Review of my new Cayenne
 

I took delivery of my 2019 base Cayenne about two weeks ago, and I thought it may be helpful to report on my impressions with it. First, the build:
White
Club leather in Truffle Brown
PASM
Trailer hitch without tow ball
PSCB
21" Exclusive Design Wheels with painted painted wheel arches
Seat ventilation
Center console with Porsche crest
Exterior mirrors painted
Compass Display
Smartphone compartment
Seat belts in Truffle Brown
Thermally & Noise insulated glass
Premium Package
Total Price: $93,540

White: My wife likes the pure white. If you don't like the black cladding on the rear bumper and sides, then get a darker color or one of the sport design packages.
Club Leather in Truffle: A very nice medium brown. Lighter than Espresso, darker than beige - about the color of the Saddle Brown. I like non-black interiors and like full leather. That said, if I hauled kids around for a living I would have chosen the black standard interior.
14 Way Seats in Premium Package: Very, very comfortable. Also, different from the 14 ways in my Carrera - much more backside padding. Probably the most comfortable seat I have owned. The side bolsters are somewhat high but not too high. My wife and I are older (around 70) and the bolsters of the 18 ways would have been too high for us to ingress and egress.
PASM: The base Cayenne is the only Cayenne model that does not have PASM as standard equipment. I suspect with its refresh that it will be standard just like what happened with the 991.2 where the base Carrera received PASM as standard equipment. I had a 997.2 base Carrera without PASM, and it beat my bottom side to death. My 991.1 C2S has PASM and there is a huge different in comfort. So I got PASM because I did not want to take a chance that I would not like the ride without it. To me it was worth spending the $2000 for PASM. That said, I have not compared driving a Cayenne back to back with and without PASM, so I can't say it is making any difference. We do spend some time on NC curvy roads, so I like the fact that PASM will act like a mini-PDCC.
Trailer Hitch: I got this just in case I want to trailer something. We don't trailer anything now, but perhaps a 356 is in my future again and I can trailer it to some 356 events.
PSCB: I got PSCB for three reasons: brake dust, brake dust and brake dust, in that order. I keep my cars very clean, and the brake dust on my 2013 C2S is a killer. I can happily report that the brake dust in reduced significantly. After about 10 days of driving and rain, the wheels look very good. So I am pleased with that. But I will give you a warning. The brakes are extremely sensitive and grabby. If you know you are going to stop, the brakes can be modulated for a smooth stop. But, any sudden braking may deposit the Chinese takeout on the floor. It is my understanding that the brakes will settle down after about 1000 mile or so on them. I have 750 on the car now, mostly highway driving. So we will see. I would still get the brakes because the brake dust issue.
21"Exclusive Design Wheels: Great looking wheels. As you may know, the wheel design forms Porsche crests. 21" wheels with the painted wheel arches fill the wheel wells very nicely, giving the car a very athletic look. The painted wheel arches were very important to me to remove the black plastic around the wheel arches which makes the wheel openings larger than they are. I have not seen 22" wheels to see if they do an even better job for looks. The PSCB brake rotors and calibers are huge taking up almost the entire barrel of the wheel. PSCB need at least 20" wheels, but with 20's a cleaning brush would not be able to get between the caliber and the barrel of the wheel requiring the car to be moved to clean the wheels. 21" wheels give a sufficient gap for cleaning.
Seat Ventilation: I live in Florida and this is a requirement.
Center Console with Porsche Crest. To me this is a nice touch. I have it in my Carrera and like it.
Exterior Mirror Painted: Again a nice touch that I like which I also have on the Carrera.
Compass Display: I would have paid a lot more for this. When we go to NC my wife asks about every 30 seconds (or seems so) what the elevation is. Now she has a clear view. Wonderful. It is nice, displaying the compass with the elevation and time.
Smartphone Compartment: I got this because there are some pockets in Florida that cell reception is iffy at best. And, in NC many times AT&T cellular goes missing. I have not used the car enough to see if it is a good option.
Truffle Brown Seat belts: To me it looks better than than the black ones.
Thermally & Noise Insulated Glass: Both aspects of this were important to me. The Cayenne has a large greenhouse especially with the Panoramic roof. It gets very hot here in central Florida, so I felt thermal glass was needed. The glass does not look to me any darker than normal or that it is tinted. Perhaps I could tell the difference if I compared side by side. As far as the noise part is concerned, my wife likes to listen to music while she drives so I thought it would help in quieting the outside noise. The car is quiet. We love the NA engine noise of the C2S that does not have sport exhaust. When we were taking delivery of the Cayenne, she asked where is that Carerra sound when the car was turned on. Funny.
Premium Package: Has all the goodies I would want. When my order locked in July, the matrix headlights were not legal in the US. Now they are or will be soon. The Premium Package Plus is $1640 more than the Premium Package if adding ventilated seats to the car anyway (the PPP includes ventilated seats). The $1640 gets you matrix headlights and 4 zone AC. I may have gotten that since the price differential is not that much.

