Porsche Cayenne 2012 review

At the international launch of this generation Cayenne five years ago, the biggest wig present dismissed the very notion of Porsche existing in the same temporal realm as diesel.

Even in an SUV - the passenger vehicle type best suited to such a powerplant - a diesel would be simply too heavy, too inflexible, too common for Porsche.

Well, here's another diesel Porsche, the latest of what will by next years by a Cayenne range of eight models of all types. Except, maybe not.
The entry Cayenne diesel V6 doesn't do enough to disguise its commonality with Volkswagen's Touareg and Audi's Q7 (same basis, same engine, same Slovakian assembly line). The new one, however, the Cayenne S Diesel, almost succeeds in transcending its very dieselness.

Indeed, when we turned the key not a rattle was to be heard, not an agricultural calling card. On accelerating sharply out of the compound and toward the mountain passes above Graz, we just about turned around to express indignation at the practical joke that had so evidently been played. The splendid V8 thrum that blurted forth could only come from a petrol engine.

In its acoustic respect alone, the S Diesel resembles a muscle car. It'll make the other mums look when you cue outside school.

VALUE

At $155,500 the S Diesel is some way from being the top whack Cayenne, sitting below the Cayenne Turbo and GTS. In so far as a few grand matters at this end of the market, it does come in some $4K over the petrol S - and would by any measure justify that premium and more.

Standard is air suspension, the component that when set to optimum comes so close to covering the sense that this is the one SUV that truly deserves the cliche "car like" in terms of its dynamics.

TECHNOLOGY

It's all about that engine, the twin turbo diesel V8 adapted from cousin company Audi then fettled and finessed to the degree described above. Putting out a 252kW and a mountainous 850Nm from 2000rpm, it out pulls most any petrol engine while sounding every bit as pretty to the ear.

Reaching 100km/h from standing in 5.7 seconds isn't bad for any 2.1 tonne missile, let alone one driven by means not long ago dismissed by this very marque. It's barely more than a second slower than the 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet, with which it shares the darkly magical Porsche Traction Management all-wheel-drive system. Combined with Porsche Stability Management, this settles any prattle about under or oversteer by removing the matter entirely from humans hands. In hard cornering, the inside rear wheel is relieved of responsibility by the one outside, setting up the up the most rapid corner exit. Turn it all off, or as off as possible, and see if you can do better. Or rather, don't. It's a question of constantly motoring mac apportioning torque, permitting to wheel than can be put down - a question it answers emphatically.

Conversely, a cruising range of some 1200km using is claimed from the 100-litre tank at an ideal average of 8.3l/100km - a rate comparable to a Mazda3.

DESIGN

Loathe SUVS or merely hate them, the Cayenne is  the least visually offensive of this breed. Those Porsche exterior accents do a remarkable job of disguising this thing's immense bulk.

Within the cabin sets a standard the 911 has only with its latest model began to emulate. Of shared and comparably humble origins the Cayenne surely is, but this interior -  lush without being over embellished - is all its own thing, one of the best of any type. It'll be interesting to see how cousin Bentley does with its own imminent and barge bummed SUV.

SAFETY

Porsches don't get crashed in laboratories. While the Q7 anomalously scored only four stars when released, the Touareg got all five.

As with the Carrera 4, however, the Cayenne's singular battery of active electronic safety measures remove any but the most egregiously human changes of putting its crash proof ness to the real world test.

DRIVING

While we've carped the Carrera 4 is possibly just a bit too clinically brilliant for the sake of fun, much the same tech arsenal makes the Cayenne an unalloyed joy. For an SUV that is. It's all relative.

Squeezing by and around other vehicles on high mountain roads with origins in horse and dray days should be the very definition of difficult in something of the Cayenne's displacement. That it isn't says everything for technical accomplishment of the Stuttgart car maker.

Hunched in its lowest suspensions setting, such is the response of this superb diesel that again it  the "car like" cliche that comes to mind. The merest throttle openings are enough to keep overtaking exposures to a sports sedan like minimum, the constantly varying all-wheel-drive working so seamlessly you scarcely suspect such electro-trickery's at play.

All the while there's that cliche shattering engine note. If you can detect diesel in that, you're paying too much attention to the noise and failing to enjoy the crushing torque that only turbo diesel can bring.

VERDICT

A new departure and new prestige SUV benchmark