The Cayenne certainly hasn’t ruined Porsche’s credibility as loyal fans of the Stuttgart marque predicted it might back in 2002 when the big SUV was first launched. Instead, the Cayenne is now the flagship of the company’s biggest revenue stream, performance 4x4s. Its little brother, the Macan, might be the more wieldy of the two but the Cayenne still sets the benchmark for all other large SUVs to be judged against.
> Read our review of the Porsche Macan here
Now in its 14th year, the Cayenne is smarter, cleaner and more mind-warpingly capable than ever. The model line-up includes a plug-in hybrid, a brace of diesels as well as turbocharged V6 and V8 petrol engines.
The latest additions – the mighty Turbo S and the driver-focused GTS – endow the hulking 4x4 with ballistic performance and bewilderingly agile handling for an SUV.
There are better looking, more practical, more economical and cheaper SUVs on the market, but every single model in the Cayenne range is incredibly impressive. The Diesel S is a fabulous thing, the Turbo and Turbo S faster than you ever thought you’d need (until you drive them) and the GTS sharper and more fun than it has any right to be.
Porsche Cayenne in detail
Performance and 0-60 time > Every single Cayenne derivate delivers impressive performance, especially for a car of its size.
Engine and gearbox > Smooth 8-speed gearbox delivers refinement when you want it and response when you fancy pushing the Cayenne harder.
Ride and handling > The Cayenne might be an SUV, but it can still deliver a dynamic driving experience. The GTS in particular being a driving highlight.
MPG and running costs > e-hybrid makes the Cayenne the most economical SUV on the market. The Turbo is less impressive, but still manages decent running costs. Residuals are impressive.
Interior and tech > Porsche's nav and entertainment system isn't the best. Interior fit and finish is as you'd expect for a car in this price bracket.
Design > Acid green brake calipers on the e-hybrid are a nice touch, but it’s still a controversial car in the looks department.
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Prices, specs and rivals
Prices start at £53,875 for the Cayenne Diesel which makes it comfortably the most affordable model in the range but also puts it in the crosshairs of rivals from the likes of Land Rover, Mercedes and BMW– the usual suspects, Range Rover Sport, GLE, X5 – that appear to offer more on paper. However, none are as composed and capable on the road as the Porsche.
The vastly more muscular V8 S Diesel, at just over £66,767, is even harder to beat. All right, it’s quite a step up in terms of price, and no Cayenne comes particularly well equipped as standard, but the S Diesel’s combination of super-effortless urge and relative parsimony at the pumps immediately puts it in a class of one.
The similarly priced (£65,784) Cayenne S E-Hybrid offers a lot of technology for the money and a promise of running costs far smaller than you’d expect for such a big car. But it is the bulkiest of the Cayennes, and as a consequence its dynamics suffer to a degree.
At just over £64,539 is the petrol-engined twin-turbo V6 Cayenne S. It’s £12k less than the GTS that it shares an engine with, but the more expensive model has a few extra horsepower and is by far the sharper more involving machine.
> Read our review of the Porsche Cayenne GTS review
At around £96,193 for the Turbo and £121,550 for the Turbo S, the turbocharged petrol V8 flagship models are priced significantly more. However, not only has this increased their appeal to the financially blessed as emblems of status, their performance makes them attractive to those who appreciate pace.
Standard kit across the Cayenne range includes Porsche Traction Management all-wheel drive, Bi-xenon headlights with four-element LED daytime running lights, multi-function sports steering wheel with paddle-shifters, ParkAssist front and rear, cruise control, automatic climate control, powered tailgate, Sport button, Start/Stop technology with coasting function and a three year warranty. The Turbo adds LED headlights with Porsche Dynamic Lighting System, 19-inch alloy wheels, Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) with self-leveling air suspension, Porsche Communication Management with satellite navigation and BOSE Surround Sound audio.
> Read our review of the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S review
The Turbo S also gets 21-inch alloys and leather sports seats, but a reversing camera, heated windscreen and lane-departure warning are all optional extras. As is a sports exhaust that will set you back nearly £2,000, while the wonderful Burmester stereo costs a little over £2,400.
New to the world of performance SUVs is the Maserati Levante. As much as we didn't want to like it, it has turned out to be quite the performer. Doing a good job of hiding its bulk and still delivering decent driver interaction. However, the UK only gets the Levante with a diesel engine. Not only is the motor unrefined but its lack of oomph means it’s impossible to unlock some of the chassis’ talents. The equivalent diesel Cayenne feels like significantly higher quality product and far more fun to drive.
