So this happened today -- wife got home and handed it to me, after it fell off in her hand during her drive home.




This being a rinky-dink piece of Slovakian plastic that, on close inspection, even Ford might be embarrassed to pass off on base F-150 buyers, I decided a proper redneck fix was in order. And so...




And now, good as new, without a trip to the dealer and a six-week wait for the part to be shipped over on the slow boat. At least until the next one falls off...



Porsche: There is no [cheap plastic] substitute.

I wonder how much that nickel piece lists for. Over / under is $50. My main takeaway was that this verified our belief that our $150K bought universally top-quality materials. Well done, Porsche!

 

That is very disappointing. Nice work, though...

 

Sorry to see that. Nice job with the fix though. It probably fell off because your car is so damn fast it melted the glue.

 

@JCWLS3 Such a disappointment, Somethings are so inconsiderably complied in the new Cayenne, the rubber mat in both the trays in the rear section have such poor quality hooks and it's always out and dislocated, the tailgate has a very ungraceful opening, If someone has not opted for soft close doors they would understand my struggle.

Well I guess this is what it is

 

I still have those things from my previous gen CAyenne Turbo - never got time to put them back in until I sold the car. So it's more of a tradition :-). Still, disappointing, indeed.

 

These should have been aluminum. Would have given real tactile feel

Really stupid decision on Porsche.

 

Is this part of their cost control effort to use low quality material, is it justifiable for the price of the car?

 

I agree that it’s disappointing. Yet, those that expected Porsche to provide “universally top-quality materials” were mistaken. Porsche has always been about performance and functionality as well as reliability as related to the performance and functionality. Top quality materials have historically been hit or miss.

 

One of mine fell off this weekend. Going to superglue it back.

 

Well. That's a bit of interesting news. Can't say I'm particularly happy to carry on that fine tradition. Guess I'll keep the J-B Weld handy.

Indeed I was mistaken. That's what I get for being a newbie.

I mentioned in another post that on review my expectations for this car were unrealistic. The whole Cayenne can't be made out of Unobtanium. And in the end -- it's still just a car. Four tires, some seats, a steering wheel and an engine, all designed, manufactured by assembled by people across a broad spectrum of skills, not all of whom are particularly excited by their jobs and just want to get their day the hell over with so they can head to the bar. Not sure where I got in my head that the thing would be the pinnacle of automotive perfection on every level, but yeah, it was there. (Probably had something to do with the size of the check we wrote, and the golden shield on the front of the hood.)

But geez. Cheap is cheap; poorly engineered and installed is the same. I'm guessing Porsche saved more by having the interns "design" the weak fastening mechanism of these little clip-on plastic finishers than by actually making them out of Monogram-grade materials. I'm more surprised than disappointed.

Nonetheless, we still love the car. Another of the many quirks and head-scratchers we've run across in five months. It really is sort of Italianesque, as if Ferdinand and Enzo had a torrid affair and out popped our Cayenne nine months later. (From whom is anybody's guess.)

And QQQ:

 

It's probably plastic because it means it's not affected by extreme weather. I remember watching a video on a Rolls Royce Ghost, and the reviewer mentioned that a lot of the metal looking pieces were plastic, especially the climate vents and some controls because if they become really cold, water drops can condense and drip onto the electronics below. Therefore, they use plastic parts for the places they think it's needed. This was quite a while ago, so things have probably changed. Either way it's ridiculous that it fell off, and it's a small piece so it wouldn't matter either way, but it's something to consider.

 

Just curious - is there a second set of slats behind the front ones for directing the air horizontally? On the previous generation Cayenne, there is - and those little goobers are what's used to adjust the rear ones by sliding it side to side on the front horizontally oriented slat - the rear vertically oriented slats were moved. There is a small PITA piece that's surprisingly complex that's used to engage the rear slats and connect them to the back of the slider thingie.

Just reassembled my 2nd one last week. It requires REALLY bright light to do it, a pair of steady hands (somewhat of a problem for me) and some decent needle-nose pliers or better - a set of forceps. I asked the dealer about it - and one mechanic they have specializes in reassembling them - can do it in less than a minute. So far my record is about an hour and a LOT of cursing.

Just wondering about the second set of slats - if you do have them epoxying it on is gonna pretty much make adjusting the horizontal airflow a bit more difficult, but I guess you could try gluing a wood stick or something to one of the rear slats. I'd use premium grade wood..

 

This issue reminds me of the chrome trim around the power window buttons on the 958 gen. Those little suckers were infamous for cracking over time and flying off. Dealers replaced MANY of those under warranty for years. Always something.

 

Yep, those I glued back on myself :-)

By the way, the new plastic is much better. The old one was basically white yogurt box plastic painted silver and the new one is a ceramic-feeling plastic that's likely more durable than aluminum (aluminum handles look pretty bad after a few years of use). So bashing it for being plastic is not necessary - it's a good material. Now it coming off is unacceptable.

FWIW, I did not get any of the commonly discussed problems so far (3 months and 2.5K only though) - no seal leaks, no electronics freezes, nothing comes off, AC is cold and silent, brakes are great. Even the 21" summer Pirellis that I dreaded are actually very good - not nearly as noisy as Pirellis that come with 911s, and about the same and Michelins in every way. The only disappointment so far was that I learned that the first oil change is not free in Canada (and of course that they have not included smart parking stuff and trailer maneuvering aids on the first model year, but I knew that going in). Looking forward to a tune to give it a little more pep.