Originally Posted by TriX5

Anecdotal evidence suggests that these earlier Cayennes are pretty well made. The V8s need their oil changes on time but then so does any other car. I am not sure if that BAT listing is the right price for an '08 but this car looks pretty well maintained and relatively low mileage. However, if I were buying one of these, I would insist on plugs out and bore-scoping the cylinders. Everything else is going to be less of an issue than replacing the engine core. Remember these things are VAG cars (Q7, Touareg, heck even the Lambo Urus is supposed to share the platform). Lots of the non-visible parts have equivalents that you can pick up at the VW or Audi dealer. Also, the 957 was a pretty mature model by '08.

When I was looking for a replacement for my e70 35d it was the service manager at a nearby BMW dealer who suggested looking at the Cayenne..... Took his advice (and that of a German friend) and my '15 CS has not given any trouble (60k mls) since acquiring it early 2019. Nevertheless, the 958 in general, is plagued by a transfer case issue that doesn't seem to have been addressed to date. So, I decided to change the TC fluid every year along with the annual oil service. Cheap insurance. Also, I think the TC fluid volume on all these cars is way too small, incl. BMWs, but that is a different story.

So, mutatis mutandis, I think the Cayenne is not worse than the e53 or e70 and a well maintained one might be slightly better.....at least judging by my history with the e53 and e70 diesel. I think I have fixed pretty much every failure ever documented on XO....love these BMWs, but boy-oh-boh, they are maintenance hogs!