projekt-h

Hello all!

Been lurking the forums for a bit now, and wanted to finally make an account and say hello. Long-time Porsche fanatic, and potentially a future 955 Cayenne owner.... Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment.

Mostly interested for it's on-road manners, off-road ability, and knowing that if properly cared for it'll run for quite some time. Also, because Porsche-file and decided that it's finally time to own one, even though it's not the 911 I've always lusted over.

I'm sure I'll be full of stupid questions, even though I've been reading as much as I can in the various threads about what kind of terrible financial choice a lower-range used Cayenne will be.

Would it be rude of me to ask to see of dirty Cayennes off-road in an intro post to motivate this purchase?

BamaScoot

Welcome to the board. If you do end up getting a 955, just be aware of the potential issues. I've had a 955t and a 957t so will be happy to answer anything I can.

Here are a few thousand pictures to get you started.

projekt-h

Thank you, and thank you for offering to share knowledge. I've been educating myself as much as possible, still trying to decide if I want the V6 Base or the Cayenne S.... sadly a decent Turbo is above my budget and maintenance desires for a daily driven vehicle right now.

Wisconsin Joe

Well, as you educate yourself, you may find a CTT is a reasonable choice.

At this point in their life cycle, all three have depreciated heavily. The price difference is far more on condition and records rather than model.

And the CTT doesn't add much in the way of maintenance. The turbos are pretty bulletproof. The air suspension (standard on the CTT, available on the others, almost mandatory if you want to offroad) has issues with the compressor, but those can be addressed with a rebuild instead of replacement (far cheaper).
Cylinder scoring (a potential issue in Michigan due to cold) is also reported a lot less with the CTT than the S (not an issue with the V-6).

Good luck in your hunt.

projekt-h

Thank you, and thank you for the info. As far as the CTT goes, I think I'd rather get a nicer CS or Base than a run-down Turbo. For the air ride, if it's anything similar to the Touareg (my assumption would be that it is) I've also heard you can really prolong the life of the compressor with just changing the incoming air filter regularly.

prosled8

If running off road is your desire, there are a ton of MUCH better choices. The Cayenne is really a marginal off road machine. You will also dramatically increase your maint costs running rough roads with it. It might be cheap to buy but it isn't going to be cheap to own. I know this because I organized the first "Cayenne Escapade" for the PCA over 10 years ago. We had a couple of Cayennes and a Toureg show up for some Jeep road running in the San Juan Mtns of SW Colorado. My experience with this type of running was that my Cayenne never made another off road run because it is MUCH MUCH better on the road than off.

I second the turbo comments, no reason to avoid one, lots of reasons to consider one.