Buckfever

I've read through pretty much all the stickies and have exhausted the search function. I've also gone to the Toureg forums and many there will not own without a warrranty. My sense is though that a lot of the problems there are more of a VW build quality.

From the historical review on the Cayenne my sense is that the long term reliability is markedly improved.

Is that the consensus view or is ownership still a minefield in terms of long run reliability?

mudman2

its never been unreliable but has had problems

Cole

Several first gen Cayennes running around with over 200k on them.

They had a few issues, but have never been unreliable. Most of the issues are common to any German car, or any car for that matter. Most aren't even expensive issues. Most of those are also one time fix issues, or at least only every 100k or so issues.

I'm sure the latest generation has been an improvement too! But nobody really knows the long term yet.

EnigmaWmn

Let's just say that everything but an engine failed on my 955S with 130k and nothing but an engine failed on my 958 CTT at 67k

Cole

You also seem to be the exception to the rule.



But the point is that I'm sure the new ones are better than the old ones.

DenverSteve

No issues with any Cayenne long-term reliability. Touaregs are the same. Touareg owner's whine a bit more than Cayenne owners.

RESP

We have just over 100,000 km on our 2012.
No reliability issues at all.
Would buy another one if somehow this one disappeared.

Dennis C

I'm about to hit 130K on my Cayenne S. It has had issues, as mentioned above. However, it has been very reliable.

The issues with Cayennes are well known and they can be addressed.

4ocious

2010 GTS reliability is TERRIBLE! Avoid this model at all cost!

Cole

BS.

Care to explain?

Weren't you the one that had to do normal maintenance and were complaining about reliability? Or was that someone else?

gnat

Yeah that's him. Unless there is other stuff that has happened since then that he hasn't posted about. It should also be considered that he picked it up from CarMax (so no reliable history info) and subsequently found out that the car was involved in a drug investigation (makes it more probable that it wasn't the most well cared for).

If I recall he had to replace his drive shaft too which isn't really "normal maintenance", but it is a well known issue.

There are of course exceptions (and those are mostly coolant pipes which is also well known and easy to address before hand) but it's far from common for any model Cayenne to leave it's driver stuck on the side of the road. They have their quirks and problems, but overall the reliability is good. Just like with any other car, some people get one that requires nothing beyond regular maintenance while others get one with an endless stream of minor issues (some of that also has to do with the personality of the owner too).

Buckfever

So it seems that the 2 most prevalent issues are the coolant pipes and the drive shaft.

Do these issues persist? Secondly is it an issue of maintenance with these or is it simply a matter of quality on these components?

Also how do these things manifest? Do they come on all at once and leave you stranded or is there ample warning?


With the 4runner/Lexus GX there was a driveshaft issue which would show itself as a "clunk" well before driveshaft failure. This issue was easily avoided by making sure that the 6 zerk fittings were lubed. I had the "clunk" on mine initially but then did that maintenance myself and 173K later haven't had an issue since.

gnat

As far as I know the current model (958) is immune to the coolant pipe issue and that is strictly the domain of the older models. That is a part failure and it is simple to see coming (if you have plastic pipes still, it's going to happen) and avoid (get the pipes replaced proactively). If you choose not to be proactive, it seems like there is no significant warning (if you happen to be looking around you might notice some leaking coolant in the engine bay, but not enough to make it to the ground) before you have a catastrophic failure that leaves you stuck on the road (as well as a higher repair bill due to other damage that occurs from coolant being in places it's not supposed to be).

I don't know if the drive shaft issues continue into the 958 (all I've read about are the older ones) and don't know the details. From what I've followed, however, you get the typical warning signs that it's going bad so you won't be stranded by it if you don't ignore it.

Cole

Just to add to the above.

Once the coolant pipes are changed then its no longer an issue. The plastic pipes are replaced with aluminum. So a one time issue that almost all early Cayennes should have had ride by now.

The driveshaft was a rubber bushing that would wear out at about 50-70k. The replacements are like 8 part revisions newer. So there is not much data on how often the replaced shafts last. I theory at least the same 50-70k and probably longer! It's also only about a $400 part at this point.

Buckfever

I really appreciate the input. Doesn't seem like there's really big issues here.