Cayenne S Diesel - Think I am about to pull the trigger

Cayenne S Diesel - Think I am about to pull the trigger

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Cheib

Original Poster:

23,112 posts

174 months

Wednesday 5th October 2016
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In a cracking bit of man maths/just plain excitable schoolboy behaviour I think I have managed to talk myself into buying a Cayenne S Diesel.

Started off wanting to replace the current X5 with a budget of £50k for a newish 40d M Sport. I am however a fussy bugger on spec and didn't want a black or white car and couldn't find what I wanted. Then looked at new cars and found out thanks to the good people of PH that there are some very healthy discounts on X5 M 50d's which meant you could order a big spec car to order for around £60k. Mrs Cheib then said she thought all the X5 colours were boring (she's not wrong)....at which point I said "we could get a Carmine Red Cayenne"...which seems to have met with some approval. Not sure Carmine Red is a good choice but it's brought the Cayenne into play!

So...I'd be interested to if anyone has anything good or bad to say ? I am test driving one on Friday. All the reviews I have read are pretty good and seems like a stonking bit of kit. Only thing I have read is the new "Ad Blu" engine doesn't sound as good as the previous motor?

There are bizarrely for Porsche some decent deals around...I was offered a 3 week old car today with a discount of about 10% to list which brings a good spec car into the mid £70k's. Its also possible to order a car to spec to be delivered in December....dealer who offered me that deal has two cars that are spec changeable...might be an interesting conversation.

I know its being replaced next year but I think the new car will be a decent bit more expensive based on how the Panamera is being priced and how sodding good I think it will be with that new interior.

Essential kit seems to be

PASM (seems to be conflicting views over air or not?)
20" wheels at a minimum
Panoramic Roof
PCM
Bose

Plus a smattering of other stuff to bring the optional extra's up to around £20k which seems to be the going rate.

Whilst I want a car that will be great to drive I also want something that will be very comfortable on long journey's and deal with pot holed country lanes....we drive to the Alps at least once a year and have plenty of dodgy roads round where we live. Maybe that means the Air Suspension ?

Phooey

12,575 posts

168 months

Thursday 6th October 2016
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I've just had a day in one (adblue) and currently own a v6d. The torque of the v8d is addictive. I would of liked a little more v8 rumble, and I'm sure you will get this with a pre-adblue, but it still sounds bloody good for a diesel. The new Cayenne is at least 18 months away and will be more expensive, with obviously no discounts for 3+yrs. IMO it needs Air, 18-way seats, memory pack, sportsdesign bodykit, big wheels, full leather, heated seats, PCM, BOSE or Burmeister, privacy glass, DAB. Lots of cars out there for sale but most are crap spec. You'll notice when a good spec car in the right colour becomes available it sells quite quickly - which would help any future resale too. I would have one over an X5, RRS or FFRR.

re pan roof - Nice, but only ever open mine occasionally. Not sure if it's essential for resale or not?

breadvan

1,985 posts

167 months

Thursday 6th October 2016
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Phooey is right, however, the only thing missed and it's essential, is Sports Chrono.

Cheib

Original Poster:

23,112 posts

174 months

Friday 7th October 2016
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Sports Chrono ? I was on the fence about that.

I was passing an OPC yesterday and now understand what "full leather" means....if you don't tick that £2.5k box you get an awful lot of plastic on the dash. They had a really poor spec brand new S in the showroom (no PASM and no Full Leather). Think it will stay there for a while!

IPK

286 posts

156 months

Friday 7th October 2016
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Good morning

I'm 3 months and 3k miles into mine, coming from a 991.

The day to day performance is pretty incredible. The OPC actually advised against Sports Chrono stating it's one car that doesn't actually need it. Sport button is very responsive on it's own.

The options list is huge and it's easy to get well past £80k. Full leather, air, adaptive seats, Bose are good. Mine also has a pan roof, which I can take or leave, the monochrome pack looks good IMO. Missing from mine is DAB, which I do miss as AM reception is rubbish.

Mine seems to return about 28 MPG.

There is a video on YouTube by Autocar showing one being driven through some mountain roads and it's very impressive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5gq_-ErTQA

Cheib

Original Poster:

23,112 posts

174 months

Friday 7th October 2016
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Yes, I watched that Autocar vid a few nights ago. Very impressive.

So I went to the OPC today and drove a car with regular PASM, OPC advised against the Air/PASM as they reckon it makes the car a little more "floaty".....is that people's experience on here? Clearly not in there interest to advise on spending less money! For me Comfort mode is definitely for A roads and Motorways as soon as you ht B roads moves around a bit too much side to side in comfort.

