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Porsche Cayenne review

The original SUV that wants to be a sports car. The saviour of Porsche. And the playbook for a fair few other sports car companies that needed a cash-cow family car in the line-up. The Porsche Cayenne is a monstrously successful machine. Since 2002, Porsche has shifted over 1.25 million of ‘em. Even in 2022, when the Cayenne was being readied for the hefty update you’re about to read about, one in three cars sold by Porsche was a Cayenne. It’s a phenomenon.

Can’t imagine Porsche has messed much with a winning recipe?

Not on the face of it: this is still a large five-seat family SUV with all-wheel drive as standard. You can have a V6, a V8 or a hybrid engine. There’s a normal SUV bodystyle or you can have a slightly slopier ‘Cayenne Coupe’ if you’re the sort of person who wants a big German bus but with worse rear visibility. But while Porsche hasn’t mucked about with the fundamentals, the 2023 Cayenne’s received a thorough update under the bonnet, beneath the bodywork and inside the cabin, to keep it on par with the likes of the Range Rover Sport, BMW X5, and Mercedes GLE. Until 2025, when it’ll be joined (but not replaced) by a fully electric version on an all-new platform.

So, given this Cayenne will be with us for the rest of the decade, it’s worth Porsche’s while to rejuvenate it, while adding sharper-looking, cleverer headlights, new bumpers, different colours and a smattering of fresh wheels.

What versions can I buy in the UK?

The base-spec is simply called the Cayenne, and that’s powered by a twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 good for 348bhp. Spend an extra £13,000 and you’ll graduate to the Cayenne S, which has eschewed V6 propulsion for a new V8 developing 468bhp. It’ll crack 62mph in 4.7 seconds.

Most popular in the UK will be the £76k Cayenne e-Hybrid, complete with an increase in all-electric range and a faster charging time to supplement its V6 petrol engine. As you’d expect, there’s no diesel version these days.

And what about the wild Cayenne Turbo GT?

Not for Europe any more, we’re afraid: the older iteration of the 650bhp V8 can’t meet the latest stringent round of EU emissions regulations, though the Urus- and Bentayga-fighting version will live on in the USA and Middle East. We’d bet our bottom biscuits that there are more versions of the Cayenne to follow: reckon on a GTS featuring a lightly uprated V8 and much Alcantara in due course, plus a range-topping (and CO2-compliant) Turbo and an electrified Turbo S e-Hybrid range-topper.

Our choice from the range

What’s the verdict?

“ It’s a deeply complete car, the Cayenne: practical, potent and very clever. Underneath, it’s still at the top of the class to drive ”

The Cayenne’s always been a very good car. But it’s now approaching peak desirability, because as all the other sporting SUVs that have plunged into the market after it have largely leant on ever-more bolshy styling, the once infamously hideous Cayenne is now one of the more subtle, inoffensive-looking cars in its class. That means this is a car you don’t cringe around in, like you would in a gopping BMW X6 or lumpen Audi Q8. Underneath, it’s still at the top of the class to drive, it’s unusually competent off-road, the interior has remained on the right side of minimalism and the perceived quality is high. It’s a deeply complete car, the Cayenne: practical, potent and very clever. The 911 defines Porsche as a company, but it’s the Cayenne that – deservedly – supports the entire operation.

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Porsche Cayenne review

Let’s start with the base car. The Cayenne V6, if you like. Could you live with the entry-level version, or is it unworthy of the Porsche badge? Actually, it’s fine in a relaxed, unsporting kind of way, and that’s what a lot of people secretly want from bolshy, sportisch SUV. If you’re a real driving geek you’ll appreciate the way the lighter V6 rounds a corner just a smidge more deftly than the V8. In fact, all new Cayennes seem to have slightly lighter steering than the previous model offered. A subtle change, but one that makes the car a smidge friendlier in town.

Ask the V6 for everything it’s got and it’ll play along gamely until about 5,000rpm, where it starts to get breathless and sound strained. In a brief but mixed road drive, our test car returned 21mpg. Over the same stretch, the V8 Cayenne S was only 1mpg thirstier.

What about the V8 version?

The S, then. A tiny bit burlier on turn-in, but more satisfying everywhere else. It’s downright bizarre to be sat behind a new V8 engine in 2023 without even mild-hybrid 48-volt assistance offering a placebo of eco-conscience. But Porsche says this 4.0-litre powerplant will comply with all current and incoming emissions rules and regs, so it’s no longer only the Cayenne Turbo that enjoys eight cylinders.

