1,000 miles in a Cayenne

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I got my 2010 Cayenne GTS about 2 months ago and just crossed 1,000 miles. Some thoughts on it. I got it specifically to take the place of a BMW coupe and Tundra pick-up.

First, in my experience, no other vehicles checks as many boxes as this truck. It's very fast, handles amazingly well, luxurious, comfortable and can tow 6200 lb of steel and trailer without drama. See below.

The truck has far exceeded any expectation I had before looking at them and reading up. What vehicle can you drive fast, corner hard in luxury and then tow up to 7700 lb?

The good and the bad

The Good
There is no one best part of this GTS. It's easy to say the engine, but then there are the brakes, also the seats (they are that good), but the air suspension is beyond superb. I find myself anticipating exit ramps just to see how fast I can go through the curves. I'm not sure if Porsche geared the GTS differently than the S or mapped it differently, but it's very different. Definitely race truck. Kickdown and acceleration are addictive. Brakes are standard Porsche Hand of God +1. I had the opportunity to appreciate them today with a fully loaded trailer but in general, excellent stopping power without any drama. And then there are the Alcantera seats which I think are only found on the GTS. If you have a Turbo or S or V6, it would be worth it, IMHO, to find a used pair of these seats and install them.

There are a lot of neat little things, heated steering wheel, lights that turn on in the direction you are going when maneuvering at low speed, auto tilt wheel and seat, etc.

The Bad
Bose Surround Sound stereo. Worst high end factory sound system I've ever heard. I plan on sinking a lot of money into fixing it someday. My 07 328i had a significantly better stereo system. The Bose sounds like a really nice clock radio.

Horn. Pretty sure a 1973 Honda CVCC had a better horn. Putting 80s 911 horns into as soon as I can.

Touchscreen. Takes your eyes off the road. Pretty lame in general. Replacing it as part of the stereo upgrade someday.

So far I've been fixing niggly little things, hoping to replace the K&N air filters with Mann this weekend. Brakes are too good to replace now but looking forward to doing those. Started to replate hardware I've take off the engine tray while cleaning those up.

I'm sure there's other stuff but really it's just a joy to drive (which I never could have imagined) and hard to keep your right foot out of the pedal. Today I had to pick up steel to build a paint shop. 2200 lb trailer, 4000 lbs of steel. Truck handled it with ease though when someone stopped short to make a left turn, the 3 cars in front of me slammed on their brakes, as did I, amazing absolutely no drama. Fantastic brakes.

[rfuerst911sc]

Nice review thanks for sharing .

[masraum]

Nice, looks great!

I'd like a Cayenne or Macan, but I don't want to spend the money for one of the fast ones, and I don't want to get one with high miles.

I did drive an AMG GLC43 a while back. That was a blast even in the short drive that I had. I'd have a really hard time keeping my foot out of it for sure.

[Arthropraxis]

Agreed,I have a 2010 GTS with about 60K ish miles. I would add another con, gas mileage is horrible.

[island911]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

The Bad
Bose Surround Sound stereo. Worst high end factory sound system I've ever heard. I plan on sinking a lot of money into fixing it someday.

You should fix it. Because the Bose system in the Cayenne is "the best performing system that Bose ever put into a vehicle." - said a former Bose engineer that I worked with back in 2009. Sheesh. I've had mine for 12 years.

[RNajarian]

Originally Posted by island911

You should fix it. Because the Bose system in the Cayenne is "the best performing system that Bose ever put into a vehicle." - said a former Bose engineer that I worked with back in 2009. Sheesh. I've had mine for 12 years.

The Bose system in my ‘05 sounds great. Best Factory Audio System I’ve ever had.

I wonder if a Durametric would find the bad stereo component. Also if you replaced the PCM wouldn’t you lose some other functions?

[look 171]

Shuan, I thought you bought a beat up high mileage for hauling duties. Man, that one is very, very nice.

[maxnine11]

The Bose stereo in mine sounds like total sh !t.

[island911]

hmmm... Perhaps manufacturing changes over the years. I know that the early Cayennes have more sound insulation than the later ones.

Check the settings? Don't calibrate on highly compressed SD-card music libraries? IDK...

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Quick note, both Durametric and PIWIS 2 say the system is sound (pun intended). The sound just sucks compared to other cars I've had and driven in. Googling, a lot of people agree. Maybe the BMW was just so much better that the Bose is a clear downgrade. It is better than the one in my 2001 Tundra though.

That and I think Bose has become a major player crap home entertainment systems leaving the audiophile world to others.

Anyway, when budget will allow, I'll go a little crazy with a new system. it will definitely be worth it.

[cantdrv55]

Nice SUV. If I didn’t already have another luxury brand SUV, I’d definitely get a Cayenne.

[Superman]

Nice truck Shaun! Though I accept your assessment of the Bose system, and believe your assertion that Bose has likely become the WalMart of audio systems, I just have a hard time believing the stock system cannot sound very good. Like Island, I think this deserves some exploration of the settings and sound file sources. First make sure there is not some magic you could find within the system's existing capabilities.

