DC from Cape Cod

Not suggesting you played any games....was simply pointing out that your opinion meant something even though she drives it.

I've been married almost 18 years...through great and not-great times....so I know all about making it work.

ben in lj

hey don.

i know about your wonderful marriage (have read some special things from and about you guys) and only hope we are as successful.

yes, my opinion matters re: the CT, but i intentionally place it a very distant second in my mind to hers. the pick of her car rests largely on her shoulders as it does with me on my truck and sports car. while i very much like the torque on the CT, my main concerns were passive safety when she was driving and active/passive safety when i am. if only the hesitation issue wasn't present, it would have enormous active safety. but without being able to use and/or rely on the throttle for acceleration when necessary, i don't have all the usual pcar active accident avoidance tools at my disposal.

DC from Cape Cod

My apologies for the confusion but I am not Don from Cape Cod. I live a few miles down the road from him and we have met before but alas, I am not he.

Sorry for the confusion in regard to the posts as well. I was solely attempting to defend your right to share opinions that place the Cayenne in a negative light. In no way did I intend to make any comment about your marriage or your wife's opinions.

I agree and have experienced similar problems with my Cayennes.

ben in lj

thanks DC. my apologies for making assumptions and therefore confusing you with Don.

DC from Cape Cod

Don is a capital fellow and I can only benefit from being mistaken for him....<grin>.

cosmos

Hey, DC:

Are you the same DC from CC, that is a realtor and had an M3?

pdxjim

Has there been any recent software upgrades on the hesitation?? Ridiculous that one has to anticipate the hesitation when go/no go pulling out into traffic.

ben in lj

yes, there was one (which was performed on our car) for both the engine and tranny and neither did anything to even reduce, much less eliminate, the hesitation.

Torags

Perhaps the adaptive driving feature is responding to the driving habits of a new mother who is concerned about her passenger.

ben in lj

interesting, i didn't know that feature was programmed to make merging into traffic so danagerous specifically for mothers and new borns. do it's engineers hate kids and mothers or something? they must hate me too because i experienced the same dangerous "feature" immediately post reflashing of the tranny and engine ECUs (as per the TSBs) before it was able to "learn" to be so dangerous. sounds like it doesn't like pdxjim and many many dozens of others i've read on the internet and talked to in person about it who don't have newborns but have this life threatening "feature".

it's no big deal for her though, because it's the only car she drives. so, she isn't use to much much better throttle response from my F150 along with every other car or truck i've ever owned (or rented). should have just gotten her the V6 or S if i'd have know the many $10s of K extra for the turbo weren't going to produce a better or safer throttle response or extra power off the line (until you count to "one thousand one...").

ajauch

There seems to be three schools of thought here. If you're talking about tranny kickdown, then yes, this seems to be fixed. You can also have the dealer program a more agressive shift pattern. I had this done (at Claridges in Fremont, CA) and it made the CT more responsive in the 30-50 MPH range. If you want to know if your Cay is in this camp, drive it in manual mode only for a few days. I found that my CT was super responsive in manual mode (assuming I had it revv'd up into the power band, 4K or more). On the freeway, a two gear downshift (manual) and about 50% throttle gives a nice smooth burst of power. Zero hesitation once it was in the right gear. You'll also see the turbos spool very quickly even as low as 2K RPM. This tells me that the problem was the tranny and not the e-gas drive by wire or "turbo lag" as has been suggested by others.

There are others who have seen slow THROTTLE response, I haven't seen this on my '04 CT so I can't comment there. Personally, I think that they're in Camp #1. Most Porsche types aren't really auto tranny friendly. A vehicle like the CT would really be better with a manual or sequential manual type tranny instead of the slushbox. The high end Merc auto tranny seems to have solved this problem, but the new 7 speed probably cost more than the Cayman to design and produce. Of course, towing with a manual would be a bitch, but you can't have everything.... :-)

Lastly, many seem to feel that the "intelligent" drive by wire system selects slower response rates and less agressive kickdown over time. You can "reset" this system and return it to "default" values which everyone seems to like better. I'd say this is probably important if you are a leadfoot and your S.O. drives like a grandma. Two or three days of grandma would probably program the system to respond slowly. To reset: with the car OFF and your foot OFF the brake, insert the key and turn COUNTER CLOCKWISE and hold. I think this takes 30 seconds, but I forget the exact number.

Alex

PS: Another interesting note about the drive by wire system: It reacts not just to throttle position, but to the RATE of throttle increase. This took me some getting used to. In a high HP car like the CT, I'm always very smooth on and off the gas. I hate that neck snapping sensation you get when you're jerky on the gas. I've also had a few cars that would break the rears loose when you weren't smooth onto power. Not fun in a tight turn. At any rate, I had a tough time convincing my CT to kick down from 6th to 4th when going between 40-60. If I "rabbit punch" the throttle, the CT instantly does a 2-3 gear kickdown. "Squeezing" the throttle would only result in a lazy 6-5 shift until I had the throttle almost all the way open. By then we're at 4k RPM and the downshift moves us up to almost 6K with fully spooled turbos and the afterburners kick in. Not really what you want for a quick pass on the freeway. Because of PSM, it's pretty safe to floor the CT any time you want. Even in snow. Now I use the downshift buttons on the wheel for these types of passing situations. I manually shift down one or two gears and do my pass. The tranny holds for a few seconds then goes back to auto. Problem solved.

Torags

ajauch, it seems like you are driving the car like it was designed to.

I recognize that anyone can post anything they want, but the constant moaning about conditions that might be the fault of how an extremely high performance car is driven - can become boring.

There are many other SUVs that are designed for families to perform at slower speeds and run very well.

just my .02 (& it's probably worth less)

alex911s

Hey Alex,

Who is your contact with Claridge? I'm gonna get the service warning reset , might as well check about the shift pattern.
Also saw your car at Chillis in Menlo Park week 1/2 ago, didnt know who you were I was park
right by you.

ajauch

Hey, Alex. That's one reason why my avator shows my plate. If you see AJCAYEN on the road, you know it's me...

The guy I talked to at Claridges is Kimo. He was the only Porsche service advisor at Claridges when I was there. You might also try Brian Haske at Carlsen (Redwood City) if you live on the Peninsula.

Alex

24FPS

friction. gotta' love it. whatevertheco$t.