wrinkledpants

I'm pretty sure an allroad with a 2.7T might just be the most expensive to own product to come out of germany. Great car, though.

Dilberto

Awesome car, really. Not many cars can easily scale a 25% dirt grade without wheelspin, consecutively pull TWO Jeep Wranglers out of two feet of mud backwards and fly down Mount Batchelor @75mph over 4 feet of snow.

aranavi

I currently own a 2002 Nissan Xterra with almost 260,000 miles. It has been through the gambit with alot of highway driving, alot of off roading in the mud and snow, as well as bumper to bumper commuter traffic in the city. I've never had any powertrain issues. Honestly, the only things that needed replaced are the usual wear and tear items like shocks, brakes, and tires. The same for my old Jeep Grand Cherokee and Cherokee with 250,000 and 270,000 miles, respectively. Regular oil changes and other fluid changes and each of these vehicles operated flawlessly til the day i got rid of them.
I recently purchased a 2013 Porsche Cayenne of mint condition with 20,000 miles. I'm about to perform the 3rd oil change on this vehicle but after reading all of this, I feel like i should immediately list it for sell. I see alot of comments about the issues in this thread as commonplace and to accept it as a fact of life, really? I'm officially starting to have buyers remorse. Surely, these incidents have to be uncommon and not the reality of living with Porsche?

deilenberger

If you want ultimate reliability - you need a Lexus. They don't break. They also don't really seem to wear out if you give them minimal care. You'll grow old waiting for one of them to wear out. They are also boring to drive, not terribly competent drivers and every soccer mom drives one around me. You see yourself around every corner.

You need a passion to own a Porsche, or ANY OTHER German car. You need to be insane to own most other Euro cars - the German ones are the reliable ones. If you don't really enjoy driving the Cayenne - trade it in on a Lexus RX350. The Cayenne will disappoint you if you expect perfect reliability (although unlike Jaguars - the Cayenne actually has been improving through the years - the 958 is more reliable than the 957 which was way more reliable than the 955.. Jaguars are simply Jaguars. )

tjrob2000

I keep reading comments like this, but why can't we expect a totally fun car to drive that has soul and reliability? The two are not mutually exclusive. And when you are paying $60k + for a new car you should be able to expect top notch reliability. Just saying "you gotta accept the problems to have a car that's fun to drive" is nonsense. Good engineering can produce a car that is exciting to drive and completely boring when it comes to maintenance.

deilenberger

Nonsense? Nope. You can "expect" whatever you want. That doesn't mean you'll get it. I'm pointing out the reality of Porsche ownership - not what the ideal would be. If you're not willing to accept the reality then you're better off buying something else. You'd be much happier.

chsu74

Get a ML. I think it is the most reliable out of all recent German make models in this segment.

Porsche can charge what they charge for their product the way it is because enough people are willing to pay for it. They only have been making SUVs for a bit over a decade and are getting better at it. It is up to you if you want to be a part of that demand statistic or not. Choice is yours.

tjrob2000

Deillenberger & Chsu74,

I understand what you are saying and I have been willing to purchase a car that was not as reliable as a Toyota, Nissan, Mazda etc and in buying the Porsche was still willing to do that for a car that I like driving more. All I'm saying is in the price range of these vehicles new I should be able to expect better reliability than I've read about here and other forums. So, yes, it's my choice and I'm not really meaning to sound like I'm complaining just pointing out that in this day and age it's almost inexcusable given the state of engineering. Anyway, 'nuff said at this point as I'm not trying to start an argument.

deilenberger

My mechanic who works on all of them has some very not so nice things to say about ML.. apparently engine replacement is a rather common experience with them.

chsu74

Older V6s have a camshaft problem in certain years. Don't buy a car that falls within that vin range.

