akillian24

Up until having children, I'd always driven 2-door sport-ish cars. Fast forward to two littles ... and we bought the sensible GMC Acadia. The Acadia is nice car for the money ... but I really don't enjoy driving it. At all, actually. So when the lease neared the end, I started test driving all sorts of SUVs. The Lexus, the ML 550, the BMW X6, etc, etc. Nothing really made my heart sing. My husband joked that the SUV I was looking for didn't exist. Until today: I drove a cayenne and am in LOVE.

Primarily: I love the feedback I get from the road (I really dislike floaty cars). The steering is tight and the solid construction without sacrificing nimbleness is a huge win. The sport button + the salesperson's reassurance that Porsche loves higher RPMs gives me access to my beloved torque. I'm largely toting kids around the city, so the V6 suits me just fine and leaves me something to aspire to when the kids are a bit older. :-) A couple of questions I was hoping for help with:

1) We've always leased cards. Typically 36/39 months. I'm not sure leasing is a great option on a Cayenne give their money factor/APR. Thoughts? I do like the 12-month buy out option making a 48 month lease more like a 36 month lease, but it seems like a rather high payment compared to a purchase. I'm in TX so we get tax credits for leases, but I'm not sure that makes up for it.

2) V6 vs. Diesel. I drove both. I like both. I like the lower-end pep in the diesel which will get great use being that 80% of my driving is city. But that also defeats the gas mileage aspect - and the maintenance on a diesel is higher. Thoughts?


I'm very open to any "Make sure you check" or "X option is a must". I'm reading as many threads as I can to get as much info as I can. Hoping to be able to join everyone as a newbie Porsche owner soon!

seafeye

Maybe buy a 2009 cayenne turbo and don't take the hit on depreciation.
Chase offers 3% financing. Almost free money.
The extra cost difference in gas isn't going to make a difference unless you drive 15-20k per year.

touareg

Welcome!

Personally as far as leases are concerned, I feel it is like renting, if you really don't want to stay into the car, then it is easy to get out when you are ready. Otherwise I would go with purchasing. I like to keep my vehicles 5 to 10 years.

Like most deals in life, these products (leases) are made to make money. The few times I have looked at leases, when you look at the down payment, interest, mileage restrictions, and monthly payment, you are covering the depreciation, interest plus rent for someone else car. By the end of the lease you would have paid far more if you want to keep the car, than if you just purchased in the first place. People do like to get a new car every 3 or so years and that works for them.

Another thought is have you thought about a CPO? Unfortunately people in these times sometimes ahve to return a car or sell due to finacial difficulties. Porsche's CPO is a good deal I think and if you get a low mileage car that is 2 years or less you will usually get an extension for the existing warranty and a good car if you shop right for much less.

The 3rd Gen 958s should be in a sweet spot right now and good prices with CPOs out there since the 2011 was the first model year. If you want a smaller VW Tiguan sized car you might want to wait for the Macan which is right around the corner too.

A 2011 Turbo is selling for low 70s near me and I believe that is only a little more than a new diesel! Also here in Massachusetts, older cars have a much smaller road tax, I think my 2009 Turbo S is under $200 per year.

http://www.porscheofdanvers.com/cert...05bb58dfcf.htm

akillian24

Thank you! I'm going to run CIO thru DH as a possible option. Historically DH won't consider used cars even though he'll be the first to say it's not a logical mindset.

hahnmgh63

I would say go for a Turbo but I'm biased. If not the Turbo then the Diesel for the Torque. Why would you say that Mx costs are higher on the Diesel?

MMHZ

Well I'm waiting for my car, so can't give you any feedback from an owner perspective. But i did test drive a Cayenne S and a V6. And ordered a V6. There is a couple of must have option (IMHO of course):
-Panoramic roof (give the interior an open feeling)
-Bose sound sys. (this option should be standard. The stock sound sys. is below average)
-Light comfort (at night you'll appreciate the mood lighting)
-Automatic tailgate (the trunk is heavy when you close it manually)
- And of course Rear camera

If you're not in a hurry, you can wait for the facelifted Cayenne which may be available at the end of 2014 (Sept-Nov)

gnat

I started off looking at the V6 958 but was thrilled when the diesel hit our shores in the middle of my search and jumped on it. I've wanted to switch to diesel for awhile as I believe it is a more realistic short-term solution to the ecological impact of cars than hybrids or pure EVs. As far as how it is in city driving, you won't see into the 30s like some of us talk about but you'll still get low to mid 20s depending on your driving style. The lowest I've had the MFD tell me (it's really optimistic) is 22 when I got stuck in DC traffic for an hour (~10 miles) which probably was really in the 19-20 range. Regardless it's always going to be better than the V6.

