Cayenne 4.8 GTS MY2008 - any advice

[Watchman]

Hi,

I've read through the £10K Cayenne thread but much of the info appears to be levelled at models a bit older than I'm considering. I wondered if anyone had anything to add ref a MY2008 4.8 litre GTS please? I'll be spending ~£25K for one with ~45K miles. This will be to replace a Merc ML diesel of the same age but about 20K miles "older". Basically, I want air suspension and a petrol engine - I am fed up with diesel.

It will be my only car, for commuting up to 20K miles a year in. I will also occasionally tow an unbraked trailer up to 750Kg but that's only likely to be 2 or 3 times a year. So I will need a towbar and 13-pin electrics (which I concede I will probably have to pay for and have installed after I've bought the car).

I am not considering a turbo because of the associated running costs so if anyone thinks the GTS is in the same ball-park for running costs, I'd like to know please.

I am not unfamiliar with spanner-wielding to reduce maintenance costs but owing to this being my only car, I would only consider jobs I could complete within the timeframe of a weekend. The car must be ready again on Monday. With that in mind, I'd most likely have all but the simplest tasks done by garages. I am not worried about taking it to non-Porsche garages for regular servicing but would defer to Porsche for specialist items.

Fire away please...

[alscar]

We have an 09 version - air plus sports exhausts etc - what a car - service every 2 years averages £500 per annum although I do buy the OPC warranty which adds another £1000 per annum - it's done 20k from new and my wife refuses to swop it for anything quote unquote.

[williaa68]

20k a year will be about £7,500 a year in fuel by my reckoning - the maintenance will be the least of your worries!

[Watchman]

£150/week is an expected cost for fuel that I already budget for. It's the sudden demands for several hundred pounds (or worse) as a result of something breaking I fear. The ML needed a service with all the transmission and diff fluids changing and that was eye wateringly expensive.

Before that I had a 3 litre Subaru Legacy which only averaged 20mpg so I'm sort of prepared for fuel costs. In fact the ML only averages 24 and the cost of diesel makes it overall more expensive than the Scooby.

[davek_964]

At least my old Cayenne says it should run on super, which I think costs about the same as diesel. But your assumption for fuel cost looks roughly right based on mine.

[Watchman]

Callughan said:

not sure you can find clean gts for 25k. As always condition and history.

Little bit more but looks worthy of a looksee this weekend.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

[MrTickle]

williaa68 said:

20k a year will be about £7,500 a year in fuel by my reckoning - the maintenance will be the least of your worries!

But the ML diesel will probably burn through £5K a year in fuel, so another way to look at it is a couple of hundred quid a month more to run a Cayenne GTS

Sounds like a bargain that way!

[MrTickle]

Watchman said:

Little bit more but looks worthy of a looksee this weekend.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

Looks nice, but you are teetering close to a 2009MY price which would give you the PCM3 with bluetooth and touch screen nav etc.

Might be worth holding out for?

[Watchman]

MrTickle said:

Looks nice, but you are teetering close to a 2009MY price which would give you the PCM3 with bluetooth and touch screen nav etc.

Might be worth holding out for?

You're absolutely right... I've thought long and hard about that but this stretches my budget already and I think I'm more inclined to go for a lower mileage than younger car. And I am focussed on "condition" of course.

I had rather hoped to be able to knock some of that asking price off, to be honest.

I only started looking because I rather thought I'd get ~£22K for the ML but I've done some investigations and it's not worth anything like as much as I'd hoped. I reckon it's probably closer to 17-18K and there are examples cheaper than that..!!

I'm going to look at a couple - got them lined up for this weekend.

Thanks.

[Watchman]

I was too slow - I missed them both. Sold before I left home (I called to check).

Can't view any this weekend (going away) but the ML must have gotten wind of my treachery and has bust the powered tailgate. I guess I'll be kissing £1K away before it works again.

[Watchman]

Thanks. When I've recovered from the cost of repairing the ML, I'll reach out.

One positive about the ML failing is that my wife is more tolerant towards my looking at replacing it with something more exciting. A Cayenne GTS is about the only thing I'll consider now. No doubt they come with their own issues but once I have one on the drive, that's a whole other day.