Cayenne GTS 30,000km review

[RDMcG]

The Cayenne GTS was purchased new in May 2022 to replace my 2008 Cayenne S which had over 310000km on and is still going fine at 340k with its new owner. The GTS has just hit 30,000km and is an occasional rather than daily driver.

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Unlike the older car, I put a full spec on the new one, so it came with full leather, Burmeister sound system, panorama roof, torque vectoring, heated and cooled seats, heated windshield, towbar etc. Porsche 18-way seats are amazingly adjustable and remain comfortable over long driving days- in my view an essential extra. Sadly had to opt for resale silver as the available standard colours were all blah and did not need the hassle of a special colour. Interior was specced at pale grey and navy trim.

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So, designed for comfort, Canadian winters and general hauling. Not yet sure how much towing I will do with this one but with 7700lb capacity it will be adequate, same as the old one.

I did off-road the old one and did lots of towing, but I tore the rocker panels off it on a bad canyon run, so I will not do that with the new one. I will restrict myself to the cheap and cheerful Jeep.

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I also ordered a second set of slightly smaller winter rims with full snows to deal with the normal Canadian weather. I never spec all seasons.

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I have also a Panamera ST Turbo which is a handy long distance highway cruiser, but in general is is a bit limited because of luggage ( well, dog) capacity as the dog can only travel in the back seat. (The dog votes for the Panamera as superior transport however.)

The two cars are somewhat different in terms of drivability. In summer conditions the Pana is definitely tighter and has sharper steering ( and heavier). It is also much quieter and much quicker. I ran that car at 180MPH on the autobahn and it is rock solid.

The less powerful V8 in the Cayenne is so loud on start with such a massive rumble that a few people asked me if I had an aftermarket exhaust. It is much quieter once on the road.

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However in very bad winter snows the Cayenne is a much better choice as it is shorter, higher and can be raised on the air suspension far more than the Panamera. I had a recent trip through a big storm in New Mexico with the Panamera and at the time was wishing I had brought the Cayenne.

Reliability has been 100%-no failures. However, I had a fairly mild stone chip on the windshield which immediately cracked. The heated windshield option is nice but definitely not worth the money - I do a lot of long trips and stones do happen. However, replacing a heated windshield is stratospherically expensive in my view and I will not see one again. The last time I had one of these was in a Buick in 1990 and it just kept cracking , now that I come to think of it.

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My wife prefers the Cayenne due to its higher stance and is much easier to enter and exit. I am no fan of the overly complex Porsche interfaces and the shiny touch screens . Once I have set up seat memory etc I rarely go there, defaulting to AppleTalk and Waze for my normal interface



n general I tend to drive this type of car into the ground and dispose of it when it is at a very high mileage. Will see if the GTS has the same durability as the prior car. There will be better, faster electrified cars coming along- I assume that the Cayenne will follow the Macan into the
EV world, but for me the ability to jump in the car and drive 12-1400km in a single day is essential, so the newer cars will not be relevant for a while.

Overall, it is plenty quick, great for mixed conditions and immensely comfortable and so far completely reliable.

[blueline]

Your windshield svc ticket looks quite familiar to the one we had when getting a new windshield on the 2019 Cayenne Turbo last August. (Massive crack after a large stone smacked it going down the Interstate.) The cost here was less overall than yours - lower parts & labor plus we received our PCA discount. Taxes less too.

However, in either case, windshields for Porsche's are a lot more expensive than what I was used to a dozen or more years ago for regular cars. I can only guess at how expensive a heated windshield would be.