Porsche Cayenne S Mini-review.

Guv'nor at work has the turbo version. One of the very, very few 'cars' I've ever had problems staying with up to ~90mph on my FJ1100. For a big motor they are *seriously* quick off the mark.

JB

Can't help thinking that a well serviced V10 TDi Tuareg might make a nice luxo(ish) barge in a few years. And I reckon the Tuareg looks better than the Cayenne too.

This wasn't the turbo, but it was rather quick for something that big. Not /quite/ Range Rover Supercharged quick, but I doubt there's much in it. The Turbo must be a mental thing to drive.

Problems I had with it were mainly due to it feeling very 'wrong'. The throttle response is very weird - nothing for the first inch or so then all of a sudden it takes off like a bat out of hell. Best way I can describe it would be a hair trigger throttle but with an inch of slack - nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, "Boom". Explains why whenever you see one in traffic it's always apparantly giving it beans away from the lights, it's difficult not to. Brakes were similar on it, nothing, too much, nothing again, then gradual deceleration followed by butting the windscreen. Insanely difficult to drive smoothly for the first half hour or so, then didn't get much easier. Ride quality wasn't upto much either, certainly not as smooth as the P38 and a lot crashier over bumps. Went round corners very well, but looking out over what appears to be a flattened 911 when you're riding 5ft off the deck is weird. Engine sounded glorious at highish revs and the auto box was pretty smooth, best left in "D" as the tiptronic bit is slow to react. The BOSE stereo setup didn't sound as clear to me as the HK in the P38 and picked up a lot more hiss on the radio - impressive bass and treble but the separation wasn't up to much and lacked in overall clarity.

Most annoying thing was that it averaged 19 mpg when the P38 might just do 14 driven the same way.

:-)

The current price of petrol is having an effect. I've just been up to Manchester and back, 24mpg. Last time I did it took an hour less and was

17mpg.

Any idea what that thing would cost to run in diesel? Think national debt of small african nations.

Fraser

It will be roughly the same as anything else which gets ~20mpg, I suspect. I reckon you could find something nicer to drive with that sort of economy though..

Allowing for innacuracies.

Probably not as stupid as some other monster 4x4s. It will be the "planet hugger" road tax penalty that will stuff a lot of people and make them worthless once only a few years old.

Local tesco went up 3p a litre over the weekend. Upto 110p from 109p for swampgas unleaded on Saturday, then again upto

112p by Monday evening.

Getting pretty damned scary. Now it has passed the 110p a litre bracket in the supermarkets, I can see it rocket until about 118-119 slow down for a few weeks then hit the 120p, rinse and repeat for the rest of the year.

Maybe. Having petrol up to 160p per litre, diesel at 190p per litre, would solve a lot of the stupidity-on-the-road issues.

It wouldn't though. Just like doubling the price of ciggies hasn't really cut down on smoking.

They've never doubled in price - or not in the UK.

Cost me over 75 quid to fill the car today. Another benchmark passed.

Cheapest around here is 120.9, dearest 129.9 - that's over 100 quid for a tank in mine.

Nah, I don't mean pikeys, scroats and stuff, I mean the unnecessary "because we have a car we will make the trip" types.

That's me being selfish of course... :)

If I'm paying that much I'm going to dam well enjoy it.

It would only be like that if kept wrongly. Sounds like you frequented the wrong pubs. Long before CAMRA there were pubs who looked after their beer. Those that couldn't be bothered wanted the fizz. Same as today, really.

Or the same thing with a slightly smaller engine.

ISTR the V6 TDI has vaguely sensible MPG.

If you're going to do it, do it properly. V10 in a Toerag, Turbo in the Cayenne...

I've worked out, if I use roughly the same every week, for every 2p a=20 litre it goes up, it costs me about =A32.50 a week more. That doesn't sound a lot, but that is =A310 a month, or =A3120 a year.

And that isn't a 1 off, that is =A3120 a year more in fuel every time it=20 goes up 2p a litre.

As most of my driving is work related (just the commute) and I rarely=20 drive more than 10 miles a week for personal use, that means if we think=20 of 95-96p a litre being the 2007 average, it is costing me more than=20 =A3800 a year more to get to work than it did a year ago. And I just do a= =20 little 40mile roundtrip daily.

Scary isn't it. Thing is, I don't remember super unleaded being 5p a litre dearer than=20 premium, normally it was 1-2p especially at the supermarkets.

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:

LOL! Good point. Hopefully the roads will be quieter too. :)