I'm looking at buying either a 2005 Cayenne S or a 2006 Cayenne Turbo. Similar miles, Turbo is $5000 more. In the long run, is the Turbo much more to maintain? Which is more reliable? It'll be a daily driver for my wife, and I'll use it too. We'll take it skiing and it will see snow. How is the height adjustable suspension in the Turbo? Is it useful or a gimmick? Is it yet another thing to break and not worth it?
Thanks,
Brian

 

I believe the maintenance and reliability is about the same.
The air suspension is excellent and functional, though being a mechanical system unlike springs, things can wear out.
The Turbo will make you grin whenever you put your foot down and makes male passengers say "Holy S**t!".
My wife is intimidated by the Turbo's power and won't drive it.

 

Turbo. All the way. Even for your wife.

 

If you can afford Turbo, you buy Turbo.

 

Turbo!

 

You have to get the turbo.

 

We just bought an '03 CTT and drove it from Denver to San Diego in blizzard conditions. I had new Continental DWS tires installed in Denver and we had no problem even in 6" of unplowed highway conditions. The suspension, AWD and weight combined to make the car perfectly stable in horrible weather. When we hit the desert, it handled high speeds and passing like a dream. Around town, it is a gas hog around town (11 mpg) but on the highway at average speeds of 80 it gets 16+ which is fine, considering. The turbo actually is more durable because there is a cylinder scoring problem in the NA 8s because of a difference in the liners.

Get the turbo. It isn't more expensive to maintain. Spend time here and get to know Suncoast, ECS and Pelican Parts for advice and cheaper parts. Find an indie you can trust. The cars are incredible but the dealer will kill you if you're inexperienced.

 

Read the forums well, there are new Cayennes with blown engines daily. Get a warranty or get another vehicle.

 

Again, mis-information. Buy the turbo. None of the Cayenne engines have liners. The blocks are straight Alusil. The S models seem to have an issue with cylinder scoring regardless of miles. The turbo engines get loose by around 180k miles but that's just the nature of the beast. Cylinder scoring trends indicate it is an issue in much colder climates. As the cayennes are getting older its only normal you will see a higher incidence of problems popping up. Plus, people tend to reports problems more than success. Buy the turbo, for a million reasons. Understand that your buying it for 20k, not the original 120k. Repairs don't come down in price just because the value has.

 

Raby is pretty ssmart andd hee says the Cayenne enginee is the best water cooled engine he's seen. The turbo has two differences from the NA - forged pistons and oil jets to lube them. The NAs only rarely have scoring issues anyway and only in extremely cold environments, predominately Canada.

 

Is $25,000 reasonable to pay for a CTT with 74,000 miles, one owner, clean??

 

What kind of records?

Has the Cardan shaft been replaced?
Coolant tubes?

 

Just paid 18,500 for an 03 with 52k miles cardan shaft done but needed new brakes, tires, coolant pipes and lower control arms. I may have over paid a bit but it was very clean and i love the color combination.

 

Supposedly records since new. I haven't seen them yet. I don't know about the coolant tubes or Cardan shaft. Assume not?

 

Coolant tubes will go. There's a sticky about them. It has good info, including costs.

Cardan shaft will go too. Price on that ranges from $1500 at a dealer to $5 worth of hose & zip ties to do the "Jimi fix." There's a few threads on it.

Take that into account when negotiating price.