is the cayenne s the best car ever built?

I've seen some off-road footage and talked to an owner who's taken his V8 Touraeg off-road. Based on what I've seen and heard, the Touraeg is very near if not equal to Land Rover/Jeep capable off-road, especially with the proper tire fitment. The vehicle is avaliable with locking front and rear diffs as well as an air-suspension that make it extremely flexible off-road.

Reply to
Steven Grauman
Loading thread data ...

Grauman:.

Well, I wonder why Porsche bothers with the 911's and Boxsters then ?

Regards, Martin

Reply to
Martin²

"Steven Grauman" . What

Well, to be fair, I went to the local Porsche dealer and drove the vaunted Cayenne. I also drove the Infiniti and have the Jeep Liberty. My impressions:

  1. Cayenne--very nice car, powerful, probably off road capable if road is not too bad. Handles nicely for a SUV. It is also overpriced, ugly as sin in my eyes, overdone in the interior and just screams Doctor's car or even better, Doctor's mistresses car. It is a car that tells the world that the owner can afford any toy and that at least one is more discerning than an Escalade owner. A car that should never be driven without a cell phone in use and a car to be driven to the local deli, to the soccer games just to show the peons how the other half lives.

Infiniti: As good as or better than the Cayenne in things that trucks are supposed to do. Quiet, fairly powerful, handles well for a truck, overly opulent inside and it is a vehicle that screams I have made it but am a little antsy about showing it. I see this car as a swing model between the BMW SUV which is the realm of the $30,000 per year millionaires who seem to frequent the trendy clubs and either the Cayenne for those who tell everyone they love classical movies or the hip hopping Escalade for those who have more money (or credit) than they really need. My Jeep is rough riding, kind of noisy, can be washed out with a hose, is all plasticy and fabric, goes like a bat out of hell straight up those mountain trails and gives you feel as you are going up. Damn, I guess that is what an SUV is supposed to do! Think I will stay with the Jeep with a blast down the highway on good days with the top off of my 911 SC Targa or the sunroof open on the 928. I even sit close to the ground with a decent center of gravity while going fast.

Mel

Reply to
MG

We test drove the FX45, and it's quite probably my least favorite SUV. The Cayenne's on-road performance is better, even if only marginally, it has MUCH more comfortable rear seats, a higher towing capacity, is off-road capable and will retain greater re-sale. The FX felt cheap inside by comparsion and I'd say that if you're not interested in the Porsche, the Caddy SRX is probably the closeest you'll get in terms of sport and the Touraeg is close behind, while retaining some off-road ability the Caddy lacks.

We never have and never would buy a vehicle just to impress others. If that were what we wanted, the BMW X5, Mercedes Benz ML500 and Cayenne would have been the only cars we looked at, and we certainly would have not gotten anything with a VW badge. If you see the Cayenne as simply a giant excuse to show off than you're missing the point.

The Liberty is cheap, ugly, underpowered and from what I hear, has a bad history of reliability problems, just like the last generation Grand Cherokee. It'd be at the bottom of my list of "if I have no other choice" SUVs. I'll take a Wrangler though, it least it doen;t make any false promises.

Maybe it didn't occur to you that some people, like my neighbor, aren't interested in both a sports car AND an SUV. The Cayenne S and Turbo combine most of the best parts of both types of car into one vehicle.

Reply to
Steven Grauman

Maybe because you can't carry 4 people in a Boxster and can do so in a Carrera only if two are munchkins.

Reply to
Jim Keenan

No, it's in the realms of worst Porsche ever built, record read aas follows,

The 4th worst car Porsche ever built was the boxster, because it's not a Porsche. The 3rd worst car Porsche ever built was the cayenne, because its a 4x4. The 2nd worst car Audi ever built was 924 because its not a Porsche, but it saved Porsche's neck The undisputed worst car Porsche ever built ( well Audi ever built ) was the

944 as it was a full blooded Audi, and NOT a real Porsche and has no recognition whatsoever within the Porsche fraternity. Only the cheap losers will drive a 944, the harp on about the marque like they are actually part of it.
Reply to
erico!

