Road Test
Porsche Cayenne 4.8 Turbo
Test date Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Price as tested £76,760
For Supercar pace, size-defying handling, off-road ability, improved ride
AgainstThirst, poor packaging, interior finish, hesitant automatic ’box
Trust Porsche. Most manufacturers, when faced with a mid-life update for one of their models, are more than happy to make the car appear refreshed while, under the skin, doing the bare minimum needed to avoid accusations of shameless cosmetic engineering. Porsche takes a different approach. It does just enough on the surface for its customers’ friends to realise they have the latest model while underneath it basically starts again.
Sure, this new Cayenne has different front lights, a rear diffuser, spoiler and restyled wing mirrors, but Porsche says that’s all for improving aerodynamic efficiency, while the new front grille helps keep the new engines cool. All the main body panels are unchanged, and if anything’s been altered inside the car, we didn’t spot it and Porsche isn’t mentioning it. On first sight, it hardly seems to merit a full Autocar road test.
With Porsches, even 2390kg SUV Porsches, the most interesting changes are those you cannot see. For instance, all Cayennes now have new engines with direct injection. Transmissions have been strengthened and incorporate a longer final drive. There are now optional active anti-roll bars that can do everything from reducing body roll in quick corners to effectively disconnecting themselves for off-road use. Even the braking system is revised.
Of course, none of this comes cheap. This top-of-the-range Turbo now costs £74,650, £3780 more than the car it replaces. And that’s before you’ve played fast and loose with the options list – which you will want to, not least because the trick anti-roll bars are a £2140 option you should not be without.
But before we put the car to the test, how are we to deal with the groundswell of opinion that says cars like this should be taxed, banned or given public health warnings? The aim of an Autocar road test is to assess how well a car does the job for which it was designed, not its suitability to the prevailing political climate.
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