Mugatu

Here's a video comparsion:

steve_Cayenne

Watching the first part of that video, I was thinking that is absolutely not how I feel in my Cayenne. Then it begged the question, would I want to feel like that? Well yes and no ... Maybe in 10 more years I will yearn for that serene feeling.

Credit to those Indian guys at Tata, who would of thought they could push such a masterpiece through!

mudman2

Well since he must have messed the seat up, I hope the lovely leather wipes down easily. If I wanted to drive my living room, no doubt that's what I want.

How old do you have to be to want that

steve_Cayenne

Well, it is a Brit, reviewing a British product

Kind of like the opposite of the look of the disdain Jeremy Clarkson has whenever he reviews a German car

And then he goes and buys German cars for his personal drive

endless_corners

The dude definitely seems biased.. like as if he is personally mulling owning one and is looking for the taking a nap through the countryside type of experience.

Clarkson definitely has a penchant for AMG Mercs.. but he seems diabolically opposed to porsches.

mudman2

I am a Brit watchit

Carrera GT

Thanks for the video. Of course the Brits will invariably find a way to offer at least muted praise to Jag and Land Rover or any of the peculiar toy kit cars, etc. I envy them their innovation and I don't begrudge the reviewers for wearing their heart on their sleeve with a little patriotic fervor for good measure.

As for the comparison, well, it's as close as comparing Porsche with Land Rover can be. Two very different horses, courses, and owners.

In my case, the outcome is pretty straightforward: the Range Rover is not available. Production is a trickle. One car per dealer per month -- and that's for the dealers with orders. All the dealers sold their demo cars and now they're begging for factory loaners to drive demos and get orders. Orders are six months delayed, so buying now means a hanging limbo of not knowing what's really available. The PDF for the 2014 is available and shows some trivial changes and new, less powerful engine option that delivers a whopping 2 mpg gain for the sake of a 1 second delay in reaching cruising speed. I guess that's progress in a US$100K luxury SUV. Not good enough. So I will place an order and wait and see. Hopefully the rumored long wheelbase variant will eventuate and I'll be able to tweak my order.

Meanwhile, the new Mercedes GL350 won out over the Cayenne S diesel (which I think is great, but size matters in this case and the Cayenne cabin is woefully outdated as a functional workhorse.) So we're waiting for both cars. About two or three months for the GL. Loaded with all the cameras and cruise control, etc., the GL is significantly cheaper, though it's expensive for the brand.

The loaded Rangie is about line ball with a modestly equipped Cayenne Turbo or equivalently equipped Cayenne S diesel, and wins hands down in my "do I want to be here?" assessment.

I don't want to drive the tires off a Cayenne Turbo S ("been there, done that", no, I want to drive the tires off a 911) and the novelty of a quick turbo diesel doesn't weigh heavily in the comparison with the long term ownership of an SUV where practicality comes first.

I want to set the adaptive cruise to "survivable speeding ticket" and cover miles with four seats occupied, dog in the back with ample luggage and everyone comfortable. Both cars are meant to do the latter and I think the Rangie still excels at the "fun" end of the spectrum for driving on-road through mountain roads or off-road in demanding conditions.

So the lingering question mark is reliability. Will the Range Rover be a disappointment? Early owners report niggling complaints, failed electronics, glitches, a dash that fades in direct sunlight and a few squeaks and creaks. My brief time with the car identified some quirky design issues (a lack of storage space, but a variety hatches and boxes) and some substandard materials, oddly cheap and flimsy plastic hinges that made cheap noises, etc. Overall, I couldn't fault the car other than to question the rear seat leg room and ridiculously small rear seat displays (the GL now has docking stations for iPads ... what could be simpler or better?) If nothing else, the wait until Fall will give the Land Rover factory time to improve quality, and since this is a winter car for us, getting a 2014 for the winter of 2013 is better than getting 2013 in the middle of 2013.

Somewhat ironically, I'm more interested and hanging in anticipation for the Rangie than for the 991 GT3. Hopefully they both overcome their apparent shortcomings.

Earlierapex

I'm completely biased having just bought a 2012 Cayenne Turbo, but I would make a couple of points:
1) Porsche reliability has increased drastically in the last 5 years and the new Cayennes have fewer issues
2) if you care at all about how a car drives from a "sport" and cornering perspective, get the cayenne. It's like an M5 that has room for a dog and can tow a large boat. It's literally fun to drive in everyday settings.
3) It's a porsche.

Mugatu

A few squeaks and little quirks don't bother me if that's all the first generation comes in with. My CTT for example was brand new and eating through quarts of oil every 2k miles, so these are mild by comparison. I too am looking forward to the new Range Rover.

I know people are saying he's British so he's biased (maybe so), but here's another review from an American who normally doesn't pull any punches.

LaicepsYdobon

I happen to like them both. The Rangie is very comfortable and big. The Porsche handles better and is faster. I previously had a Rangie and I was not too happy with the reliability; let's hope this generation will be better. That been all said one should consider him/herself fortunate to be able to own either (or both). Both get a thumbs up from me. But I am a little more biased towards the Cayenne...

endless_corners

^^what you said

Carrera GT

That's it in a nutshell. The only thing being the RR no longer feels (or looks) as big and it's now 700+ lbs lighter, so changing the throttle position now changes both the engine sound and the vehicle speed.

Carrera GT

While I'm an inveterate late apex myself, I agree that your point number three weighs heavily in the balance for me. I reserve the right to change my mind and get a Cayenne, especially the S diesel, if one happens to be rusting at the dealership while Land Rover continues to maintain SNAFU operations at the factory and not build the things to meet demand.

Once again in the history of Land Rover, they appear to be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. First, as a British company, they somehow allowed themselves to be bought lock, stock and barrel by "the Germans" and then BMW drops billions on completely renovating the car for only the second time in a century or so, only to promptly "give it away" to Ford who has the genius idea of "we could really use some BMW engineering in the ... um ... Explorer ...?" only to let it fall off the radar and be sold as if priced by weight to the tune of losing a few billions of dollars all for nought.

Now, Tata Motors has taken over both Jaguar and Land Rover in a pretty ham-fisted attempt to siphon brand loyalty out of the marques. To their credit, they've done a great job managing the process of reinventing the Range Rover, but now they have a car that's a real win with the journo's, they don't seem to be too fussed about building the damn thing and selling it. Hard to fathom. It's as if they had no real confidence in their own success with this new car. You don't have to read too much of the forum sites to see earnest buyers dismayed at being told "about six months" when they look around the dealership and see absolutely zero customers and no activity around a line-up of aging models that were never competitive in the first place. They could have sold one to me at full price this month, but six months from now, I'll be setting a minimum 10% discount to let ink find the checkbook.

997CS4

What a bunch of BS! Also they should compare a RR TDV8 autobiography with a loaded Cayenne Diesel S. CD wins hands down and is much more afordable and reliable. Why do you think RR's are so expensive to lease? They break down all the time and the residual value after the lease is next to nothing.

DWPC

When I narrowed the choices to a used Cayenne vs used RR, a few weeks lurking on the RR forums made the final choice easy. Man, what RR people put up with in a high end ride is shocking in this day & age!