In that case I am sure you won't be disappointed.
Godspeed ...

 

This came up in a PM, so I figure I might as well explain it here...

I'm a T12-L1 paraplegic, I broke my back at the bottom of my ribcage ~30 years ago.
I can't stand for very long and need to hang on to something.

When I had my Touareg, I mounted a loop handle off the rear of the roof rail track to I could hang on while I opened the hatch.
It worked but it was a big pain in the butt.

That was ~2004 and jumping to 2010, I had a Magnum SRT8 and a Wrangler Rubicon.
I fell a couple of times hobbling to the back of the Wrangler and though "****" I'm getting too old for this...
So I decided to have an electric hatch installed in the Magnum by a local customizing shop.
They said no way, the liability of such a thing was too high, go buy something with it from the factory.
I ended up trading the Magnum and the Wrangler for a 2010 Mercedes GLK.
The GLK is loaded and in general I like I but my plan was to drive it until the used Cayenne prices came down to my price range.

Now here's the bummer part. I wasn't having trouble hobbling around the Jeep because I was too old, I had advanced bladder cancer.

It's been a year since I had the cancer surgery and it looks like I beat it.

Now I'm driving a car I'm not all that excited about and the electric hatch is definitely useful.

Bottom line, I'd prefer not to spend the extra bucks but the manual hatch was a big pain in the butt.

Sorry for the long post.

=Bill

 

I take pleasure in mine every day and I'm sure you will do the same; the downsides are more than offset by the upside.

 

Have to agree with mcbit and others.
We are very happy with our Cayenne experience through 20k and 6 months of ownership.

 

The electric hatch is quite convinient, but you should practice with it to make sure it will work for you. The trick is getting out of the way as it goes up.

The close button can be a reach, but you can adjust how high the hatch goes. So remember that if you have trouble reaching it.

The adjustable air suspension will make ingress and egress easier. On paved roads, you can keep it set at the low road position (which is even lower on the GTS). In Park, it will go even lower for loading.

 

I would imagine that it would be fairly easy to move the close button down low and just inside the back of the truck instead of using it where it is on the tail gate...

 

Have you looked at a Cayenne yet with respect to entry/egress from the driver's seat?

You might consider a P!g equipped wtih air suspension, as 'loading' level should help in this regard.
(you could also consider an aftermarket module/modification which would further reduce the vehicle height as well).

As for hand controls, please be aware that due to eGas, any application of brake while on the gas might be an issue, especially with hand controls.

 

I had that problem with the manual hatch on my old Touareg.
I mounted piece of 6061 aluminium, cut like an D shape, to the roof rail tracks and it work pretty good but it was a hassle.

I really miss the air suspension in my Touareg. I used a vag-com adapter to lower it an additional inch and I think I saw a thread where folks had figured it out for the Cayenne also

 

Wow - talk about great minds

I ended up adding an additional switch to the driver side of the hatch on my GLK. The switch was nornally open with a something like an internal diode bridge to differentiate between the close and close-lock modes. With the original switch being normall open, I simply wired the second switch in parallel.

 

Good thoughts.

Should be good. It was easy to get in and out of the Touareg. I should add that I'm a high level return T12-L1 para. I have enough use of my knees to stand for about 30 seconds, I can't feel or move anything below my knees so I have to hold on to something for balance.

Air suspension is an absolute must have. After having it on my Touareg, I could never own a Cayenne without it :^)

I hear you on teh hand controls, I use a rather odd type of controls - hated teh old push to brake, pull down for throttle. The ones I use are called sure-grip, they push to brake but the handle rotates for throttle. I can literally drive for hours without arm fatigue.

I mounted my controls in the Touareg myself. Now days I have a really good shop that does the installs. They hand fabricate the mountings and the controls look like they belong in the car. The only thing that can trip me up is knee bolster air bags. The installer has had major nightwares trying to disable them without faults or errors. That was on an 2010 Mercedes and I'm pretty sure the Cayenne (at least in the 2008-2009 range) doesn't have them.

 

My wife is 5'4" and has no trouble reaching the button.

 

Is it on the driver's side of the hatch? That would be no problem. The GLK has it on the rear of the hatch on the passenger side.

 

Update on my Cayenne fever.

I’ve been thinking about what I liked the most about my 2004 Touareg.
It had to be the v8, air suspension and the winter package (w/heated steering wheel).

If it wasn’t for the electrical faults they could not solve, I might still be driving it today.
You know it’s bad when the Service Manager has your phone number memorized…

I was originally thinking of a Turbo or a GTS. Then my practical side started to nag me.
I own my current car and if I stay in the mid-30K range, I won’t have to take out a loan.
I recently dodged a layoff and the idea of starting car payments again makes me nervous.

So I kicked ideas around with my best friend of 20 years and the bottom line is that I can be perfectly happy with an S, as long as it got a good set of options that includes air suspension and the heated steering wheel.

I’ve been watch the online Cayenne adverts for months and there really aren’t many S’s with air suspension, and virtually none in my area.

But there is one that has everything I want, it’s local and the price seems reasonable.
It has ~67K miles but it’s a one owner and looks well cared for.
I’m cool with having to do brakes and maybe a front driveshaft since the price is right.

So, I would like to hear what you think about this one. I think a set of silver roof rails and replica GTS wheels (in 20”) would make it look good and work for me:

http://www.grandprimotors.com/detail...enne-Njg4.html

=Bill

 

Inside the white ellipse.

 

Thanks! that's just like the GLK, should be pretty simple to add another in parallel :^)