Porsche Cayenne GTS 2020 UK review

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30 June 2020

What is it?

Look, I’m not your mother. It’s not up to me to tell you whether or not you need a four-seat, five-door coupé that weighs (let me check… cripes, that is a lot) 2145kg and returns (yikes, that’s not a lot) 24.8mpg. Let’s just go with it for now.

This, then, is the Porsche Cayenne GTS Coupé (you don’t have to have the coupé; the regular SUV bodystyle is available as well). It’s designed to sit, as Porsche’s GTS models routinely do, between the ‘regular’ line-up and the Turbo models. They’re meant to be sportier. For sure.

Here that means it gets a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre petrol V8 engine. The previous GTS had a V6, so this is rather nice news for aural purists, and it makes 454bhp at 6000-6500rpm and 457lb ft steadily between 1800rpm and 4500rpm. So quite a broad powerband, delivered via an eight-speed automatic ’box to all four wheels, with torque vectoring and an active rear differential. Which is quite promising.

GTS models are often our favourite in the model range for their dynamic straightforwardness. The Cayenne GTS is even offered on coil springs as standard, although our test car runs on adjustable-height air suspension and 22in – twenty-two! – wheels, rather than a standard 21in set.

Those are part of – and you’ll like this – the Lightweight Sports Pack, which costs from £5909. It includes a carbonfibre roof, for what difference that will make, but also checked seat fabric, of which I’m rather fond.

Anyway, as a coupé, the Cayenne GTS costs from £88,750. But by the time you’ve thrown on some options, let’s call it a round hundred grand.

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What's it like?

And it is good, you know. Yes, I know cars like this are no more excusable than compact crossovers, but seriously: the things it can do are quite something.

Its interior feels terrifically well put together. There’s some Alcantara, which is always bound to win me over, and the fit and finish is excellent, if bleakly austere, with only the odd faux-metal highlight to lift the dark greys. And too many areas that attract fingerprints.

In addition to a spacious front cabin, the rear accommodation is good for two adults (there’s more leg than head room, unsurprisingly), while the boot capacity is 772 litres, which is pretty good, you know. The GTS can tow 3500kg, too. If you can get enough tack inside it, it probably makes quite a good horse trailer-puller on the right tyres.

I don’t suppose for a minute that these 285/235 and 315/30 Yokohama Advan Sport tyres are the right choice, but on a warm dry day in the home counties, they’re just fine. The GTS has a firm ride (it’s generally pliant, although this is a heavy body, so that’s not surprising), coupled with solid body control and very restrained body lean.

It steers slickly, too. The wheel is quite heavily weighted but accurate and responsive, making a big car relatively easy to place.

There is the exception that, in trying to eke every last piece of efficiency out of a 4.0-litre petrol V8, Porsche has made the GTS very eager to enter the stop bit of its stop-start system and less keen on the start bit.

There’s no power steering assistance during that time, so the steering will lock when you’re barely stationary or would like to get moving while manoeuvring in town or squeezing every millimetre from a country lane.

Should I buy one?

The GTS is a car, one suspects, that prefers bigger, wider, smoother roads and higher speeds. Find those and you’ll find a car that has more grip, more dynamism and more straight-line speed (0-60mph takes as little as 4.2sec and top speed is 168mph), and is honestly more rewarding or engaging, than any new car of similar size and bulk. Of which there are a few and, surely, can’t be forever.

I’m not sure it’s for me, but if it’s for you, I think this is the best you’ll find.

Porsche Cayenne GTS specification

Where Berkshire, UK Price £88,750 On sale now Engine V8, 3996cc, turbocharged, petrol Power 454bhp at 6000-6500rpm Torque 457lb ft at 1800-4500rpm Gearbox 8-spd automatic Kerb weight 2145kg Top speed 168mph 0-62mph 4.2sec (with Sport Plus) Fuel economy 24.8mpg CO2 260g/km, 37% Rivals BMW X6 M Competition, Range Rover Sport SVR

Join the debate

Comments

NoPasaran

Why?

1 July 2020

WHy are these cars "no more excusable"? Why should I excuse myself for wanting or having one? Porsche (and anyone else) makes them and I buy them and drive them. This supervised thinking PC you can keep to yourself instead of putting it in every article about a car that is not electric and/or the size of a shoebox.

Mikey 67

NoPasaran wrote:

1 July 2020

NoPasaran wrote:

WHy are these cars "no more excusable"? Why should I excuse myself for wanting or having one? Porsche (and anyone else) makes them and I buy them and drive them. This supervised thinking PC you can keep to yourself instead of putting it in every article about a car that is not electric and/or the size of a shoebox.

This is almsot exactly what I was going to say... every point made here is spot on! And stop trying to push the deathknell of the SUV.. If I want one, I'll bloody well buy it despite your do-goody eco rubbish