My essential kit list is now

PASM (seems to be conflicting views over air or not?)
20" wheels at a minimum
Panoramic Roof
PCM
Bose
Full Leather
Sport Design Pack

As far as new cars go the OPC said I'd be mad not to consider a Platinum Edition because of the spec...which is very true but I drove a 3.0 car and the performance was a bit gutless compared to my somewhat ageing X5 E70 SD.

nutsytvr

566 posts

197 months

Friday 7th October 2016
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Cheib
I went from an X5 40d to a new Cayenne S diesel last May, for much the same reasons as you -X5 seriously dated now, boring looks and colours.I disagree about the sport chrono. The thing is fast enough without lashing out the extra for SC. I did go for the air suspension for towing my caravan, and LED auto headlights which are fantastic. Also went for the sunroof, but that was an expensive mistake. Above 40mph, too noisy to use it.

The torque is just unbelievable. Choose the spec carefully for what you want, not what others say and certainly not for what might sell in 4 or 5 years time.

I also get better MPG than I did with the X5, both towing and solo.

nutsytvr

566 posts

197 months

Friday 7th October 2016
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Cheib said:
Sports Chrono ? I was on the fence about that.

I was passing an OPC yesterday and now understand what "full leather" means....if you don't tick that £2.5k box you get an awful lot of plastic on the dash. They had a really poor spec brand new S in the showroom (no PASM and no Full Leather). Think it will stay there for a while!
There is an "in between" option. Can't rememeber what it is called, but I didn't go for full leather and I still have a leather dash.....

Taffy66

5,964 posts

101 months

Friday 7th October 2016
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I'm currently on my 3rd Cayenne an e-hybrid.My second was a V8diesel and all PASM but no air and all with the exception of the first had 20" wheels.After extensive test drives of different variants i firmly concluded my favourite spec is PASM/no air and 20" wheels,the trouble with air is when you hit a deep sharp pothole the wheels drop too sharply where steel/PASM is much more progressive esp on rebound.When people test drive steel/non PASM back to back with air/PASM the air mistakenly gets the credit and avoid 21" wheels at all costs which makes matters even worse imho.

Phooey

12,575 posts

168 months

Friday 7th October 2016
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Taffy66 said:
the trouble with air is when you hit a deep sharp pothole the wheels drop too sharply where steel/PASM is much more progressive esp on rebound.When people test drive steel/non PASM back to back with air/PASM the air mistakenly gets the credit and avoid 21" wheels at all costs which makes matters even worse imho.
But how often do you hit deep potholes?? Maybe not essential but air is the better all-rounder IMO. Also think the Cayenne looks loads better on the 21" rims, but admittedly that is all down to personal taste. To be fair a lot of Cayennes don't have air so standard sus must be fine.

eta re leather - I think it's £2k for leather dash, door tops etc etc. Plastic dash looks cheap in a 80k car so Porsche know most will want to spec it.

Edited by Phooey on Friday 7th October 20:53

Cheib

Original Poster:

23,112 posts

174 months

Friday 7th October 2016
quotequote all
nutsytvr said:
There is an "in between" option. Can't rememeber what it is called, but I didn't go for full leather and I still have a leather dash.....
I think what you have is the "Smooth Leather" which is circa £2.5k and you get leather dash door tops etc.

Over and above that you can have things like the steering column covered in leather etc. When I was looking at the configurator a couple of days ago I couldn't work out why you'd pay £2.5k for upgraded leather as it makes no mention of the dash etc (how bad is Porsche's website). Well worth it IMHO. My 997 GTS has the leather dash, think it makes a massive difference to the interior personally.

Phooey said:
Taffy66 said:
the trouble with air is when you hit a deep sharp pothole the wheels drop too sharply where steel/PASM is much more progressive esp on rebound.When people test drive steel/non PASM back to back with air/PASM the air mistakenly gets the credit and avoid 21" wheels at all costs which makes matters even worse imho.
But how often do you hit deep potholes?? Maybe not essential but air is the better all-rounder IMO. Also think the Cayenne looks loads better on the 21" rims, but admittedly that is all down to personal taste. To be fair a lot of Cayennes don't have air so standard sus must be fine.

Edited by Phooey on Friday 7th October 20:53
The car I drove today had 21's and non air PASM and it was fine. Only thing that concerns me is that we do a couple of fully laden (and I mean fully laden) trips to the Alps each year....car brim full and massive roof box brim full.

