Cayenne Reliability
 

So a friend of mine has a growing family, just finished his PhD from Johns Hopkins and got a professorship and mentioned to me yesterday that he really likes the Cayenne. There are several first generation turbos on ebay that look pretty good for around 25K. Seems like a pretty amazing deal to me not knowing much about them.

How reliable are they and what are some of the issues people are having with them?

Thanks!

Everyone on this board who has owned a Cayenne raves about them. The turbos are really fast but thirsty beasts and they eat tires and brakes like any super-heavy 400hp tank. Big tires and brakes, too.

I've heard the only real troublesome thing with them is the air suspension - if you get one without air suspension, they are pretty reliable.

The thing that turned me off about them is that there is no way to reset the oil light - most cars you can push the odometer button and reset the oil light - supposedly the Cayenne needs to be plugged into the computer to be reset.

That may not be an issue for most folks, but I like to do my own maintenance, and that really turned me off.

Picked up an '04 'S' around a year ago. It's been reliable. No problems what so ever. I bought a 3 year warranty with it. I hope something brakes in the next 2 years.

breaks

We got an '04 S recently and it's been fine so far. We'll eventually have the coolant pipes issue probably like they all do, but it is what it is.

'03 Turbos are supposed to be a real mess, '04s are better, '05 an up is where you want to be for those. Ss are the same way, but not as many issues.

Ours has been getting mileage just as good at the M3 in commute traffic (15-17mpg), which really is pretty good when you think about it. Only manages 20 on the highway though.

Have heard that there is a way to rebuild the air system compressor which is the irrating part with $150 worth of parts from the VW dealer and an hour or two of work, so it's not as big of a deal as it used to be. We really wanted it, but it seems very rare to find on an S.

The oil light does need the computer, but you can get one that does a lot of stuff for under $400 if you want to do your own work. The shop we go to has one, I we can always just swing by and borrow it for a reset. Since it's not real spendy, lots of shops have them.

Oh, and they do tend to go through brakes supposedly, but at least the parts are reasonably priced.

I hate when I do that.

I've been loving mine. It makes quick comfortable work of getting me and my cargo up and down the various slaps o'concrete. The cat-like AWD grip is amazing, in all kinds of conditions. I've documented every little issue over on the Cayenne board here. --nothing much. As far as I can tell these are very well engineered (and built) machines.
Britwrench (Mark) tells me it's not that common of an issue up here (in the cool PNW)

But yeah, probably better to be safe, than sorry. ...I think. :-/

I followed one over 34, a twisty road to the coast. I know this one eats brakes...high traffic density that day, nothing to really do but get in line, wait for a passing zone. But this bozo was riding the ass of the guy ahead of him...his brake lights flashing a fast semaphore...

I followed at a fair distance, commented to Cindy that this guy will be at a dealership screaming about why his brake pads didn't last...:rolleyes:

As others have said, Brakes and tires. The coolant pipes too. Those are not fun to do. I did some on a 2005 Cayenne Turbo not too long ago. Here is a photo gallery of that job. PHOTO GALLERY - 543