CO997

I've always been a low to the ground kind of guy so this it not my area of expertise. My wife has a 325 with SMG and loves the car. Problem is we have 2 lab puppies now that will not be very small for long. We've been talking SUV's as there is no way 2 labs will get in my 997, and the backseat of the 325 is a bit too small as well. I'm a hugh fan of BMW and Porsche, obviously, but need some advice on the SUV area. Did anyone here that has a Cayenne give serious thought to the BMW. I've driven the Cayenne S and Turbo at a Porsche event where they let us get on the track and drive as hard as we wanted and even a small off road coarse and was amazed at how well it drove. I've not had the same opportunity with the BMW. As it will be the wife's car performance is not the main issue, but man was it fun. We will need plenty of room in the back for the dogs and still have room for 4 adults to be comfortable as well. Wondering if anyone has put some meaningful time in both and has any opinions.

devon7

I too am a big BMW and Porsche fan - initially I would rather have gone with the X5 (cheaper to buy and a more local dealer) but the Cayenne with air suspension is a far superior drive. With the comfort setting for lazy days and the sport setting for more aggressive driving you can change the feel of the Cayenne quiet dramatically. I found the X5 with sports suspension to be great on smooth tarmac but too harsh on anything even slightly rough.

Overall I ended up with the impression that the X5 drove like a badly set up five series on massive wheels, whereas the Cayenne is a complete package in its own right - but you have to have the air suspension!

amontgomery

I agree, I drove both back to back, within 30 minutes of each other, and as soon as you set off in the Cayenne, it's just in a class of it's own...

philg3

Count me in too. Many here owned an X5, such as myself, prior to owning a Cayenne, and there is no comparison. Overlooking the fact that I had big problems with my early production X5 4.4, it was the funnest SUV to drive in its time -- much better than my prior two Grand Cherokee's, also quicker, more agile than the Range Rover available when X5 was introduced. But the Cayenne is best performance SUV on the market today.

TrackMan

I have an X5 and am not very happy with it. Bad dealer service (although most P-dealer service departments are not very good either), no support from BMW NA concerning a few issues that popped up a week out of coverage, spotty quality and very little cargo room.

I have driven many Cayennes back to back with the X5 and the Cayenne is definitely superior. Feels much more solid and has significantly more room. As a sanity check I took my wife to the P-car dealer last wekend and had her drive a Cayenne. She is not very car "savvy" but her immediate response was, "There is NO comparison." Cayenne felt much better.

Guess what I am getting her as soon as the bonus check clears.

cobalt

Same here.

I have always liked BMW's until recently. Everyone here gripes about Porsche not suporting their product and poor service. I guess they haven't had a BMW lately. BMW does not support their product at all anymore. Had an issue with a leaking windshield on a 740iL and they tried to tell me that it was inhearent to the vehicle. The dealership only made the experiance worse by botching the repair 7 times.

The Cayenne is a far superior vehicle to the X5 I would not give it a second thought.

64lusso

We used to have a X-5 with the six and I thought it was the perfect SUV for my wife. The Cayenne came out while we still had the X-5 and a 10 mile drive in the country didn't impress me that the Cayenne was worth the difference in price and I couldn't talk my wife in to going by to try one out for herself, about four months ago she did and it was all she could talk about so we wound up getting an S. I am still not sure it does anything more for what her needs are than the X-5 but now that I have spent some time in it I have come to the impression it's a lot more car--truck--Suv--whatever than I first realized. Frankly for what my wife's needs are our old BMW 525 wagon was perfect, but she wants to be up in the air with all the other soccer Mom's and I don't think you could go wrong with either the X-5 or the Cayenne. While I think the Porsche is superior performance SUV to the BMW keep in mind I am comparing it to the six cylinder X-5 we had. I think if you take the word performance out of the equation there's not much difference between them IMHO.

Renn 951

If you want to carry four adults up front plus the two large dogs in the rear cargo area, you might want to consider one of the BMW or Audi midsize wagons instead. The cargo area on the SUV's is taller but not as deep as what you'll find with the wagon. The two Labs will probably travel more comfortably in a wagon (525 BMW or A6 Avant.)

BobbyB

So far you can't pry my wife out of her X5 and honestly it's been the best handling and most fun SUV/SAV I'd driven, until the CT. The only opportunities we had to compare the Cayenne were on a few 20 min test drives and it was an S. Not enough time to really put the CS thru it's paces for a comparison but my initial impression was the X seemed a bit more nimble. The Power seemed to come on quicker in the X than in the CS. Service, I guess it's the dealers - we've had a few minor issues with the X with the last one a cracked front windshield. The car was out of warranty but the dealer (not the one we purchased the X5 from) replaced it for free - no fuss no muss.
A few weeks ago I drove the CT and wow, what a blast - even the interior bits overshadowed the X but then, it was a 100K car vs a 54K one....
I don't think you will go too far wrong with either X or C but there is just no substitute for the perma grin a P-car (truck) gives.

ozr

Cay is in a different league in a driving dynamics, stability at speed. It's a very solid vehicle. Cay in many cases outmanoeuvres many sedans on a road.

...below are scans of a good statistics from the recent issue of a german magazine "Automobil Offroad"... it's in german...

Enjoy.


OZRacing

EPV

Cayenne S with air suspension is the way to go. It's all about handling!

CO997

It's sad to say but several years ago I spoke fluent German, I lived there for about 6 years, so you would think that article would be no problem. Unfortunately that's not the case. However I think I got the main points, so thanks for posting it. Another question I had was with the interior. Does it only come in Leather? I know BMW has Leatherette, does the cayenne? Reason I ask is that it is so much easier to maintain with the dogs. It takes much more abuse and is really easy to clean. I have asked a few people and no on seems to know for sure. For those of you who's wife drives the truck, did she take to it easily. My wife has always had smaller cars, like her 325 and has never driven "up high". She says she is worried she'll feel like a truck driver. Just wondering if anyone had to deal with that. On test drives she says she loves the Cayenne but always mentions "how high it is".

JW3

All Cayenne's come with leather seating as standard. The Cayenne and Cayenne S come with only partial leather interior and the full leather (dash, doors, etc.) is optional. The Turbo however comes with the complete leather interior standard (dash, doors, just about everything you can touch inside is covered in beautiful leather and the Turbo has the Alcantara roof lining-really nice). But there are companies that make excellent seat coverings so that people with dogs can protect their automobile interior (the coverings are removable and washable which is big bonus). JW3