scott40

Fellow RLers,

Looking for some input on my 2011 Cayenne S, now with just under 30k miles. The car was flawless until January of this year. However since then it has had: failed high pressure fuel pump requiring replacement, a "T" fitting to the coolant system failed resulting in a total coolant dump from bad adhesive and overheated engine, CEL x 4 finally found to be a bad catalytic converter, failed steering wheel heating requiring an entirely new steering wheel, rough operating rear hatch requiring replacement of the motors that drive it.

It is a lease, however I would like to buy it out. Why? Aside from the above- its been a great daily driver and tow vehicle. Flawless inside and out. All that know me have been discouraging this. However the buyout is only $42k and with CPO and extended warranty until 2017, it seems like a decent deal.

My other option is to spec a similar CS or consider a GTS, but the $ differential is big. Dealer obviously wants me to buy a new one. Says it is an "early model" and even suggested that my towing may have something to do with it all! Was funny to hear since I know many guys who tow with Cayennes old and new without issue. And I'm far below capacity at 3800lbs.

rijowysock

42 with CPO till 17, done deal..

if you dont want it, i'll take it... and wrap it white

ltc

And put a V6 in it, flip it and buy a 918 with the profit....of course

rijowysock

i was gonna do rear mounted flat 6 and put carrera badges on it.

Needsdecaf

Overheated modern engine? Bail like you've got a bucket and the boat is filling up fast.

scott40

We are not talking about a major overheating though. Fortunately the failure was 2 miles from the dealer. Was able to coast it down a big hill almost the whole way there. The engine was pulled for the repair and has been fine since- although that's only been a few months now.

scott40

I hear ya Riley. I think it's a decent deal as well.

grohgreg

Before you decide, Porsche added a Cayenne Diesel to the lineup starting MY2013. Base price for a 2014 is $56.6k, my 2013 was optioned to $71k. Take a test drive, you might be pleasantly surprised. After adding a $350 aftermarket tuning box to mine, I can stay close to a stock Cayenne S from 0-60. Factory time is 7.2 sec, I've got mine down into the low 6s. It's not a 160 mph car, but I consider the electronically limited 135 mph to be a fair trade-off for seeing up to 36.2 mpg (highway). The combined mileage since new is already approaching 30 mpg. And FWIW - before turning mine in for service last week, I filled the tank with $3.68 diesel fuel (Shell). Topping up the loaner Cayenne V6 at a no-name station the next day cost $3.85/gal for premium gasoline.

//greg//

scott40

What is the aftermarket tuning box? Voids warranty?

grohgreg

BlueSpark Pro+Boost. Service manager has full knowledge of the tuning box installation, including the fact that it does NOT alter the ECU (as would an ECU remap). On one side of the tuning box is the ECU. On the other side is (a) the fuel pressure regulator and (b) the boost controller. Rather than making internal changes to the ECU, the box merely alters the fuel pressure and boost values before they get to the fuel rail and the turbo. Plus there's the zero map, which lets factory ECU numbers go through the box - unaltered - and onward to the fuel rail and turbo.

//greg//

4ocious

My 2010 GTS has been a maintenance nightmare since buying it four months ago. This morning the check engine light came on, what's up with that! Anyway, I'm going to get rid of it ASAP. If you are have having problems I would IMO move on to something else. It seems that once a Cayenne starts to go bad it stays that way.

kosmo

interesting.
my heated steering wheel is intermitent, the rear boot motor is rough, some sort of oil vacumn pump that sits on top of the tranny went out and my air intake manifold was replaced. The swivelling head lights arent swiveling, my radio reception has gone downhill.
I cant/wont own this car out of wrrty.

endless_corners

After market tuning boxes operate post ecu are undetectable. You just unplug prior to going to the dealer. Takes 2-5 minutes.

scott40

Agreed. In my case, it would be under warranty two additional years at which point, I would get something else. Are these things that fragile? I didn't think so until recently.

kosmo

having said all that $42k cpo seems reasonable. what was the MSRP $80's? thats 50% in 2.5 yrs!

Hard to find a 400hp Suv w/ the driving dynamics as the CS for that price. Prob can get a Tahoe or something but lets face it, it aint no Porsche.