Black Sea RD

Great conversations about this topic and I appreciate all the insights! I do understand Porsche's perceived exclusivity and how that can help with resale values. In fact exclusivity is one reason my wife and I are thinking about the Cayenne. Just wish Porsche would remember their roots a bit more and go back to top tier racing, but hey that's for another forum.

Cheers,
Constantine

droptop

the "06 according to CR increased in reliability to "worse than average". JD Powers is the company that rated porsche #1, and they have a statistic for everyone.

that being said, the '06 is probably the most reliable of the pigs. with one of the MYTHICAL "good dealerships" (i never found one) and with a good build quality one (not on a friday or a monday, not in the entire month of october, etc), you may have a good experience.

do ya feel lucky?

sigs

Is it possible to agree with BOTH ltc and Madfox? No more Kool-Aid for me.

Let's face it, niche techno-cars (which I think includes the Cayenne) may be more like computers and cell phones than the vehicles that some of us grew up with. High demand for the latest and greatest means a high initial price-tag, but staggering depreciation, due to a) evolution of technology and b) the desire and financial ability of the (mostly) American consumer to go out and buy the greatest "new thing" - repeatedly.

If you exclude limited-production vehicles, depreciation is substantial on virtually ALL "cutting-edge" vehicles, since buyers often purchase them because they are unique in some way (as was the Cayenne), but, if those unique features prove marketable, other manufacturers often find a way duplicate them (without the other bells and whistles that proved not so marketable) at lower cost. If the vehicle is successful, then the profit-minded carmaker (and which ones aren't?) will continue to refine the concept, so they can sell more of them. When you combine these usual market/depreciation forces with the apparent willingness of consumers (both new and repeat customers) to pay ridiculously high prices for a "new" Porsche, it seems that the Cayenne is virtually certain to suffer some of the worst depreciation imaginable, even if the alpha/beta units hadn't suffered so badly. The Cayenne will never inspire the "damn all logic, I want one of those things" 911 lust that helps prop up the value of used 996s.

In general terms, I think the biggest "mistakes" PAG made in the real world of vehicle sales and marketing were a) using a few suboptimal parts that have led to predictable failures (coils, shafts) or performance complaints (lag), b) refusing to address those failures appropriately with the consumers, and c) "over-designing" 4-wheel capability far beyond what 99% of the market will ever use, thus disappointing at least ten weight/performance-only consumers for every one like me who really wanted that capability.

Of the mass-production vehicles I've "experienced," the only ones that have held value well have been the very staid, very reliable, but very "un-novel" (Lexus); the dedicated purpose, high bang-for-the-buck (Corvette); or the dedicated-purpose, not-too-expensive, nothing else really comparable being made at the time (IH Scout).

But then maybe I just choose my vehicles poorly. My only defense is to hang onto them for a long time, so the depreciation hit is less painful, - that is unless the ownership experience results in a trip to Larry's villa.

MadFox

The great thing about this forum.... the answer is YES!!

SIGS, Cayenne bro' ---- All great points that you made!!

Constantine:

bottom line.. for me, knowing all that Larry, Ltc, and the rest of the gang exposed in the early years, I opted to buy another Cayenne for the reasons most often stated:

1. The glitches are fixed/known/fixable (with patience) with the mid-05's and later.
2. My dealer is one of the best in the nation and has treated me better than any other dealer in my 33 years of driving.
3. Porsche has fixed most of the problems and Consumer Reports in my experience is the one that is usually ridiculous with its ratings (i.e. I agree most often with JDPower's assessments of superior service in other areas)
4. I was "used to" the power, incredible turn radius/steering, and just "love" to drive it (and looked at ALL the competition when opting to dump my beta).
5. I'm addicted to the forum -- am not nearly as witty or knowledgeable as Larry, Ltc, and others who are "ex-oficio" lifetime members... I thought I might be thrown out of the forum if I were to be an EX-pig owner!

p.s. The Kool-aid is purple, our T-shirt is NAKED (i.e. we don't have one) and our attitude is SMART-****.

sigs

MadFox,

I share your sentiments and, if my Cayenne were stolen tonight, I'd buy another one tomorrow - IF I was sure the hesitation issue was solved and if I could find a dealer like yours. In so many ways, the dealer makes or breaks the ownership experience, which is something we should have pointed out to Constantine much earlier in the thread.

For me, the power and handling in a comfortable daily-driver package that I can still use to haul lumber up a muddy slope is worth the price of admission, even at 12 mpg and under 15k per set of tires. I don't expect to get much money back at the end of the ride, so I plan to enjoy it for a long time.

And surely you must be talking about some other forum. SMART-****? Here?

Well, maybe a little. But what does anyone expect? This ain't the Volvo forum!

Black Sea RD

Truly enjoying the exchanges on this thread. All sensical and helpful to prepare one for a drink of the "kool aid" as it were.

Have to admit I would have been completely surprised if there were no problems with the Cayenne. Porsche is known for it's engineering emphasis in all of it's products and as has been more eloquently said by others in this thread, it comes with a price of sometimes over complicating the products which then leads to glitches.

So a hunting we will go for a late 2005 or 2006 model. Wish us luck!

Thanks again,
Constantine

ltc

Surprised? How about stunned.

If this vehicle weren't 65% VAG content and 80% VAG labor (or put another way, 35% PAG content and 20% PAG labor....most of which is in the Zuffenhausen V8 motor), then I'd agree.
BTW, with Dr W now 'owning' VAG, it's all downhill from here. Maybe, if luck favors the foolish, the '911' will remain "Porsche"....everything else planned from here out, it's more VAG than PAG.
BTW2, the Cayenne is NOT over complicated, just poorly integrated.

Godspeed.

tbill

Guess I've been the lucky one with an '04 45,000 miles and no major problems to speak of, just the normal TSB's to deal with. We would purchase another from a realibility standpoint, but more than likely it will be the Panamara - if the exterior appearance is sleek. (don't know about purchase of the first year's offerings though)