>Read our Maserati Levante review
The Range Rover Sport SVR, with its 5-litre supercharged V8, almost matches the Cayenne Turbo for power and performance. However, the Range Rover Sport trades some on-road manners for off-road capability, and so the Porsche is still the more entertaining and involving car of the two.
> Read our BMW X6M review
The Cayenne Turbo is knocked off the top spot by the BMW X6 M, though. Not only is the Bavarian SUV more powerful and faster to 62mph, but thanks to crisper and more direct steering, it’s even more entertaining on the road.
However, it is only the M version of BMW’s off-roader that worries the Cayenne, the rest of the Porsche SUV range reins supreme over all other rivals.
Performance and 0-60 times
A good place to start, and nicely evo-centric, is the 4.8-litre V8 Turbo. More powerful but less thirsty than its predecessor, its stats are seductive: 513bhp and 533 lb ft, 0-62mph in 4.2sec and 173mph flat out. At 2185kg, the Turbo is marginally lighter than before, but for something still weighing north of two tonnes, the claims almost defy reason, making it more accelerative than many of the company’s sports cars. Even the plug-in hybrid, which can travel 22 miles on battery power alone, will crack 0-62mph in 5.9 seconds when its 3.0-litre supercharged motor joins in.
The diesels are just as forceful, especially the S which brings an improbable 382bhp and 627lb ft to the party and brushes aside the 0-62mph dash in a mere 5.4sec.
It’s hard to imagine ever wanting more performance than the plain (non-S) petrol Turbo serves up. The way it acquires speed on the lightest of throttle openings is vaguely unsettling, effortless doesn’t really do the feeling justice. But it’s what happens when you find a suitably open stretch of tarmac and bury your right foot that astounds because you discover that, far from being a low- and mid-range turbo-gorged heft-fest, this Cayenne’s inner hot rod actually resides in the upper half of its rev band.
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And that’s seriously addictive. Quickly you find yourself switching to steering wheel paddles, immersing yourself in the V8 soundtrack and arriving at bends travelling far faster than you imagine even a Cayenne, even with the latest chassis mods could handle. But you’d be wrong.
The most potent Cayenne of all, the Turbo S, can muster a barely believable 562bhp and backs it up with 590lb ft of torque from just 2500rpm. That’s 20bhp and 37lb ft more than the old Turbo S and means that 0-62mph becomes a memory after just 4.1sec. In a drag race, Porsche’s Cayman GT4 would come second.
So if the surreal nature of the regular Turbo’s performance doesn’t quite hit the spot, that of the Turbo S is guaranteed trippy. Hardly surprising, then, that it smashed Land Rover’s Nürburgring SUV lap record by more than 14 seconds towards the end of last year.
The new GTS has a more economical twin-turbo V6. Not that it’s strapped for poke. Power and torque are a respectable 434bhp and 442lb ft in total, good for 0-62mph in 5.2sec, half a second quicker than the old naturally aspirated V8 GTS could manage. In fact, there’s no such thing as a slow Cayenne in the range, the entry-level diesel, powered by a 258bhp 3.0-litre V6, has a top speed of 137mph and does 0-62mph in 7.3sec. Even the E-Hybrid is good for 151mph and 0-62mph in 5.9sec, and will do 77mph in all-electric mode.
Engine and gearbox
There’s a choice of two diesels: the 258bhp 3.0-litre V6 and the 380bhp 4.2-litre V8, which delivers its huge 627lb ft of torque from 2000 to 2750rpm.
Slightly less potent but is the E-Hybrid that uses a lithium-ion traction battery with an energy capacity of 10.9 kWh which permits a maximum electric-only range of 22 miles. Compared to the previous (non-plug in) Cayenne Hybrid, the output of the electric motor has more than doubled from 46 to 94bhp which, added to the supercharged 3-litre V6 petrol engine, gives a system total of 410bhp.
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The purely petrol motors start with the 3.6-litre twin-turbo V6 in the Cayenne S, which develops 414bhp. But it’s the 4.2-litre V8 in the Turbo that hits the largest numbers delivering an extremely generous 513bhp, or a somewhat unhinged 562bhp if you go for the range-topping Turbo S. All models have superbly smooth and fast 8-speed Tiptronic auto transmissions with steering wheel paddle shifters. There is no manual gearbox option.
The driver focused GTS no longer has a naturally aspirated V8, instead it shares the same V6 as the Cayenne S, although it has 22bhp more to make a total of 436bhp. This means GTS looses the distinctive V8 roar, one of the old version’s greatest attributes, but is more powerful and more economical.
