Posi01

I would love to get your takes on the reliability and maintenance cost for years of the GTS Cayenne 2011-2017. Also if you have this SUV what have you found to be problematic across the board and what are things to look out for? So far I was reading about making sure you get a new battery or make sure it has been replaced. Apart from that I do not see any recalls or general concerns. I was interested in the car however I don't trust carfaxes or dealership checks since many times cars are fixed privately then never disclosed to the buyer. I would be taking it to my own guy to check it out. I heard getting additional warranties would be essential. I most likely would be buying from carvanna etc or some place with a guarantee to buy it back if undisclosed issues are found within a given period of time etc..

I don't mind regular maintenance costs or fuel consumption issues I just want to avoid a complete lemon etc..

Thanks!

Whitegalaxie

Set aside about $5k per year for repairs and servicing and you will be good to go if you don’t DIY. Cut corners or defer maintenance and you will have a worthless car in a few years. For example, neglect the cowl drains and you wiring fills with water causes havoc. If not within your realistic budget, look elsewhere.

leftlane

In 152k miles I have spent maybe $3k on repairs. My 14 GTS is a rock. I do stay on top of maintenance which isn’t Honda cheap but a good indy mechanic can lessen the pain versus the dealer.

gonzoe11

Keep in mind the 11-14 is different than 16-18. I had a 12 turbo and now a 16 GTS. They are closely related and both great but different. Prior ownership maintenance and care may determine how much to set aside for Maintenance and repairs. I bought my 12 with 68k miles and the prior owner was meticulous. He sorted any major issues immediately. I still had to replace the battery, plugs and coils right after purchase and I replaced all the fluids and tires to start a new baseline. I agree with above that if you set aside $3-5k and start your own maintenance road map you'll be fine. My 16 came with a less complete service history so this time I purchased an after market warranty. I did all the fluids, Battery, plugs and tires but was able to claim a water pump, thermostat and vaccum pump replacement on the warranty. I'm also remediating various oil leaks. The warranty has paid itself off at this point.
As far as Carvana goes, I recently purchased a Macan S for my wife from Carvana. It was low mileage and had a complete service records and history. I always do a post purchase inspection if I couldn't do a PPI and funny enough we got a check engine light after the 7 day test drive on my way to my Indy shop. They determined the Macan also needed a new Thermostat, Waterpump and had the leaking timing cover bolt issue. This was all pricey work but Carvana includes an aftermarket warranty with your purchase that approved my Indy shop to do all the work. I was pretty impressed how seemless the process was for the Carvana claim.
Good luck with the hunt and enjoy the GTS. This forum will be your new best friend.

jpru2001

16 GTS. bought it in 2018 at around 50k miles and have taken it to 120k miles.

have done the water pump and thermostat replacement, i think it was $1,800 or so total at local trusty indy, which also include a coolant line that blew when the water pump failed.
have had an A/C sensor fail ($35 part).
have had ambient temp sensor fail ($35 part).

that is it outside of regular maintenance.

The big item on these vehicles is a transfer case failure. That's around a $5,000 hit except I think there are some trustworthy retailers selling OE ones for $2,800 now. Porsche has warranteed the transfer case for 7 years from in-service date because of the common failures.
I've done the transfer case fluid flush at annual oil change and believe it or not I am still on the original transfer case (knock on wood). Seems like water degradation may be the cause and this has always been a dry, southern car kept in a garage. I dunno.

The car is a wonderful daily driver.

I chose not to get an aftermarket warranty because the car had super service records (the guy who owned in before me apparently has some money because he would replace a $3,000 wheel if it got curbed) and had a good PPI, and the quotes I got for fidelity could replace the transfer case twice over.

lowmiler

I never would have bought my 996 Turbo without this forum. I never would have bought my 958 S without this forum. Literally every possible issue has been covered here. It's a wealth of information. I rarely ask any questions here because the answers are just a simple search away. I do a lot of my own work on my cars minus the really big stuff. I wouldn't know where to start on a lot of it without this forum.

