ProgRockJunkie

I've had three Cayenne's to date, S, turbo and now a turbo S. I love my turbo S, but I'm headed for uncharted territory next year. The car will expire from CPO, be 7 years old and pop over 65,000 miles. Doesn't sound like all that much. But we tend to keep a MB GL in the family as well and I know from experience that this isn't a car to keep more than 4-5 years. Of course the dealer will always tell you that was fixed two years ago, right? My Cayennes, all three of them, have performed well with no major problems. At some point though that's bound to change. What will it be and when? Turbo's leaking, front end, electronics? We all love our Cayennes so you can consider that question rhetorical if you like. The real question is what would the brain trust here consider to be a good age/mileage to divest? Not looking for any particular answer, though hearing that I can expect a smooth if steepening cost of ownership might save me from myself, keep me from buying another car too soon. I can deal with rising maintenance costs. I just don't want to end up with a $6k repair bill and then want to dump it, like my last GL. Thanks in advance.

user 83838290

my TTS just turned 6 and has 96K miles on the clock. had a couple of common issues till now (minor - flickering headlights, coils ... ; major - torque converter sealing leak). I'm doing a big power upgrade (replacing a lot of stuff as a precaution as well), so I'll cut the maintenance to 10K kms (±6000mls) and that's pretty much it. warranty in EU is only 2 years, so it's been without it a couple of years now.

I have a couple of friends who have had p!gs since 2004 / 2005 and have waaay more than 120K miles on the clock. the only thing they do is pretty much regular maintenance (a set of coils and a shaft here and there count as maintenance as well ) and still drive them every day.
if you are prepared to spend some money, go find a good indy and have him check out the car regularly. a lot of issues can be dealt with before they become expensive.

ProgRockJunkie

Thank you for the response. By coils you mean ignition coils? Sounds like I don't really need to consider changing vehicles? HAPPY!! And sad I love changing cars. Guess not right now.

ProgRockJunkie

And how much to get the coils replaced? Parts look cheap. Labor? If I'm hanging onto it for a while, might as well.

Slow Guy

Dealer/indy/or yourself? Very big difference in cost.

I have no idea why the dealers charge so much for this simple job.
I bought my coils about 5 mos. ago, IIRC MSRP (per coil) was $58, Hennesey price was $39 ea. I've heard dealers charging $1000 for this job, insane!

If you're going to replace the coils it's generally recommended to replace the plugs at the same time.

ProgRockJunkie

They just replaced the plugs during major service. Have to see if the coils were replaced same time. Guess it's unlikely, give them another reason to charge a grand. I guess I'd see if I could get an independent. Seems to be running fine now, so will probably let this simmer.

JohnnyBahamas

Replace the coils yourself.

It's so easy, it's silly.

Sunset Porsche parts has great prices.

BTW, anyone charging $1000 for a coil replacement is LITERALLY laughing out loud at the buyers gullible stupidity.

ProgRockJunkie

Gonna have to be somewhere in between dealer and DIY. I haven't worked on my own cars since a '78 pontiac TA rod I had in the early 90's. Guarantee the damage I would do would cause would exceed the price of a pro doing it.

Love your avatar, BTW.

Dennis C

I'm at 109K on my 2004 CS. We have done the following maintenance (off the top of my head), in addition to scheduled maintenance:

- Horns (three times)
- Battery (twice)
- Ignition Coils
- Coolant pipes (done before they burst, as a preventative measure)
- Primary fuel pump
- Water pump
- Air suspension compressor rebuild

That's really about it. We've had a smattering of other small TSBs and other little issues, but the car has been very, very reliable.

endless_corners

hey dennis talk to me about the horn.. currently when i lock the car it beeps.. but when I press the horn on the steering wheel there is nothing.. What were your issues with the horn?

XR4Tim

The horns themselves are a high-failure item. They get killed by water-intrusion. The beep from the alarm comes from a different source.

Dennis C

The horn design isn't good. They are situated in such a way that they fill up with water, which eventually causes them to corrode and fail. On our Cayenne, the lower frequency horn typically failed, so when we attempted to honk the Cayenne sounded like a little Japanese car. My horns were covered by Porsche each time they were replaced. The first time it was my original manufacturer's warranty. They new horns come with a 2-year warranty, and each subsequent failure was within the 2-year warranty period.

Interestingly, since I have moved to the mountains where the average humidity level is less than 30%, my horns haven't failed. I think it's so dry here that the horns just don't hold water like they did before we lived here.