My bottom line is that I really like the car. The interior design is very clean and well done. It will look good for many years, which is important to me since I keep cars for a long, long time. The black piano trim looks good fitting in nicely with the black screens of the PCM and center console. I was going to add wood or CB to the trim, but I'm glad I didn't. Perhaps, I will change my mind when I see different trims. The center console is well laid out having buttons logically placed to carry out the normal functions like AC without having to go to the PCM screen. I am not seeing fingerprints on the black console just like I don't notice fingerprints on my iPhone. The exterior design is also very pleasing especially with the wheel wells filled with larger tires and arches painted.

I am not an engine person, so the base engine is just fine. The old base engine was terrible and I would have gotten the S in that case. But the new base engine is quiet and drives the car with plenty of pep. The S engine costs $13, 430 more than the base engine which gets one from 0 - 60 one second faster and which has the same towing capacity as the base. Not worth the extra money for me. The S does have much more torque which is probably important in towing heavy things around and in changing gears less.

I'm a low tech guy, so the Cayenne has a lot more tech than I think I want. Setting up the car takes a while and requires a learning curve which I have not yet turned - getting there though. But as I said, I really like the car and eventually it and I will come to pleasant terms with one another.

Sorry for the long thread. Hope this helps in some fashion.

Thanks for your review. I am currently shopping for a 2019 Cayenne. There are no S models to drive yet. I am cross shopping the new Cayenne with the 2019 BMW X5. There is no question that the Cayenne is the better drivers car and has a much cleaner interior layout (and exterior design).

The base Cayenne I test drove had 20" wheels with steel spring suspension and no PASM. I also drove one with air suspension and 20" wheels. Both cars ride well, but the air suspension vehicle soaks up the rough patches better. The downside (to me) is the air suspension made the ride a bit "floaty". I noticed the same thing in the BMW with air suspension.

I think I would pick the Cayenne without air suspension because I felt more connected than in the air suspension model. I spoke to the dealer about PASM (as it relates to the Macan S - I test drove one of those too) and he said PASM in comfort mode gives the same ride quality as a steel sprung car without it. The difference is in Sport and Sport+ where if progressively firms the dampers. I don't know if this is correct. I know the 2016 991.1 without PASM and 2017 9991.2 with PASM rode differently, with the 2017 car (PASM) riding much smoother. Of course, the 2017 car had other suspension changes to improve its ride.

My only concern with the base Cayenne is the low engine speed "lag", for example when rounding corners. As you slow down to make a right turn and then get back on the gas, it seems like it takes the engine a second to spool up and provide thrust. It's less noticeable in Sport mode. I wonder if you've noticed this?

It is my understanding that the ride is better with PASM in comfort mode than with just the steel springs. On smooth roads probably can't tell much different. But on roads in poor quality or under construction or a little curvy, you will be able to tell the difference. I have experienced no real lag in the car. I know lag in my wife's BMW 535i, but not in this car. Very smooth, but I don't "gun" the car very much.

Wish I knew how to attach photos from my iPad. As I said I'm a low tech guy. Thanks for the congratulations.

Great review, and thanks
 

That was a nice write-up, porscherex. I am happy to read how much you like your car.

I agree with you on just about everything, particularly PSCB. We test-drove a base model with it a month or so ago, and I noticed the same grabbiness on initial application. Beyond that, however, they were immensely powerful, and the pedal was a rock. I've never felt such a solid, linear pedal in any car I've owned or driven. I was very impressed, and left wishing I hadn't caved and substituted PCCB in an effort to bypass the PSCB shortage and get the car here earlier for my wife. For street driving, PSCB is all you'll ever need.

Regarding brake dust, I know what you mean -- I too am an extreme clean-freak about our vehicles. The four-wheel Brembos on our sport sedan (six piston front, four rear) dust like nobody's business. I'd read on another forum about Armor All Brake Dust Repellent a few years ago, and decided to give it a whirl. The stuff is magic, repelling 90 percent or more of the dust and keeping the wheels relatively clean, even after spirited driving with hard braking. Highly recommended. I'll never go without it again on a car with high-performance cast-iron brakes.

Again, congratulations on the car. I hope you get that 356!

I don't think that the smartphone compartment has anything to do with cellphone reception, does it?

Usually dead spots at low RPM are not as much engine turbo lag as transmission lag - basically, the gearbox is restricting throttle for a moment to make downshift softer. It's pretty bad in my 958 Cayenne Turbo, but it has an ancient gearbox altogether. It was also bad in early versions of E90 M3 DCT, which was naturally aspirated but felt like a giant turbo lag at low RPM (they fixed it with a transmission software update though).

You're correct, and thanks for the reminder. My SA forgot to mention this to me.

JCWLS3 - I keep hearing about Armor All Dust Repellent and need to look into it again.

KAYJH - I have not noticed any dead spots. Everything is pretty smooth.

THANK YOU so much for the review - extremely helpful, especially where you break down your POV on the various options you chose. Always a little tough as we rarely if ever get the chance to compare with and without a given option (let alone in rapid succession) but it's still very helpful to get your take.