Brent Davis

I bought a 2016 Cayenne GTS very loaded 1 year ago with 10,000 miles. I have 17K on it now, changed the oil and transfer case fluid, and put a new battery (nothing wrong just thought a 8 year old battery was too old). Did all myself, no issues. Has original summer tires I will replace after this summer. I bought a iCarsoft off Amazon to reset oil change indicator. We pull a Moomba Mojo boat with it, and it pulls great with 440 HP. Original owner did all the service at P dealer with nothing needing warranty work.

ceeul8r

Wait … so if I bought a mid mileage Cayenne (958.1, 75K to 100K miles) and probably pay between $20K to $25K for it, I need to budget an additional $25K for 5 years of service? That’s staggering. How in the world could anyone ever resale these?

jpru2001

That has not been my experience at all (again knock on wood). You need to have 5k sitting around for a major repair, but you would have the worst luck in the world to need 5k every year. I've driven mine from 50k to 120k over 5 years or so with the above listed out-of-maintenance repairs totaling 2k over 5 years. I have been lucky with the transfer case though. You need 1k for a full service at an indy (plugs/coils/etc)...tires are expensive on these cars...a few hundred a year to clean out the drains if you are not going to do it yourself (I just removed the plugs on the end)...all in all maybe 2k a year? plus 5k for the emergency expense? I don't know I only have a sample size of 4 expensive german cars and have been lucky with all 4, including this one.


edit: https://caredge.com/porsche/cayenne/maintenance

this site looks like average 2k/year for the FIRST 10 years, but approaching 5k/year at year 10. Saw something similar on another site when google searching.

Remind me to sell my 2016 by 2026 lol.

garrett376

If you can't work on these yourself, it is not hard for that situation to occur.

You are potentially buying the Cayenne when just about anything can go wrong or is worn out, and paying a dealer to fix it makes it incredibly expensive which is likely why the first/second/third owner has turned it in already. Example, a friend recently traded in their '11 Cayenne because it needed brakes and tires and service, which was an $8,000+ bill from the dealer. That's why these $100,000 cars are only $15-20k to buy: parts are very expensive, and so is labor, and they usually have numerous things to keep up on, especially at around the 100k mark, plus or minus 25k miles. Someone with no car fixing skills can only hope they are lucky and own it during a phase that nothing big goes out; or they better be able to tolerate some big expenses.

ShdwFx

Bought my 2011 S with 90k miles and over the 4 yrs of ownership now have about 133k miles and have spent roughly $10k on maintenance/repairs (so $2.5k/yr). No major repairs but biggest items were for 2 sets of tires (I only seem to get 25k miles per set) and new front/rear brakes. Rest is just multiple oil changes, spark plugs/coils, filters, transmission/differential fluid service, new battery, Mr 12Volt upgrade, and rear door lock actuator. The transfer case was replaced by the dealer just before the warranty ran out so that was free. Air suspension is still original so I'm budgeting for when that eventually goes which I hope isn't soon but I've heard that 120k miles is typical and I'm already past that mark.

Whitegalaxie

I guess the running cost come down to everyones differing opinion of what a”good car” is. Some shove socks in the radiator flaps to keep them open and are happy with that, some don’t mind oil leaks or suspension pump running every morning to re-inflate leaky air bags, some tolerate clunks, squeaks and rattles and some electrical items not working. It’s all down to what each owner thinks is acceptable

leftlane

Or you could read what some of the others have posted here that don’t align with that at all.

mikescayenne

the transfer case is problematic but by now almost all the cayenne's have had them replaced under warranty from porsche (covered for 10 years on the 2011-2014 cayennes, and 7 years on the 2015-2018's). Just make sure you change the fluid every 20k miles, its very easy to do. There are other things you need to worry about with the 958.1 cayennes vs the 958.2s since they have different engine's. if you get a 2013-2014 GTS (those are the only years of the 958.1 GTS), and are not handy, i would HIGHLY recommend getting one with less than 100k miles, and sell it before it hits 100k miles.