Wisconsin Joe

First off, welcome to the P!g Pen.
There's a few of us that came over from the "Shark Side."

As was noted, read the sticky. Not as comprehensive as the 928 one, but lots of good info.

As with a 928, you usually get what you pay for. The ones that are dirt cheap are usually pretty beat up. Torn up seats, lots of issues, all that.
Plan on paying $10-12k for a decent 955. Good condition, well kept, good records. Plan on looking for a while, maybe needing to travel a bit for the right one. It took me about 6 months of casual looking to find the right one, that happened to pop up less than 10 miles from my house.

Again, similar to the 928, "buy in" can be pretty cheap. Ownership is not. Qualified labor costs (not unreasonably, just not cheap). Parts are priced according to the original price, not what you paid for it. You may be pleased to know that Roger can get just about all the parts you need, priced reasonably competitively.

Like a 928 (notice a pattern here?) miles aren't a big deal. 100k + is common. 200k + is not unreasonable. Just keep in mind that it will take work and parts to get that far.

I wouldn't worry about cylinder scoring all that much. It happens, but it's really not that common. Maybe a few thousand out of hundreds of thousands produced (AFAIK, they made more Cayennes each model year than total 928s). It also seems to typically happen "Mid miles" between 50k - 100k. It seems to be a production issue, where the block is at one end of the tolerance, and the pistons are at the other. The combined error is too much. Cold climate seems to induce it, but if it didn't happen, then the cold doesn't seem to matter (IOW - If it didn't happen at -10, it's not going to be more likely to happen now that it's 70). Also, like Malcolm, mine spent almost it's entire life in Wisconsin. Not exactly tropical here. It seems like the non-turbo 955s are most susceptible. 955 turbos and 957s seem to see it a lot less, although the number is not "zero".

Pipes are an issue - a "when" issue, not an "if" issue. If you are looking at a turbo, make sure that the "T" has been done with the pipes. Or do it if they haven't been done. Read the sticky thread for a lot more info, and some good DIY pics.

Other stuff is just wear and tear. Covered well in the sticky. The DIY forum here recently got a lot better (thanks Deilenberger) and Pelican has some good writeups.

I'm very happy with mine. 05 CTT, I got it March 2015 with 103k on it. As long as you know what you are getting yourself into, it's a great car. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Socal_Tom

Joe!

Thanks for the great additional information/coaching.

the flyin' scotsman

As Joe mentions Roger can supply Cayenne parts at very reasonable price even to this North side of the border.

Every part I've needed, and they're all maintenance parts (928 and Cayenne), were supplied outta Texas.

Socal_Tom

Good to know, I have had a good experience with Roger too.

Dilberto

Roger is the BEST.... he knows and stocks many Cayenne parts.

1BadAction

My 2c after having mine from 80 some thousand miles past 106k and driving it daily. Yes, parts may be a bit more expensive, yes, maintenance may be a bit more expensive, but the information out there for DIY jobs on a Porsche, and how good they are about carrying parts for older vehicles makes me feel much better about my Cayenne than I would about any other similar vehicle. Plus, the way they are put together just makes sense to me, even if it doesn't to most people. The drivetrain for the most part is very robust, with regular fluid changes there's no reason that you can't have a reliable driver at 200K miles or more. I service it per the manual major and minor intervals (with 5k engine oil changes, half the 10k recommendation), usually make a weekend of washing it, waxing, oil change, tire rotation, various inspections, etc. There is nothing like the feeling of dropping it back on the ground after everything is clean, buttoned back up and knowing it's good as new.

I absolutely love mine. I'd much rather take a little bit of time to maintain a vehicle correctly with quality parts and fluids than buy a throwaway Japanese appliance SUV and have jiffy lube do the services. Some people that's not the case, but it is for me.

jeff spahn

I bought mine with most of the major stuff (except valve body) already done. Got it for $3200 with 177,000 on it. Have all records from PO showing they fixed coolant pipes over 50,000 miles ago so I am confident this thing will keep on going strong.

Socal_Tom

Hey Jeff!

Thanks guys, will start looking...

the flyin' scotsman

interesting number of 928 guys on this thread.....cool

Wisconsin Joe

Well, none of us look at a front mounted, water cooled V-8 as "sacrilege."

We also understand the concept of getting a car that was originally very pricey for cheap, yet still having high ownership costs.

Socal_Tom

Big, fast, front mounted V8, complicated, source of much hand ringing when new.

Yep, there is affinity.

Dilberto

Use Yakaz or Searchtempest.com to do a nationwide Cayenne search. Locally would be ideal... but realistically, many owners flew out to fetch theirs, and drove it back home.

the flyin' scotsman

indeed, my CGTS was ~$120k new; I paid ~$43k and now added ~130k kms.

On the other side my 928 GTS is now worth as much or more than the Cayenne when new.

leek

I just sold my CTT 08. It was a very good albeit expensive car to buy and own, but very capable.
I had virtually no issues until 100K. After that I replaced most of the moving parts (alternator, starter, fuel pump, air conditioning motor/ controls) the sole large ticket item was a transmission around 140K. The coolant pipes and the cardan shaft had been replaced. The cardan shaft may have been starting to go when I started looking for a substitution. I ended up with Jeep SRT with 6.4L Hemi. It is not the Cayenne but it is close and much less to buy and operate.

Shawn Stanford

My '05 base is rapidly closing in on 150k. It's my daily driver and I put maybe $1000 a year into maintenance. I've done the standard stuff for a V6 with higher mileage and it was either relatively easy or relatively cheap.

If you're a Shark guy, then the P!g shouldn't scare you at all.