fincher

Longtime VW owner here. Currently drive 2012 Touareg TDI Exec. Love it. Flawless except for AdBlue pump being replaced at 1100 miles. No issues since and I'm close to 22k. Yesterday, I drove a Cayenne Diesel with Premium Plus. Tremendous. Wish this was available a year back when I bought the Touareg!

Sticker is about $11k more than the sticker on my VW. Now I have trying to figure out a way to make the switch. Will be a financial loss, of course, but working on ways to minimize the 'damage.'

There are a few items on the Touareg that do not appear to be available on the Cayenne Diesel but I was blown away with the interior and noticed the marginally better handling. I can definitely see and feel that the pair are cousins.

With everyone's help here, I'm looking forward to learning more about the Porsche Cayenne.

grohgreg

The Cayenne is infinitely more customizable than is the Treg. But you give that up when you limit yourself to dealer inventory. Build to your hearts content with the Porsche configurator. No instant gratification of being able to drive your Porsche home the same day. But no buyers remorse either. You just have to wait a bit if want it done right. Besides, building your own will soon move you into a MY2014 Cayenne

//greg//

Needsdecaf

Do it!

My wife and I really liked the TDI...but the Exec pushes $60k and there aren't many discounts. There's not much of a stretch to get into a Cayenne Diesel.....but a world of difference in drive, feel, look and available options! (P.S. not sure what you mean by a few things available in the Touareg than the Cayenne. Trust me...there are likely there...and more!

In the end, our thoughts were the Touareg is really nice....but it looks like a $45k to $50k car....not a $60k one. Whereas the Cayenne is a $65k to $85k car....and looks much like the $100k plus bigger brothers! That alone was enough to sway us, but the drive really seals it.

Good luck!

P.S. 2014 MY order books not open yet. Start of production week 22 (?) and hitting dealers in July.

fincher

Thanks, guys! Greg, I remember you from Club Touareg...

Makes sense to order… going to get killed on my TDI Exec so I should wait, anyway. For me, going to a Porsche is a big step up. I am a longtime VW owner and used to my dealer and the relatively lower maintenance costs.

I paid just under $56 for my TDI Exec (just over $60 sticker), which was/is a good purchase price. My gut tells me that Porsche does not wiggle like that, especially on a custom build but I have no idea.

Really like the seats and interior of the Cayenne. Unreal. My quest is white or silver with black (Premium Plus, panoramic sunroof and maybe 19s).

Funny thing about my test drive, the salesman told me that Porsche owners do not drive 19-20k yearly in their Porsches. Thought that was an odd statement for the Cayenne, which is a daily driver for most.

The only things missing on Cayenne is keyless start (a great feature with the that big, fat key fob on the VW) and the lack of SD card slots for music...why a CD drive? Yes, those are minor quibbles.

Needsdecaf

Porsche Entry and Drive. It's $1,100 and replaces the key with a blade that you twist to start. Not sure why they can't go to a pushbutton. And it kills me to spend $1k on this. But the wife loves keeping her keys in her purse so she gets it.

mudman2

Marginally better handling, I don't think so, its a massive jump

Do it

fincher

Still need a blade to start with Entry and Drive? That's strange. Yeah, not worth it.

mudman2, I believe you... only had 20 minutes with it. Did notice it was better and tighter but if its really massively better, then great!

gnat

Unfortunately when you get down to looking at the options you'll find that the difference is likely more than $11k if you want to match the VW exactly. At least that was my experience a few months ago when I toyed with the idea of a VW as an alternative to either the X5d or Cayenne Diesel.

The upside though is that (if you order) you get to pick and choose exactly the options that you want and you can also get a bunch of things that aren't available in the VW or Audi siblings.

It depends on both your location and the dealer. The average I've seen reported over the last year is about 4% off. You get the occasional 5-6%, but those have all been in CA I believe and you also get the reports of dealers refusing to deal at all. Having a history with your dealership tends to smooth things out, but it isn't a requirement.

If you are in an area with multiple dealerships, play them off against each other.

I suppose it depends on where you are, but 20k a year is a high number. There are, of course, those that do, but I think the dealer is probably correct that the average is much lower than that. In my area I believe the average commute is 30 miles each way which is only about 15k/year if you don't take vacations or get sick.

You also have to consider that the Pan and P!g are the only "normal" cars in Porsche's lineup. Most owners of the other cars baby them and barely drive them. Personally I don't get the mentality of spending all that money on a car just to let it sit in the garage, but to each their own.

Needsdecaf

Three dealers in Houston, the most I got was $500 off.

Needsdecaf

The blade stays in the slot. Strange. But better than fishing out the key and putting it in.

fincher

This is great info. The decision would be much easier without having a 14-month-old Touareg. Just need to wait and learn the ins-and-outs. This forum seems to be one of best resources for the Cayenne.

I would even consider a gently used one a year from now if it made sense but ordering would be ideal.

gjmattos

Nothing at all wrong with the Touareg, it's the first diesel I looked at three years ago. I just could not see me buying from the dealers in my area, they were a time machine straight out of the 70"s but sounds like you have a good one. Decided on an X5d and I really like it and in about a week or two my wife's CD will show up and will be interesting how they compare.

fincher

LOL. My dealer has an excellent service dept. and the only reason I go there. The sales dept. is average at best. My last two VWs were purchased at other dealers because it was not worth the effort. Bought my TDI in Milwaukee and I'm in Chicago.

The service dept. doesn't care and shouldn't but maybe its different with Porsche.

gnat

If it were me and there wasn't a need to ditch the VW, I'd hang on to it and wait another few years before moving to the Cayenne.

If you are going to stay with the TDI, then another year or two lets us early adopters find the bugs (no guaranty that Porsche fixes them, but at least they'll be known).

Conventional wisdom expects the mid-cycle refresh for MY2015, so waiting lets you get the latest and greatest (not that I think the current look is getting old).

If you can push it of two years then you'd start seeing what the resale is going to be. I think on its own it should be strong, but much like the VR6 model from the 955/957, it may be artificially deflated by the "but I can by a used S/GTS/CTT for that" effect when their prices start falling.

Currently the V8 TDI is a dream here in the States, but another year or two may see Porsche announce they will bring it here. The only thing that will get me to consider letting go of my CD would be if the CDS comes over (I think it would be more than I want to pay though).

fincher

gnat, that's solid advice. I should, and likely will, wait and learn the lay of the land.

My TDI has the 225hp engine, which goes back to around 2009 here so I felt confident the bugs were worked out. The AdBlue pump is another story...there were lots of TDIs this past year who had premature failure of the pump. That falls on Bosch.

Porsche was smart to wait a bit to introduce the CD. Or, maybe all the defective pumps were installed on VWs!

As for the V8 TDI, likely not ever coming here as I do not see VW/Audi/Porsche getting it certified for this market...well, maybe Porsche would do it. I would think an even better Diesel engine is in the works.