The OPC has a 6 months old car I really like the look of with the non air PASM but has been specced with the towbar....which strikes me as really friggin daft! Why on earth would you spec a car to tow and then not get the air suspension. I won't be doing any towing...that's what my tractor is for!

majordad

3,600 posts

196 months

Saturday 8th October 2016
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For what it's worth, I've a 2013 Diesel for the past year and 32,000 kms in that time . I live in Cork, Ireland and we have potholes , and very bumpy surfaces. I was a bit apprehensive when my choosen car came with 21" wheels but I was worrying unecessarly, they are fine and comfortable. I have air suspension. The tyres have another two months / 4000 kms left at this stage.

FlyingPanda

450 posts

89 months

Wednesday 19th October 2016
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I have a 2014 Cayenne Diesel S on 21" rims, with PASM and Air, and whilst it is a little harsh on rough roads, it is very tyre sensitive. It came on Yokohamas, and I have since changed to Michelin Latitude Sport 3's and it is noticeably smoother and quieter. Having tried both, I think I prefer air suspension, and I definitely think you will prefer it come resale time!

All that aside though, they are truly fantastic cars. I have covered over 40k miles in all weathers, all over the place and it has never been anything other than superb.

It's also the only car that I can ever recall taking in for a service, and when asked "is there anything you'd like us to take a look at sir?" have replied "err....no, nothing".

Cheib

Original Poster:

23,112 posts

174 months

Thursday 20th October 2016
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That's good to know. I am going to go for the Air despite the OPC saying it's a bit floaty because I like the idea of being able to lower it. We've taken our X5 skiing for the last four years...most places have underground parking and we've only ever stayed in one place that the X5 would get into with the roof box on.

The first year we stopped overnight near Reims...hotel had an underground car park (selected because it was secure so we could leave all the luggage in the car). When we got there has to empty the roof box into the car....take roof box off...walk roof box into garage. Then drive the car in. Next morning was the reverse and had to do the same when we got to the apartment we'd rented. Friggin nightmare!

We actually tried to buy a Diesel S last week but it had sold the day before. Going to the OPC this weekend with SWMBO to look at colours...we might be a tad controversial and go for Moonlight Blue with a Black and Cream interior. Might play it safer and go black with that interior or even black with black but I have had black interiors on every car I have had for the last twenty years.

Spec is looking over £80k but hey you are only "young" once.

Not the most practical colour interior but it's not going to be used as the school run car when real carnage takes place in the back seats. Have had a word with a detailing bloke I have used in the past who reckons you can get some treatments that do really protect these kind of interiors....if it's anything like as good as the polish/coating he used on my 997 six months ago and is still going strong it should be good!



037

1,315 posts

146 months

Thursday 20th October 2016
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Love that! Looks great😎

red997

1,304 posts

208 months

Friday 21st October 2016
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I love the contrast coloured interior
had a Hybrid KN a few years back with coffee / light tan interior - very very nice

Might be in the market for a KNS Diesel soon... not driven one yet so off to the dealers this weekend !

Cheib

Original Poster:

23,112 posts

174 months

Friday 21st October 2016
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red997 said:
Might be in the market for a KNS Diesel soon... not driven one yet so off to the dealers this weekend !
There are tons of cars around....obviously the best value cars are the Platinum Edition. Sadly not available on the "S" though.

FlyingPanda

450 posts

89 months

Friday 21st October 2016
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Just another thought on that 'floaty' comment by the dealer - I always run mine one click down on the air suspension and it removes that completely. Handily, the car remembers the setting too, so I don't think I've ever run it at standard height.

It's great being able to set the 'sport' mode for steering, throttle response etc, but leave the suspension in 'comfort' mode if you're cracking on on less-than-perfect road surfaces too.

I did 900 miles in two days last week through all sorts of grotty weather and I can't think of a car I'd rather have been in!

Cheib

Original Poster:

23,112 posts

174 months

Friday 21st October 2016
quotequote all
FlyingPanda said:
Just another thought on that 'floaty' comment by the dealer - I always run mine one click down on the air suspension and it removes that completely. Handily, the car remembers the setting too, so I don't think I've ever run it at standard height.

It's great being able to set the 'sport' mode for steering, throttle response etc, but leave the suspension in 'comfort' mode if you're cracking on on less-than-perfect road surfaces too.

I did 900 miles in two days last week through all sorts of grotty weather and I can't think of a car I'd rather have been in!
Interesting that's very helpful thanks...I was thinking that might be the case.

Carmine Red making a late entry as a possible colour....not sure I have the bottle though!

FlyingPanda

450 posts

89 months

Friday 21st October 2016
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I think Carmine Red looks cool, but you need to make sure that everything else is black. (Roof rails, window surrounds, interior trim and must have privacy glass etc)

There's one around here where they have had the wheels painted solid gloss black too and it looks superb!

Mine is black outside and in, and sometimes I think it looks a little..er..ordinary. Still an amazing car though...