And no, I am not going to race you. I don't want the humiliation of getting my ass summarily kicked by some guy in a truck.

[David]

The horns are weak at best. I replaced mine with cheap hella horns on a custom bracket and that work great. Plus the Subaru folks think it’s cool! Only drawback was having to pull the whole bumper to install them.

[maxnine11]

On the non-turbo Cayennes you can access the horns after pulling back the inner fender liners. Not great access, but doable. There is a high frequency horn and a low frequency horn. Maybe one of yours is shot? They are in a position that gets a lot of water and grit. This can cause them to fail or work poorly.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by look 171

Shuan, I thought you bought a beat up high mileage for hauling duties. Man, that one is very, very nice.

Thanks Jeff, here's what happened. I was looking for a new Tundra and found an ultra high mile Cayenne S for dirt cheap. One owner, well maintained. That's probably what you saw. In that thread Dan Jacobs (owner high end race car & restoration shop in CT) said he's got the perfect truck for me. Went and drove it, a 2008 S I think. It was very nice and when I posted about it on FB, friends said I should only be looking at GTSs. So I went looking. They are pretty rare and most are either beat on or are perfect and very pricey. I found this one that is in overall great shape with 130K miles and priced right. It is as close to "what I would have ordered in 2009" as you can get. Very happy with the purchase.

Some pics when I got it.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by David

The horns are weak at best. I replaced mine with cheap hella horns on a custom bracket and that work great. Plus the Subaru folks think it’s cool! Only drawback was having to pull the whole bumper to install them.

Originally Posted by maxnine11

On the non-turbo Cayennes you can access the horns after pulling back the inner fender liners. Not great access, but doable. There is a high frequency horn and a low frequency horn. Maybe one of yours is shot? They are in a position that gets a lot of water and grit. This can cause them to fail or work poorly.

I am pretty sure I'm missing the low tone. Nothing that a pair of proper 911 horns won't fix.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by Superman

Nice truck Shaun! Though I accept your assessment of the Bose system, and believe your assertion that Bose has likely become the WalMart of audio systems, I just have a hard time believing the stock system cannot sound very good. Like Island, I think this deserves some exploration of the settings and sound file sources. First make sure there is not some magic you could find within the system's existing capabilities.

And no, I am not going to race you. I don't want the humiliation of getting my ass summarily kicked by some guy in a truck.

Thanks Jim. I've been all through the controls, the stereo just blows, it has no depth. These are the kinds of songs, and much more, I play at volume 9, a lot. There is a lot of passion in songs like these that require being played as loudly and authentically as possible. They sound like a clock radio in the truck.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Having owned a 2009 GTS I totally agree with you Shaun. If you need the towing and hauling capability it’s hard to go wrong, and the GTS is exponentially better than a Cayenne S. Also the Bose audio system in all modern Porsches in total crap. For that matter it has been crap in every OEM Bose audio system equipped car I have ever owned. “No highs, no lows, it must be Bose” is a saying I’ve seen on a lot of web forums. But, be forewarned that if you want to upgrade the audio you’ll be far better off simply gutting everything and replacing the wiring, head unit, and speakers entirely. Otherwise you have to deal with the MOST fiber optic network which requires an adapter for your head unit, and if you want to replace speakers the Bose are typically 2 ohm. Way easier to just totally start over.

[island911]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

Thanks Jim. I've been all through the controls, the stereo just blows, it has no depth. These are the kinds of songs, and much more, I play at volume 9, a lot. There is a lot of passion in songs like these that require being played as loudly and authentically as possible. They sound like a clock radio in the truck.


...

How's the saying go? .. . Garbage in, Garbage out.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Having owned a 2009 GTS I totally agree with you Shaun. If you need the towing and hauling capability it’s hard to go wrong, and the GTS is exponentially better than a Cayenne S. Also the Bose audio system in all modern Porsches in total crap. For that matter it has been crap in every OEM Bose audio system equipped car I have ever owned. “No highs, no lows, it must be Bose” is a saying I’ve seen on a lot of web forums. But, be forewarned that if you want to upgrade the audio you’ll be far better off simply gutting everything and replacing the wiring, head unit, and speakers entirely. Otherwise you have to deal with the MOST fiber optic network which requires an adapter for your head unit, and if you want to replace speakers the Bose are typically 2 ohm. Way easier to just totally start over.

That's what I've read Matt, thanks for confirming. And I would do a complete stereo upgrade as you recommend. My only decision is do I go with a very old school (2001) Eclipse head unit and 2 6-channel ADS Powerplate amps with modern Focal speakers or get one of the new head units which are the annoying touchscreens and JL amps or something like that. One of my customers is a 928 shop and is doing a serious 4 figure system install in a 928 GT hypercar build (550 hp) and I may just copy that.

Will be doing a ton of research deciding which way to go.