I'm a bit of a metrics geek so I've been tracking my MPG based on the reported miles and what the pump says. I also do a calculation of how it stacks up against the V6 (based on the EPA estimates between the two and then calculated against my real world numbers) and was seeing $15-$25 savings for the same distance. I added the Blue Spark Pro + Boost control and that savings has doubled. The savings varies based on the price of diesel vs premium of course, but over all over the 10k I've done so far I've "saved" enough to cover the cost of both my 5k oil change and the BSP.

Another advantage of the diesel over the V6 (or V8) is that it is a turbo. That means (as I touched on above) there are cheap tuning options to get more power and fuel economy out of it if you were so inclined.

Regardless of the model you get, there is a lot of money to be saved by having your service done by an Indy shop instead of the dealer (assuming you can't take care of it yourself). What dealers want for an oil change on these is obscene and there is no justification for it (I have 5 local dealers that range from 425 to 675 for oil change service, I did it myself for less than $100 and others have reported similar costs by taking the oil and filter to an Indy (or even a VW dealer)).

I'm not big on leases, but from what I gather Porsche has some of the worst penalties and residuals in the sub-100k market.

As others have mentioned, depreciation was a killer on the 955s and 957s. So far (with some exceptions) the 958s in general still seems to be holding their value, but I expect a hit next year with the updated 2015s. Something else to consider is that in other makes the diesel variants tend to hold the value a bit better.

There are two options I highly suggest. The first is the two package which while you can add it after the fact, it's much cheaper to get it installed from the factory. The second is the roof rails as these can not be added after the fact and using the after market "gutter mount" systems only allow about half the weight that the factory system does. I'm also big fan of the Xenon HIDs over the Halogens.

My spec was:
Blue exterior
Black partial leather interior
Premium Package (parking sensors, PCM, 14-way seats, moon roof, Xenons, heated seats)
Rear sunblinds
tow package
roof rails
black exterior package
heated multifunction steering wheel (part of premium?)
Servtronic/Power Steering Plus
Model designation delete (removes "Cayenne" from the rear and "diesel" on the sides)

It's also in the shop right now for some work and I'm swapping in the black headlights and taillights which are factory options (and much cheaper than doing it after the fact).

Edit: Oh yeah, if you buy/lease a new one and have it built to your spec, you can do a European delivery. Most dealers won't give you any kind of discount on the car (Porsche makes them pay the option fee that used to get passed onto the customers), but everyone that does it swears it's the best thing they've done (I talked myself out of it for a few more options within my budget).

HOiYA

I just got 2.13% from Bank of America last week, which the dealer then matched.

tgavem

Sorry to tell you the sales tax credit for Texas expired Dec 31 :-( for people receiving W2's
It was a temporary credit that Bush put in place since we don't have a state income tax we can deduct on our federal return.

gnat

Navy Federal goes as low as 1.49% if you qualify for membership.

RESP

Definitely get the European Delivery.
The experience is worth so much more than we can describe.

AdMan21

Go turbo or go home, I sound like a broken record these days

DWPC

If you're miles will be mostly in town, and with the premium you'll pay for diesel fuel over gas, consider the extra cost of the diesel option carefully. Don't overlook Porsche-certified used Cayennes.

grohgreg

80% city driving? Definitely go diesel. That's a 4800# vehicle, before even counting 26 gallons of fuel, driver, passengers, groceries, cargo. Plus the smallest tires available are 10" wide, which adds to both wind resistance and rolling resistance.

Regarding the price of fuel; where I do most of my driving, there is no appreciable price difference between #2 diesel and premium gasoline. In fact - in some parts of Chicago - I've found diesel selling even cheaper than regular. Yes, even the V6 requires premium unleaded. I had to top up the tank before returning a base V6 loaner , and found a "use 93 octane" sticker inside the fuel filler door. On a car like this you don't consider price per gallon as much as you do fuel cost per mile. By way of example, I can get over 800 (highway) miles per tank out mine. Admittedly, I don't do much metro driving (maybe 10%). But when I do, it's never been under 20 mpg. You simply can't do that with any of the gasoline engined Cayennes.

I've lost track of how many owners report disabling the engine Stop/Start "feature" on the gasoline models, stating the meager fuel saving is not worth the simple annoyance factor. I think Porsche simply pulled that out of the VW parts bin without giving it their own engineering tweaks.

And 3% financing sounds bad to me. I initially got 1.79% through the dealer, then refinanced it some months later for 1.49% (yes, Navy Federal).

Drive both the base V6 and the diesel before you place your order. The results should pretty much solidify your ultimate choice.

//greg//

Hammer911

What expression will we have to start using for everyone (not just kids!) that have never heard a record, let alone one with a flawed groove so the stylus plays the same section over and over again?

"I sound like a digital loop i made with Garage Band on my iPad."