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The V6 engine in the Cayenne S sounds rather frenetic and harsh when worked hard. With a little more power and the services of the standard-fit sports exhaust on GTS it sounds far nicer, encouraging you to exploit every one of its 434 horses. No, it doesn’t sound like the old naturally aspirated V8, and that’s a huge shame, but its growl at full chat and deep burble at lower revs is still appealing.
Ride and handling
The Cayenne’s handling is scarily, almost inexplicably good – especially with the higher-powered models. Porsche’s PDCC active chassis control does a phenomenal job of keeping the car’s high centre of gravity and vast mass in check, with minimal body roll even at very high speed. Torque vectoring plays its part, too, allowing improbable cornering speed.
And it isn’t a case simply of monstering bends into submission with a generous acreage of planted rubber. There’s real involvement and finesse, too, with good weight and feel from the hydraulically power assisted steering and a surprising degree of adjustability on the exit of corners, especially if you turn the stability and traction electronics off.
The GTS gets PASM adaptive dampers as standard. Air suspension is available as an option, which lowers the car by 20mm. Go with the steel springs and the GTS sits 24mm closer to the ground than a regular Cayenne S and, not surprisingly, ride comfort does suffer to a degree. But that sacrifice in ride quality is compensated by an even greater involvement, and the GTS is truly entertaining to drive.
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The Turbo and Turbo S have such an abundance of performance, you can really exploit the chassis’ abilities. In fact, all but the diesel models have the grunt to actually have the Cayenne squirming on the exit of a bend and needing a touch of corrective lock to keep you pointing in the right direction.
The diesel models, with their narrow powerband, don’t allow you to indulge in the Cayenne’s talents quite so frequently. Yet, they still turn-in and flow down a road with the competence of a much smaller and lighter car, just like the rest of the range.
The Cayenne’s structure is starting to feel old now, even with its dampers set to its softest mode pot holes and ruts send shudders through the body and there’s a definite sense the suspension is working very hard over rough roads. It certainly doesn’t ruin your enjoyment of the Cayenne, but it just isn’t the supreme solidity you’d expect of a modern Porsche.
If you really intend to go off road then the adaptive air suspension as it allows you to raise the ride height for traversing rougher sections. Hill descent control and active four-wheel drive allow the Cayenne to tackle most harsh terrain without breaking sweat.
MPG and running costs
Although economy and emissions have taken steps in the right direction, if they remain significant factors in the purchasing mix, there are still important decisions to be made. The only no brainer here is the E-Hybrid which is by far the most economical and cleanest Cayenne with the ability to run up to 22 miles on electricity alone and official combined fuel economy stats of 83.1mpg and 79 g/km of CO2. The real world figures won’t be anything like as good but should still make the Cayenne comfortably the most frugal performance SUV you can buy.
Next best for economy and efficiency is the V6 diesel, which posts a very respectable 42.8mpg combined. Even the massively fast V8 Turbo isn’t too tragic at 24.6mpg, but it does chuck out 270g/km of CO2, and that’s 100g/km more than the Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Strong projected residual values of 57.2 per cent over three years are a plus for private buyers.
Interior and tech
Thick C-pillars don’t do rearward visibility any favours but, with a 670-litre boot, the Cayenne beats the BMW X5 for seats-in-place luggage space. Like the Range Rover, the Porsche’s rear bench slides to free up a little more legroom if the boot isn’t crammed. Despite the apparent space, the cabin ambience itself is quite snug and intimate.
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The fit and quality of the materials are feel deeply impressive, but there’s no denying that the inside of the Cayenne looks dated. The centre console is festooned with buttons and the colour screens look distinctly low res compared to the ones in other premium cars.
It won’t be long before a new Cayenne comes along with a more modern interior with cutting edge technology. It will likely look and feel like the latest Porsche Panamera, with a wide-screen display and shiny touch-screen panel on the centre console to reduce the amount of buttons.
Design
The Cayenne has never been described as a pretty car, and despite the latest design being the most attractive yet, it’s still not a looker. Despite some similar elements, it doesn’t look half as good as its smaller brother, the Macan.
You can tell the plug-in S E-Hybrid model from other 2015 Cayennes by its acid green brake callipers (a lurid hue borrowed from the 918 Spyder) and the green background to its badges.
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The GTS shares much of its front end with the Cayenne Turbo but adds a Sport Design package comprising thicker side sills and flared arches. Unique 20-inch black alloy wheels are another GTS signifier, as are the badges on the front doors.
The GTS gets the most distinctive interior, too, with ‘GTS’ embossed Alcantara and leather sports seats and very nicely executed stitching on the dashboard. The whole thing can be ordered with an appropriately loud ‘go faster’ paintjob as well.