Dan87951

I bought my 05’ Turbo from a Porsche dealer two years ago and its needed a lot more then what I was imagining. The fact is, under the hood these cars are mostly plastic and it doesn’t hold up well to heat and time. Plastic T’s, coolant pipes, valve covers, intake manifold, vacuum lines, pulleys, etc. Porsche isn’t the only one doing all this plastic either, other manufactures are guilty as well, but they don’t see to have near the quality problems with their plastic parts.

Right before I got the car the previous owner had just put a driveshaft in. What car needs a new driveshaft at that low of miles? LOL! Below is a list of what I have replaced in the last 2 years and around 12k miles of ownership. IMO Porsche quality isn’t what it used to be. It’s a shame that a car so expensive has so many design faults. My wife wanted a German car for her daily driver and I said no! No way I could keep up with maintaining two German daily drivers! She drives a Lexus instead. Don’t get me wrong I love the black beast and its split personality, however these design issues should not happen on a car costing so much with so little miles.

Driveshaft – previous owner replaced.
Valve cover gaskets –leaking badly 48k miles
Charge pipe seals – leaking 48k miles
Water pump – front seal let go. 52k miles
Coolant host -(WYIT) Changed while doing water pump. 52k miles
Idler Pulleys – all of them were noisy at 52k miles so I replaced them. These are made of plastic too. 52k miles
Serpentine belt – replaced while doing water pump. 52k miles
Coolant T’s – Porsche should not have used a plastic material for this part! No excuse for this cheapness. I had metal ones made. 52k miles
Intake manifold gaskets – change while doing coolant T’s. 52k miles
Broke plastic vacuum line – changed while doing coolant T’s. 52k miles
Steering wheel shake – Road force balance with new front tires fixed this problem. 55k miles
Wiper motor – My front windshield wiper motor went bad. Haven’t fixed yet. 58k miles dealer quoted $1k for parts and labor too funny!

deilenberger

Actually Porsche plastic quality is about the same as any German car today.

BMWs regularly require entire cooling systems to be replaced due to plastic tanks on the radiators leaking right through the plastic.. I've had a plastic thermostat housing spring a leak in the middle of the plastic casting. No crack, no visible flaw, no impact, just fakakata plastic.

I do agree - metal castings seemed a much better idea IMHO for many applications - but the cost advantage (which equals profit) of a plastic casting vs a metal one means we're not going to be seeing much metal in the future.

In some uses plastic is fine or even an improvement over a metal casting (intake manifold comes to mind.. easy to have a smooth interior surface, no need to port/polish) other spots I think it's a mistake (plastic impellers on water pumps for instance.. a famous BMW failure point). Beauty trim - it's fine. Anything structural is questionable.

Ah well, starting to sound like the old phart I am..

Oh yeah - my wife also drives a Lexus. That is after listening to complaints for the 5 years she drove the BMW 5-touring..

Wisconsin Joe

None that I know of.

Even the Cayenne.

The driveshaft itself doesn't go out. Nor the bearing.

Simply the (very thin) rubber support around the bearing.

The dealer will sell you a complete replacement drive shaft ($1500).
So will a few other places.

An aftermarket bearing support will run a few hundred plus install.

Or just do the Jimi Fix for a few bucks.

Dan87951

You're not seeing the point. Even though it was just the bearing support that went out, Porsche still recommends a full replacement and customers are billed as such. How could Porsche not see this weak link in the drivetrain during testing? This was obviously designed as a big money maker for them but it only showed their incompetence in not being able to design a simple bearing support for a driveshaft. Apparently zip ties and coolant hoses hold up better than the original design, which isn't exactly confidence inspiring that they know what there doing over in Stuttgart.

Wisconsin Joe

I see the point just fine. There's also the coolant pipes and T in the 955, the IMS bearing in the 996, the thrust bearing issues in the auto 928s, and on and on.

The engineering failures from Stuttgart are numerous, and rarely acknowledged.

Fortunately, there's a fairly large enthusiast community to come up with fixes and "workarounds" for these issues.