Needsdecaf

I have one rattle / buzz, and that's from the sunroof area. Can't seem to figure it out. It only presents itself at idle so not the biggest deal. Idle is of course as smooth in our diesel as some of the gassers.

Aside from that, 97k miles, it's been great!

Quadcammer

I have a creak that comes from the trim on the right side of the steering wheel, but thats fairly easy to fix. A little also from the perforated trim under the sport chrono panel. Overall I find the build quality to be pretty good, but not necessarily astounding.

JoeShark

Small rattle from the left vent on the dash and that's about it. 2015 CS with just under 70K.

element

I LOVE my Cayenne! I dont like the title of this thread or all the nitpicking. Go buy something else if you are looking for perfection (pro tip - perfection is a myth)

Quadcammer

sorry that my title offended you. Perhaps calling it a POS was an exaggeration, but it sure is frustrating to have what should be a high end luxury SUV with these drivetrain irregularities. It doesn't affect the driving experience 85% of the time, but when you're setting off out of your driveway or a parking spot and it lurches or stutters, it makes you wonder WTF.

I think the reason it bugs me so much is that the car is otherwise quite good, so its annoying to have such an obvious letdown on an otherwise fine vehicle.

jonUF02

I've been contemplating my CS as I get familiar with it. My conclusion is that this car is the classic "jack of all trades, master of none". It tries to be sporty, but it's not a sports car, it tries to be a capable 4WD truck, but it's not the best at that job, it tries to be a grocery getter, but not the best tool for that either. It's a compromise from every angle. If you need all of these things and only have the space or desire for one vehicle, then it seems an attractive package, just know that it's not the best at any of the tasks you wish to fill, it tries to do all of them sort of half-heartedly. Maybe figure out which task is most important to you and buy what's best for that rather than all-around compromise. If you need an off-road or hauling vehicle then buy a truck, if you primarily need a grocery getter / kid hauler then buy something with more comfort like Mercedes or Lexus, if you want a sports car, this is not one my friend. If you just love the look and idea of Cayenne, know that you are compromising each of these other things to some degree for that.

Mike Murphy

Wow, our 2014 Q5 had issues nobody could fix. It would die in extreme heat randomly, and in extreme cold, would behave like a cylinder misfire. No mechanic could figure it out.

SoundsoftheSuburbs

My 2017 Cayenne S is a bit of a disaster. It's one thing after another. This time there is water all over the passenger floor and I think it might be related to the A/C. My dealer is trying to blame my indy and another Porsche dealer for possibly not cleaning it out. I don't know what has happened, but this car has only 33k miles and has gone through 3 service intervals, 1 being intermediate. By contrast, my 2019 Audi Q8 has been near-flawless after driving it from 11 to over 25k miles.

TheUnscented

Sorry for your trouble but I feel like the quality is very high on these vehicles. I've had my '12 CTT for nearly four trouble-free years, from 65k to now 141k. Mostly highway miles and self-maintenance, it looks and feels as tight and (nearly) new as the day I'd bought it. The leather on my old Yukon and old Corvette had long gone to seed by this point. Unfortunately they're expensive to put right and troubleshoot at the dealer.

Shrike360

When I see this sentiment, I refer to it as the min-max theory of car ownership. While I understand where it's coming from, I think it's a very limited way of looking at cars and your own car usage. Probably the biggest proponent of this is the youtuber Savagegeese (he makes exceptions for Lexus, though). He complains that the 911/Boxster/Cayman make too many compromises to be reasonably comfortable cars that you can drive every day. He has similar complaints about any performance vehicle that tries to be anything more than a performance car. A 911 is a compromise to an Elise is a compromise to an Atom. I feel like this is a narrow viewpoint. I’d say an uncompromised car is arguably the most compromised of all cars. Sure a 911 isn’t as sharp as an Atom, but I think we can all agree that anyone daily driving an Atom is a masochist.

I agree you should review your usage scenarios for your cars, but buying a car for every single usage case is out of the question for almost anyone. Most people don't have that much space. You should examine how you use your car as a whole. For example, I’d love to shift my E92 M3 to a 911/Boxster/Cayman. But when I want to go for a drive, I’m typically running errands or taking my 100 lb dog along for some recreational activity. A usable back seat and big trunk means it doesn’t just sit around collecting dust like the others would, and it already has way more performance capability than reasonably usable on the street. And compared to the Cayenne, it’s vastly more thrilling to drive, but has nowhere near the flexibility.

