GregW

I posted a couple of pictures in response to an earlier thread but I felt it better to start a new one to answer some of the follow up questions.

First impressions are good. Picked the car up in the middle of September and with the exception of one glitch everything has been fine.

It drives very well, in-fact as the kilometers go by I'm finding out just how capable it really is. Porsche have done a fantastic job of hiding the weight. While heavier than the BMW M5 Touring it replaced it feels closer to a touring than an SUV. Performance has surprised me a bit. Being a Diesel I was expecting it to be sluggish, but it's actualcy quite spritely.

We drove 1500km, 13 hours to our holiday home in the first week with two bikes and a full trunk and found it to be very comfortable, relaxed and quiet. Fuel consumption was fantastic at 6.8 l/100km, 41.5 mpg (imp.) and 34.5 mpg (US).

Winter is going to be the big test. The M5 was terrible in the snow. Despite OEM winter wheels and top of the line snow chains we had to dig our selves out of the snow far too often. This was one of the main reasons for the change. I've ordered an 18" OEM winter wheel and tire package.

So far there are only two, albeit minor gripes. I really miss the rear window hatch from the BMW. The power tailgate takes an age and it seems unnecessary to have to lift it for just one or two small items of shopping. The second is that the memory system doesn't seem as sophisticated; read store as many variables, as the BMW option.

For anyone interested the minor glitch in the first week. It hasn't reoccurred after nearly 5000km. Basically one morning all of the functions/features on the middle console including: PASM, climate control, auto stop-start etc. failed. Fortunately I only live 5 minutes from the dealer. I gave them the Cayenne, they gave me a Boxter S with PDK in which I covered 500km on my favorite mountain roads. I picked up the Cayenne at the end of the day after a 'reset'.

The dealership has been excellent so far. The only bad news was logging on here and discovering European prices are significantly higher than the US!

I've included a few pictures, including a sequence showing the different PASM modes. They are very much rough pictures, but I'll get round to taking some 'good' ones in due course.

GregW

As promised here are some responses to questions from the interiors thread:

Hopefully the main body text answers your question. If there are any more just shout.

The clear side markers are standard on European spec. models. Unfortunately I'm not sure where you can get them other than a dealer.

So far there are precious few resources with good information on the 92A. I can't even find a PDF version of the Owners Handbook.

It's Tiefschwarzmetallic which translates as deep black metallic. I can't imagine there are two metalic blacks so I assume it's Jet. I like flat black on sports cars, but metalic works better on everyday cars imo.

And thanks for the positive comments.

w00tPORSCHE

Greg, again thank you for taking the time to post some very self-explanatory and stunning images of your ride. I also love solid black but went with the metallic black. As it is black is a tough color to keep clean. I love hand washing my cars and follow a very strict and **** wash method. Even then I cannot avoid a few swirls here and there. With the metallic black the swirls won't show as much. The solid black...forget about it, one would be spending time just polishing out the swirls rather than driving it. Loving your RS spyder wheels. My wife's order is a Cayenne S metallic black with alum exterior (saw that you went with black gloss ext), RS wheels and espresso/cognac natural leather interior.

Other than the off-road benefits and ease of loading for high and low levels respectively, please tell me how these different air-suspension settings benefit driving dynamics ?

bgsntth

I hate it when folks post vehicles I so want, but cannot have in the US.

A Cayenne that gets >30 mpg and has good power, and looks fabulous in the process.

Great specs.

Andy E.

Greg, you picked up the car at which Porsche Zentrum? I have the same plate frame in my garage that I picked up at the Zentrum in Stuttgart last October.

slwong23

Great pics, Greg- looks awesome! I'm envious of black exteriors... I ordered silver for the reasons you and Andy mentioned- swirls and the ease of keeping clean. Wish we got the Diesel version here in the states... Congrats on the purchase!

leek

On the rear hatch did they delete the option to open the glass independently? Mine has a small button on the underside of the wiper mount, works well if you just want to throw several items in quickly.

w00tPORSCHE

So can one open the glass independantly on a 2011 Cayenne ?

gaurang

Do you miss the paddle shifters on the steering wheel?

JFScheck

Wish Porsche would ship the oil burners across the pond for us Americans...

ltc

What, you aren't impressed with the Hybrid ?

GregW

I'd say it makes a noticeable difference. In our case we permanently leave it in Low Level 1, it keeps things neat and tidy when you are pushing on. By that I mean it reduces the natural tendency of all SUVs to understeer in to tight corners. You definitely feel more of the weight at the Normal height, as the centre of gravity is that much higher. Unlike a 911 you can't put a heavy bag of sand in the front boot! We have very smooth roads in Switzerland so Low level 1 and Normal are a good combination.

The diving modes Normal, Comfort and Sport also make a big difference. We noticed in Spain where the roads are not as good Comfort and Normal hight was the best option. High level 1 also made getting the track to our house a lot easier. The roads are definitely not as smooth as those in Switzerland!

GregW

No, picked it up at my dealer. Zentrum is the most commonly used name for all dealers in German speaking countries, irrespective of brand. In my case it's Porsche Zentrum Zug, which is where I live.

GregW

Unfortunately yes. Like you I found the hatch on our last car very useful.

GregW

Not really, which surprises me. On the BMW M5 I used the paddles almost exclusively for two reasons. It was the only was to smooth out the gearbox which in automatic mode was not very smooth. And because it had a high revving NA engine you could mostly slow down through the gear using engine braking. As the Cayenne Diesel has a twin turbo it doesn't have the same level of engine braking. Also with 8 gears you can't change with the paddles as quickly as the computer. If I want to push on then I do use the rockers/paddles but I'll admit there were a couple of occasions in the first weeks when I went up instead of down etc! I'm used to it now but I'm still confounded that Porsche decided to use the opposite of every other manufacturer.

When weighing the options we came down on the side of the multi function wheel as it's features are more useful to us most of the time.