Cayenne diesel S (it’s a V8)

So I used to have an E63 AMG estate and ran it for the last 3 years, I was chatting with somebody I worked with and I worked out I’d probably spent the best part of £10k in in that time on fuel (somewhere around 16-17mpg). I’m definitely glad that I had the car and I tuned it over the time that I had it resulting in 750hp and 900lbft in the end so there’s a very good chance it’s the quickest car I’m ever going to own and it sounded mega as well.

You can see the progress with that car here:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...





So I was thinking any other estate car was going to be a disappointment after the Merc and I was going to go for a complete change of pace with an L405 or an L494 SDV8 Range Rover / Range rover sport. In the process of looking for a suitable replacement I came across this video about the cayenne S diesel:

https://youtu.be/N5gq_-ErTQA

It’s fair to say that the video peaked my interest, not only is the cayenne a better handling and more engaging drive than the equivalent Range Rover but there are also far less horror stories! The main one that comes up is a problem with the transfer case that can occur but Porsche have recognised this is a design issue and extended the warranty on this part to 10 years.

I spotted the Cayenne that I ended up buying and when I enquired it had, had the new updated design of transfer case fitted so that was a tick in a box! It also has the PDLS+ LED headlights and the sort after burmester stereo as well as some other tasty options.

I organised to go and collect the car and made the 225mile journey from home to north London to see it, the car was as described so I went ahead with the purchase. The Merc had down 26mpg on the way down to london and on the way back the Porsche set at the same speed on cruise control did 41.5mpg until I hit standstill traffic on the M6 and lost a couple of mpg. The total for the journey home ended up at 39.8mpg.



The car is incredibly quiet on the motorway and feels genuinely quick when you floor it from a standstill. It’s supposed to make 385hp and 630lbft or thereabouts and it feels like every one of the torques is present.

I took a couple of pics of the car when I got home, I’ve still to properly clean it but it seems to be in good condition.





The car has a real V8 burble at tickover and almost doesn’t sound like a diesel at all!



I did notice that the rear screen wash didn’t work but when I popped the nozzle off there was water there so I order a new nozzle from Amazon for £5 and have fitted that, I have also fitted a boot liner and will be upgrading the PCM 3.1 by installing Apple CarPlay as I got used to that in the E class. I may visit darkside developments for a remap at some point, they nudge the car by upto 420-430hp and high 700lbft.

The air suspension seems to be really good and make a noticeable difference to the way the car drives and the change in height is noticeable when selecting different modes. I can’t believe how well the car handles and how nicely it steers and it even leans towards power oversteer on the way out of corners and definitely favours a slow in fast out approach.


I’ll get some more pictures this weekend after I give it a proper clean and I will document the Apple CarPlay install and remap if that happens in the future. I know it’s not the most pistonhead worthy car but I like it and hopefully I can get a weekend car at some point in the future.

Yeah it’s decent, I think the book figure is around 5.5 to 60 and a remapped one is into the mid to low 4s range.

I’ve definitely been surprised by the handling given the size and height of the thing, the air suspension definitely helps with that. The turn in is really good and the steering feel is better than the Mercedes I think.

The Cayenne genuinely handles a lot better than most normal cars I’ve driven, I still think fast estates pip SUV’s but then the cayenne doesn’t handle like most SUV’s as it doesn’t wallow and lean (on the air suspension at least) the other bonus is my insurance is £100 cheaper and the road tax is £200 less a year haha

Welcome to the club... I've had mine for a year (and 13k miles) now.
Don't get used to that MPG if you use the performance at all, my ownership average (tracked by fuelly) is just under 30mpg.

If you have the panoramic roof then, If you've not got proof of them being done, have the 4 sunroof drains modified otherwise they will get blocked and flood the very expensive electrics in the passenger footwell.
Make sure you keep the battery well charged, these cars throw really weird errors if the battery is even slightly less than optimal.

Other than that, fill with diesel and enjoy - they really are great cars.

The sunroof drain tubes have a weird rubber arrangement on the ends that, in effect, makes it easy for them to get blocked with dirt, the mod is generally just to cut the rubber arrangement off which makes for a wider drain opening and no blockages.

I've not got those lights on mine but that behaviour does sound odd, the headlight switch should just be able to be left in the auto position (little red light on) and the car takes care of the rest.

Same engine as was available in the Touareg, there was a Readers Rides thread about it on here but chap sold up now I believe.

Did the Toureg ever have the V8 diesel? I thought it had the chocolate V10? I stand to be educated though.
O/P, thanks for sharing your ownership so far, looking forward to following your journey. Did you ever consider any of the petrol versions of these, having come from the petrol AMG? If so, did you test drive any and how did they compare? Are the petrol more of a liability with regards to reliability or are they fairly robust?

They did do the V8 in the Touareg, from what I understand Porsche took the engine and changed/improved bits. If you have a look on darkside developments YouTube channel they have some good videos around upgrading them etc, I know the cayenne has better intercoolers for example and makes more power and torque as standard than the Touareg.

I did have a look at a cayenne S petrol with the 3.6 turbo engine(same engine as the macan turbo) and it was good but it didn’t get me fizzing. It didn’t sound amazing but it went ok, the car felt a bit more laboured than the S diesel if that makes sense… it felt a bit more it’s weight and I think that’s down to the torque.

Once I drove the diesel I was completely sold, it’s almost S class quiet on the motorway in comfort mode and then when you put the suspension in sport plus and select the sport mode on the engine it’s unsettling how quick it is for something so high and large.

The petrol N/A V8s are more powerful but with less torque. Less to go wrong with the petrol engines (no turbos etc) and less torque killing the transfer cases. ~50% more MPG with the Diesel but obviously depends how you drive and diesel costs more. 10k annual mileage of mixed driving saves ~£1k in fuel costs over petrol. But equivalent Diesel costs more to buy...but depreciates less...