Basically, what you are saying here is 'I know virtually nothing about Porsche'. If you are going to criticise something, it's a good starting pooint to get your facts straight. The 924 started out as a VW-Audi project - VW-Audi contracted Porsche to design a sports car for them. They used an Audi engine with a Porsche-designed head and various readliy-available VW parts. VAG cancelled their plans late into development and Porsche bought the project outright. They had the car built at an Audi plant. If anything, although the 924 would probably have been badged as an Audi (had things gone to the original plan), it can be levelled that the 924 is a VW - one look under the bonnet and VW badges are apparent everywhere. However, Porsche *designed* the car - and did a fantastic job. They took virtually bog-standard VW parts and an engine that was more at home in a VW LT van and Audi saloons and delivered a budget sports car with a decent amount of power (unfortunately the US market got an underpowered, detuned version of the 125bhp 2 litre unit) and wonderful handling characteristics. Porsche then went on to make more and more powerful versions of the 924, proving the handling was capable of much more than the 2 litre NA engine could provide and making the car more 'Porsche' in the process. By 1986, the 924 had a completely Porsche-designed engine and uprated, non-VW running gear to match it.

As for the 944, your comments make me think you *must* realise that you're talking utter, utter rubbish. I'll take the bait though, because sometimes it's worth setting the record straight for the sake of others. The 944 was derived from the 924 Carrera and had an engine designed and built by Porsche in it's Zuffenhausen factory. It's Porsche alright. The reason a lot of total purists might still shun the 924, the 944 and even the 928 and 968 is because they don't follow the basic 911 rule of making something very fast with an engine stuck right at the back of it - which is basically a very, very impractical way to try to make a good-handling road car. Still, I guess it sure as hell makes it more fun (or dangerous, depending on how you look at things).

I think that's a basically correct overview of the 924/944 history - you can google for plenty of info about these fantastic cars.

At the end of the day, Porsche decided to stick their badges on the 924 and

944. Porsche designed those cars, and it was Porsche who put them into production. Porsche wanted them to be part of their line-up, it was a very good business decision and they are very, very good cars - regardless of what badge is on the front of them.

One could say that the only 'real' Porsche is a 911 - as it's rear engined - but then if you were to go down that elitist route, you should probably conclude that actually, the only 'real' Porsche is a 356. Or maybe, only 'real' Porsches have air-cooled engines - in which case, Porsche don't actually make Porsches anymore!

Then again, I've yet to see a Porsche I thought was truly bad. The worst I think I've seen was the late 90's redesign of the 911's front headlights, now thankfully gone.

Oh, and I do think that the Cayenne looks like a 911 on stilts.

;)

Chris.

Reply to
Chris B

Hey, how 'bout you have a big tall glass of STFU. Maybe you don't like

944's, that's your prerogative, but if Porsche put their crest on it, they must have thought it merited to be called a Porsche. So... who exactly are *you* again to be second guessing Porsche themselves about what defines Porsche-ness? I'm only surprised that you didn't put some snide remark in about 914s or 928s. But other than that exactly typical of what you'd expect from someone who's never driven the car's they're bitching about.

FWIW the 9*2*4 had a lot of Audi influence, but the 9*4*4 had a Porsche motor, essentially half a 928 V-8. So you can't even get your facts straight! What a maroon.

nate

(and I d> No, it's in the realms of worst Porsche ever built, record read aas follows, >

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Dude, he's a TROLL, he posts quick shit just so people like you get hooked and waste their life replying, as if he gives a damn what you have to say

Reply to
Dan Stephenson

Yeah, I pretty much figured that - I usually ignore them but on the odd occasion when I've got nothing better to do, I think it's worth setting the record straight. I guess I was in an axe-grinding mood the other night ;)

Chris.

Reply to
Chris B

Reply to
PHILLIP DOUGAN

Having driven both, I'd buy the Porsche over the BMW any day...........

Reply to
Jim Keenan

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.