Yes, the noise sounds as digitally augmented as a Mission Impossible car chase, and the acceleration is swift rather than imprint-your-spine-in-the-seat-backrest fast, but that’s fine. How fast do you need your two-tonne luxo-tank to go? Is 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds and 170mph really not adequate?

But most Brits will want the hybrid, right?

Yep, that’s all arbitrary to the majority of British Cayenne buyers, who’ll split the price difference and spend £76k on the Cayenne e-Hybrid. Porsche’s best-selling PHEV teams the V6 engine with a single transmission-housed electric motor, up from 134bhp in the previous version to 172bhp here.

Meanwhile the 130kg battery is no bigger physically – the Cayenne remains on the existing platform after all – but more efficient cells mean capacity is up from 17 to 25kWh, which means claimed range on e-power rises from 27 miles to 56 miles. And it’ll now charge faster – less than two and a half hours from flat to full on an 11kW charger. Allow an hour or so more on a usual 7kW home wallbox.

Does the Cayenne still drive like, well, a Porsche?

Now, the V6 and the V8 Cayenne are fine handling cars. Perhaps some of the wow-factor of their seemingly physics-defying abilities has been diluted over the years as we’ve become accustomed to these high-riding battlebuses employing 48-volt roll stabilisation, active anti-roll bars and air suspension to eradicate body roll, understeer and shrug off a portion of their corpulent mass. But to point a Cayenne down a challenging road is still a deeply impressive experience, and there’s no Mercedes GLE, Audi Q7 or anything American or Japanese that’s remotely as assured and composed to hustle. Only a BMW X5 or (hold your nose) an X6 comes close. The e-Hybrid is the exception. You sense the extra mass of the battery, slung out under the boot floor. You detect the dodgy brake feel as the car juggles battery-replenishing re-generation with grabbing the green calipered brake discs. And though the e-boost does a reputable job of helping the plug-in car get out of its own way, the V6 never sounds overly pleased about it. Don’t bother with the optional sports exhaust here. Incidentally, the e-Hybrid returned a best figure of 148mpg in our test, and a more realistic average of 90mpg when starting with a full charge (showing 48 miles) and driven along briskly with the air-conditioning blowing. Expected range from the V6 alone on a full tank is around 320 miles.

Highlights from the range

the fastest

Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT 5dr Tiptronic S

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Road Test: Porsche Cayenne GTS 5dr Tiptronic S

Porsche’s people like to claim the new Cayenne GTS brings ‘emotion’ to its insanely popular SUV range. And they’re right. That emotion mainly being: «How in God’s name am I managing to corner this fast in a two-tonne 4×4?»

The Cayenne is a Porsche that will always split opinion, but, once you’re on the move, it’s always had that essential Stuttgart DNA. It shrinks around you in a way that the BMW X5s and Audi Q5s of this world simply can’t match. And the GTS version moves the game on once again.

The normally aspirated 4.8-litre V8 from the Cayenne S has been fettled to release another 20bhp, up to 414bhp, with peak torque of 380lb ft coming in at 3,500rpm. It’s also 160kg lighter than its predecessor, all of which means a 0-62mph time of 5.7secs and a vmax of 162mph. That’s a second slower to 62mph than the range-topping Cayenne Turbo, but then choosing the GTS — as 17 per cent of owners have done — will save you around £20,000.

The suspension is lowered on a completely revised chassis set-up: by 24mm on the standard steel springs or 20mm if you choose air suspension. Plus, of course, there’s Porsche’s familiar alphabet soup of options. Trick active suspension management (PASM) is fitted as standard, but for the full ‘emotion’ described above, you’ll want Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (PDCC) to further reduce body roll, and Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (PTV Plus) to improve handling.

The result? The best-handling SUV we’ve driven to date. With the Sport button pressed, the steering response and lack of roll is remarkable: just point and go. It’s only really when braking from speed that you become aware of all that mass surrounding you.

Even in Sport mode (Comfort and Normal modes are also available), the ride handles broken surfaces very well on 21in wheels (20-inchers come as standard). This was definitely not the case in the last Cayenne GTS. That should please James, even if it was apparently the results of strenuous testing at the ‘Ring.

On public roads, in fact, it’s so good that you’re actually grateful for Porsche’s Sound Symposer tech as it’s the main reminder of just how fast you’re going: the engine induction is piped into the cabin via the A-pillars, as fitted to the new 911.

Of course, there is a school of thought that says acting the racing driver in a £70k Porsche soft-roader with its PDCC and its PASM and its PTV simply makes you a bit of a GIT. But relevance to the real world aside, this is a remarkable feat of engineering. While we wait for a go in the new SUVs from Bentley and Lamborghini, the Cayenne GTS has set a new benchmark.

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