc. You can buy from their “inventory” of vehicles they have already purchased, and they give you the landed price (landed at one of the ports - either Vancouver or East Coast).
Or, as I did, you can put a deposit in with them and they will “search” for a specific vehicle for you. Basically, as vehicles come up for auction (80-100,000 vehicles a week cycle through the Japanese vehicle auctions) they will send you information on it, photos, inspection sheets, and you decide if you want to bid on that particular unit. If time allows, you can request an addition inspection by a third party inspector, with more photos, videos, etc, before the auction goes live. I was able to do that for this car.
I gave them a fairly narrow set of parameters to work with: after all my research, I decided I wanted a 2009 model year, Turbo or Turbo S (or GTS, but only if it was the manual trans), mileage under 80,000km, grade 4/5 or higher condition, and no tan interior. Oh and it had to be LHD. Initially I was thinking I’d end up with RHD for sure, but seeing how many cross-imported cayennes there were over there, I decided I could be more picky. Plus having LHD just makes way more sense here, both driving it and insuring it.
So, every week they’d send me 1-2 cars that fit that bill, and I’d decide if I liked the look of it and wanted to bid. The bidding process is sealed. That is, you give them the max amount you’re willing to bid, and they submit it. When it goes live, it’s all instantaneous; the winner is the highest bid, reduced to be a couple hundred Yen over the second highest bid. Once you win, in a couple days they give you the total landed cost, and you wire transfer the money. Then, 2-4 months later depending on space on cargo containers, shipping schedules, etc etc, your car arrives in country at the port you chose.
You can pick it up there and drive it home, or for an additional fee, they’ll put it on a transport and have it shipped to your house directly. I am doing the latter. It was extremely painless, and fairly exciting too. I want to buy a used 911 in a couple years as a summer car, and there is a 99% chance I’ll be doing it the same way.
The company I used is B-pro.ca. They were amazing to work with.
Looking up the VIN of the car, the PDI was done in NY, and it was sold in the USA. Originally USA market vehicle. Never registered in the US, it was immediately shipped to Japan. Aug 2008 build, Oct 2008 it was sold, as 2009 MY. (I was actually hoping it was a later build to minimize at all costs the chance of a bore scoring candidate, but what can you do. The engine code on the sticker indicates it has the newer honing process, but for whatever that’s worth…) My guess is since the American economy at that time was in shambles, a Japanese guy imported it from the USA to save a pile of money. Score for me!
So a big update, at last! Got the car delivered finally around 6 weeks ago. Did a quick inspection for any shipping damage (there wasn’t any) then drove it from where they dropped it off, home to the garage.
Gave it a quick initial wash, and then got to work checking out the big items to make sure it was a “keeper”. First thing I did was pull the coils and plugs (both looked good), and scoped the bores. Much to my relief, they looked *essentially* as good as new. I wouldn’t call them “flawless”, and I’ll caveat my report with the fact that I’m certainly no expert on bore condition, nor these engines. But I saw zero indications of scoring from all the videos and photos I’d looked at while researching the issue. Not shocking for a vehicle with only 67,000km on it, but you don’t know until you know.
Next I did a compression test on all cylinders, and it made great compression - and the same compression - on every one. With that done, I changed the oil and filter and checked for any signs of contamination or other issues. While it was filthy, and definitely overdue for a change, i saw nothing concerning. Good news! From this point forward, I could treat it as a long term car.
I went ahead and changed the transmission oil and filter, transfer case fluid, front and rear differential oil, and flushed the brake fluid. I tested the coolant strength, and as expected for a Japanese vehicle, it was only -22C. So I’ll have to flush that before winter (we see -45C here), but I plan to upgrade the coolant pipes at the same time. I also replaced the power steering and PDCC reservoirs (I didn’t fully flush either system, just topped back up) - both looked original, and certainly had not been done in keeping with the maintenance schedule.
