Thinking about a 2005 S Cayenne
 

I might have the opportunity to buy a 05 S and I was hoping to obtain more info on the vehicle as I know little about them.
Have they established a long enough history yet? How difficult are they to maintain? I thought I heard once an oil change at the dealer was $800!

What should i look out for, and do they have issues or needs? Thanks for the help. J.

The '03 and '04 models are the MYs to stay away from. I'm sure if you take it to the dealer it will be expensive to maintain. I've given mine the once over checking out how hard things will be to maintain and it appears that all the typical maintenance doesn't appear to be much worse than my 911 (brakes, oil changes, etc). Of course, you'll need something like the Durametrics(?) software to clear out the fault codes and reset the service light.

I don't think an oil change from the dealer is gonna be $800, it takes 0w40 Mobil 1, so you can always just do it yourself.

I've heard they drink a little oil and it even states it in the user manual, but my Cayenne hasn't shown itself to drink oil yet.

The best thing to do is to go out and drive a few to know what you're getting into.

Thanks for the info!

Its $250 for the oil change, but they check everything like brakes, fluids, tires....

I like it.

05's for the most part are good. Prices are really good now and if you find the right truck go for it. I would say get one with a CPO warranty as any repairs are stupid expensive. Oil you can easily do yourself.

There are several know issues; coil packs, coolant tubes, etc. but find one with a good history and you should be fine.

I agree with the CPO warranty and checking the history of the vehicle. However, I thought they had the coil packs and coolant tubes fixed by the '05 models since they fixed the electrical gremlins and cardan(?) shaft issues on the '05s.

Guys this is great info, keep it comming. I certainly know now not to even consider one earlier than an 05.

I had to have my coils done the third day I had my 05. I know there are cases of the 05's with the coolant tube problem. I hope my go before warranty :D

coil packs go bad when the housing plastic insulation splits (shorts to ground) And, as coil packs go the 955's are cheap (low cost) and easy to replace. Porsche sent me some recall notice, but it didn't apply to mine.

As to model year; condition, price and mileage trump MY. -when purchasing, I was looking at 3 main contenders; an 04, 05 & 06. I had read about problems some have had with older peppers, but.... The 06 had a strange engine rattle at 1200rpm and a foamy oil under the cap. The 05 had a long list of broken little parts (missing covers, melted headlight seals, ...) The 04, clean, well maintained. (yeah, guess which I bought...)

I'll also add, that I had limited myself to only those 955's with PASM (air-suspension). If one limits themselves to 05 or newer, as well as any 'have to have" feature or color, you are doing yourself a disservice.

Oh, the oil changes are a bit of a PITA ... lots of screws to remove the underside covers. Tho', also of note, the air-suspension is a big help. --no jacking around ...just set to "special terrain. " (high clearance ) :D

Dumb Question
 

What is "MY" mean?
Sorry been away from Pelican Parts for a long time but looking at buying a Cayenne and trying to figure out if I should.

Thanks
Thom

I think model years

Duh
 

That makes sense. My Bad....

Thanks
Thom

Which one is the better engine? V6 or V8? I do care about fuel economy but it is not priority 1...

boris,
I am with you on that question. It shows that the V6 gets like a combined 2MPG better. But don't know real world.

FWIW, I think the 04 thing has become internet lore.

The simple fact is that they produced almost twice as many 04 units than 05 and 06 COMBINED! So the perception of issues is skewed greatly. For example if the same percentage of Cayennes have an issue, twice as many 04 will be in the shop for it simply because there are twice as many of them.


Now add in that an 04 on average will have more miles on it than anything newer simply because of its age and it compounds the perspective issue. Especially in the early years of the model. When the 04 was 2-3 years old and the 05-06 barely had any miles on them.

Many of the early issues were corrected with warranty and normal maint. Many of the issues like coils, control arm bushings, coolant pipes, driveshafts, etc effected ALL years of the early Cayennes. The odds of an 04 having the latest part numbers at this point are pretty good. Even newer than part numbers that came on 06s. (for example, I just put on new control arms and they are the 8th revision of the control arm, so were the coils.

The DVD nav is really the only big reason to look for an 05.5+ Otherwise it really is all the same.

Streetcrawler,
Great points. I found an 04S and have had it for a little over a week and WOW I love it...


Thanks
Thom

Hope you continue to love it!


I love my CTT !