About to buy a Cayenne for wife....thoughts?

[Jordo]

So my wife needs a new SUV.... pretty bad. Her 2005 KIA is such a POS, I wont waste your time bashing it. We think that a 2004 - 2006 Cayenne may be a good fit for her. She doesnt need "the good one" so to speak so that should help to keep the price down to our budget of low to mid $20K.

I know that some of you have owned them in the past or even know someone who has owned one. I would just like to get a feel for them. I am trying to figure out what there common issues are and how to spot them.

lol, I signed up to a Cayenne fourm, asked these same questions and when I didnt get any responces, I noticed that there most active day was 35 members at one time!

So maybe you know of a better forum to go to? I was at cayenneforums.com with little luck.


Any help would greatly be appriciated!

[Nik]

My friend has it, I don't know all the details but she was mentioning that her starter went bed, window regulator and some bushing. also has problem with battery discharging. drives occasionly.

[X5rolls]

It's probably not the initial cost that is the issue but rather the maintenance and repairs that are real issue. Depending on your finances, you might just be better to buy a newer one and spend more up front for a lower mileage and possibly one with warranty remaining. Getting into one cheaply could be a recipe for disaster if you are tight on $. But you probably already know that.

[RickM5X3]

Originally Posted by Jordo

So maybe you know of a better forum to go to? I was at cayenneforums.com with little luck.

I think you should check out rennlist.com. Very active forum for Cayenne, including participation by one or more Porsche techs. Plenty of threads on common issues. I had been toying with the idea of a 2006 Turbo S, so I lurked for a bit. Good luck!

One thing I do know is that if you want a hitch for a Cayenne, you might be best served by buying one with it already installed. The cost for the kit, wiring, and programming after the fact would make even a BMW parts counter guy blush.

[Jordo]

Originally Posted by X5rolls

It's probably not the initial cost that is the issue but rather the maintenance and repairs that are real issue. Depending on your finances, you might just be better to buy a newer one and spend more up front for a lower mileage and possibly one with warranty remaining. Getting into one cheaply could be a recipe for disaster if you are tight on $. But you probably already know that.

Great info guys! LOL, I don't wanna give the impression that I'm strapped, I am trying to have the finer things in life with out it affecting any other freedoms. (I'm sure there is members of this site that pay more in taxes then I gross, lol)

I will admit I would never take on a vehicle that was expensive to maintain with out the Holly Grail info you get from forums. I was a mechanic for a portion of my working life and feel confident I can take on most tasks, which does releive a good chunk of the maintenance cost.

But I can't argue that spending a little more on one with a warrenty may be the cheapest answer.

I'll check out that forum site too. Thanks for the replies!

[RickM5X3]

With Rennlist, make sure you read "Coolant pipes A-Z" and as many posts as you can by the member who calls himself a "Board Certified Porsche Trauma Surgeon, Cayenne Grief Counselor." Always entertaining and informative.

The three C's - Coolant pipes, Coils, and Cardan shaft (all depending on year/model) are common items based on the limited research that I did. But Rennlist has much better info than my memory can provide at this point.

Sounds like a fun adventure. You've proven yourself capable of dealing with whatever an X5 can throw at you, so why not a Cayenne?

[jst2878]

If you want a good opinion about cayennes go on a cayenne website for enthusiasts, because this site is dedicated to e53's. So with that question, make like Michael Jackson and beat it

[motordavid]

Jordo,
I assume you have shopped around for Peppers with less miles, newer MY, a few bucks more, and "CPO'd" by a PCar stlr?

And, is your CEO or you, smitten with older Cayennes, as opposed to other pretty good 'drive to work, go shopping' used,
or even less expensive new/smaller brand suvs out there in car land?

I understand the cache, but new <$30 Gs 'suv' are out there by the half dozen, brand-wise, imo.
GL, mD

[o. l. t.]

I had the X5, the Cayenne, and the Volvo SAV's to choose from and picked the BMW hands down. The Volvo interior reminded me of a Caddy..... not interested. The Porsche was B-O-R-I-N-G inside bland like potato salad. The BMW was more fun to drive than either, nicer inside by FAR, and the outside style was at worst a tie for first with the Cayenne.

It was a no brainer. IMO both a Cayenne is just nothing attractive inside and a Volvo is a Caddy in disguise inside. I say buy her an X3.

[Brit6]

First off i'll say that I own a 2001 BMW X5 3.0i w/ sport package.

I just bought a 2004 Cayenne Turbo couple weeks ago because i wanted another SUV for the winter (still keeping my X5 because I love it).

One of the things with Porsche is the options are almost infinite, if you are picky like me its hard to find one with the options that you are looking for.

They have 3 models in 2004-2005. V6, V8, V8 Turbo.

The V6 is the volkswagon engine, i would probably pass on that.

The V8 is better but I found the interior lacking (elephant dash, beige roof/pillars when the interior is black, also has the old style dash cluster.

The V8 Turbo has standard of smooth leather dash which is all stitched leather, plus some models have alcantara (suede) headliner which for me was a deal breaker if it didnt have it, digital LCD dash cluster.

I test drove both the S and the Turbo and i found them to be completly different cars, plus the S only had steel springs while the Turbo has standard air suspension. The turbo seems to make the V8 a lot smoother, i couldnt believe how rough a V8 shifts compared to my I6 in X5.

PM with questions if you want, I just went through what you are going through. I thought about all options for SUV, RDX, MDX, X3, Another X5, Range Rover, Jeep SRT8, FX35, FX45, G Wagon, Q5, Q7, RX350.

Common issues:

1. Coolant Pipes are plastic will crack eventually just depends when, I wouldnt buy one unless they were updated to the aluminum pipes ($2500 dealer job in Canada including labour)
2. Coil packs seem to crack, they have updated this part number 8 times since 2003 ($280 for all 8 isnt bad for pricing)
3. Cardan Shaft (Drive shaft) center bearing becomes loose and causes bad vibration similar to flat spots on tires ($760 for new shaft + install)
4. Rear hatch shocks that hold up the rear hatch and glass fail a lot especially in cold weather ($250 for 4 shocks + install)
5. Ebrake shock fails just like the rear hatch shocks ($20 + install)
6. Some headlight problems with connectors coming loose
7. Steering wheel controls chip off the paint very easily
8. Seems to drink a lot of oil.

Thats all i can think of right now! There are many other things check out the 100+ TSBs for the Cayenne, but they should have all been completed by now by the previous owner hopefully.