For the Cayenne, a 4Runner or Wrangler would be a better car for running forest trails. But the Cayenne will get me there, too (bar rock crawling) and the drive over to the trail wouldn’t suck. An F150 would do better at towing trailers of rock for landscaping my yard, but the Cayenne can do just what I need and is way more fun to drive the rest of the time. A Sienna would do a better job of hauling mulch, but they can’t tow as much or handle a forest trail near as well. An RX350 gets better fuel economy and is more comfortable, but it would suck the life out of you.

The Cayenne provides a car that is fun to drive and can outrun my old 335i in the corners, can haul well, can tow and can tackle a trail better than anything short of a true off-roader. Sure, it’s compromised. But I’ll take that over having a vehicle that gives up everything else to excel at a task I only do a few times a year.

Back on topic, I think my CTT is a fantastic machine. Also, don’t know why you can’t get out of the car with the engine on. I do it all the time. The transmission isn’t as sharp as PDK, but can get a move on in sport mode. It’s not exactly thrilling to drive, but is fun and feels relatively special compared to everything else in the segment. I do have some rattles. One is the glovebox (which I’ve mitigated with a bit of foam), and once in a while, I hear a rattle at the back of the sunroof. The climate control isn’t as nice as my BMWs, which you just set to 69 and forget. I have to adjust it constantly depending on the outside temperature. And the ***** for the climate vents fell off, which is absurd but not typically an issue for me to adjust. Otherwise, I quite enjoy the pig.

RED HORSE

I've had my '18 Cayenne Turbo for in excess of 3 years and it is great. I did have to have fuel pumps replaced, but compared to my '15 Audi S8 the Cayenne is a dream. The S8 may have been quicker but I rarely got to drive it because it was continually in the shop and when it was out there was always some little thing wrong that just wasn't worth taking it in to have repaired.

ledbette

This is a very common problem. I had mine in a few weeks ago and the service advisor knew exactly what the problem was immediately when I mentioned it. They cleaned out the drain and did a mod on the flapper to reduce the probability of it occurring.

Another member pointed me to this in the DIY forum on how to clear the drain: https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...vac-drain.html

mafpolo

I can understand that you may not like the title, or might be offended by it. That said, the forum is a good place for people to express their opinions, and they needn't all be how great the Cayenne is. No doubt that perfection doesn't exist. It wasn't that long ago that Porsche and Lexus shared the number 1 spot for reliability. That's no longer the case. I came out of a Lexus LS (I've owned various cars including a 911 cab). The Lexus leather and interior finishes are way superior (carpeting in CD is awful). There are plenty of issues with the Cayenne, as we read them on this forum everyday. Quadcammer simply wants his issues to be fixed. Telling him to "go buy something else" is not the answer.

I really like my CD. It has been relatively trouble free. Porsche has built a reputation of building great cars.....quality and performance. For all of their engineering focus, they should be highly reliable. I bought a Tesla model 3 in January of 2020. I loved the technology, but the build quality was lousy. I went onto the Tesla forum and asked if my issues were common or not. My post got absolutely hammered by the Tesla fanboys. I got plenty of "if you aren't happy just get rid of it." A few people even suggested that I was a bot. I did get rid of it, and I kept the CD. Quadcamm. I hear you, and I appreciate all on this forum who have given me good advice whenever I have had an issue or concern. As for perfection, you're right, every vehicle is a compromise, but in today's world, quality shouldn't be one o those. My wife's Panamera has been a bit of a nightmare. Her prior car, an Audi A8 had virtually no issues, but the Panamera has had a lot of them.....most of them the same issue not been diagnosed correctly. I believe they have finally found the problem.

SoundsoftheSuburbs

They had to put in a new rear-seat frame after it became problematic following the replacement of the fuel pumps. Ugh. All this on a 29k mile car.

Alexchrisro

I am sorry but i can't agree with what you are saying. Coming from three Lexus models, the materials and specially the leather is extremely low as resistance in time. On the Lexus clubs, people are complaining allot that Lexus RX 2020 models are having problems with the leather. It peels of, lots of creases and so on. The seats in my 2007 LS where very worn and the leather started to crack, same story with the RX(2010). On The GS450h the dashboard was squeaking like crazy, and it had lots of rattles. The Lexus NX has garbage materials on the interior, lots of hard plastics and cheap materials. Also let's not forget the problem with the old models with their dashboard crackup up from the sun. By comparison, my 2012 cayenne, the leather seats are in very good condition. With all said i do not want to say that Lexus cars are bad although the GS450h was a bit of a POS, with constant check engine lights, rattles in the interior, the stupidest infotainment ever and very odd noises coming from the engine and transmission.
About the other complains that people have, to be honest i do not understand lots of them. I drove allot of SUVs and the Cayenne is by far the sportier one, specially around the corners, and i have a diesel not something like a turbo or even a GTS. Every car maker has their problems.