I put in new plugs and coil packs, and new BMC panel air filters. Changed the cabin filter too, man was the one in there nasty lol. After that, I went over the remainder of the mechanical systems one by one, ensuring it would pass the safety inspection I needed to have it registered here. Zero issues other than one torn bushing seal on the front right upper control arm, and some wear on the engine torque mount rubber. Both still serviceable for now, but I ordered replacement FUCA’s and torque mount anyways, and plan to get to those items. Fortunately the brake pads and rotors had tons of life left in them - I just pulled them all apart and cleaned and re-lubed everything, as it looked like that hadn’t been done in ages.
The only other thing to report mechanically is a couple of the oil pan bolts appear to be sweating some oil. Not a “leak”in the traditional sense, but more of a very very slow sweat. My guess is the stock oil pan gasket is finally slowly giving up, and will need to be done at some point. The only other sign of fluid leaking I saw was what looked like some hydraulic fluid residue on some of the hoses. Whether from an actual minor seepage, or from previous filling, I can’t determine yet.
Other than the above? The car is mechanically flawless. The underside honestly looks like it was purchased 3 months ago and hasn’t seen anything but sunny California, it’s incredible. Everything works perfectly, it sounds and runs like a top, absolutely pristine for a 2009.
Next up was the interior. The ruffled leather seats are not my favourite look, and time/wear certainly doesn’t improve them. That said, no rips burns or other damage, just wear marks, mostly on the front ones. All the leather in the interior was in desperate need of a cleaning and conditioning. The entire interior got a vacuum, then a thorough detailing, and all the leather was conditioned. What a difference! Everything has aged extremely well. The exception is the front window switch trim, which is in bad shape, and will likely be replaced with carbon fiber. I also had to fix both front seat backs as one was fallen off entirely, and the other was going. Super easy job.
With the interior fully cleaned, I moved on to inspection, clearing and modifying all the drains. None of them had any contamination in them at all. Was this car only driven in a hospital?! I modified them anyways, and moved onto the next line item - the stereo. When I got the vehicle, there was an aftermarket Japanese head unit installed. That had to go, and was replaced with a PCM 3.0 I sourced locally. Sadly, they’d cut all the wires up at the Bose harness in the back at the amp. 4 hours later, everything was soldered back together to OEM spec, and PCM 3 was installed and working. I couldn’t get the OEM backup camera to work however, as the unit wasn’t coded to the car.
In the end, I took it into Porsche for that. 1.5 hours later they’d coded the PCM to the car, all was working as OEM again including the OEM camera, and life was good. I then installed the Mr 12V wireless CarPlay module, to add some modern functionality to the stock radio at least.
The next project was installing an OEM tow hitch and wire harness/module I’d gotten from a wrecker. Super simple job, and I’m glad I went with all OEM stuff. Cost around $800 CAD total for the wire harness, controller and bar itself, and 8 new OEM mounting bolts.
Finally, and what is currently underway was the exterior. Whatever lady in Japan owned this vehicle for its life before I got it, MUST have made a game out of swinging her door into every other vehicle in the country, every time it opened. There is no other explanation for the amount of touch ups done on that drivers door edge. Then there were some dings/scratches on the passenger side also. Nothing some wet sanding, paint and clear coat couldn’t fix. Once that’s done later this week, it’ll be time for a 2 stage polish, then it’s off for some paint protection film and ceramic front window tint. Oh the headlights also need a light polishing before that happens, but they aren’t bad. Both horizontal front signal lights get condensation in them also I noticed after washing, so I have 2 brand new ones on order.
And that’s where we are now! It’s almost at the point (few weeks yet) where I’ll be able to start just driving and enjoying it! It won’t be a daily driver, more of a weekend / trip vehicle, but I’m already very pleased with it so far. More to come!
Great story and catch-up maintenance you've done, but where are the photos - we like photos!
I love photos too! I’ve just been so busy working on the thing that I’ve been neglecting that! I promise I will get lots when it’s all “done”. In the meantime, I did get a couple.
03-11-2024, 10:01 AM
Incoming first Porsche - ‘09 CTTS
