Porsche Cayenne S - long-term review

It’s only taken over 1.25 million sales and 20-something years, but Top Gear is finally running a Porsche Cayenne as a long-term test car. Why haven’t we before? Being completely honest, we’re not really sure. Probably because we were too busy filling the garage with 911 requests – ‘Real Porsches’ as internet forum naysayers would say.

But remember, Cheetos-finger-stained keyboard warriors of the world, Porsche’s SUV is the thing that saved the company from the financial grim reaper. It’s the car that meant 911s and RS products could keep being pumped out of Zuffenhausen. More than that, it’s turned what was once an empty piggy bank into a properly stuffed one. In 2022, one in three cars sold by Porsche was a Cayenne. And that’s with people knowing a fresh upgrade was on the way.

And here is that fresh upgrade: the third-generation Cayenne’s spruce up thanks to a new, sharper face, more screens, upgraded suspension and some interesting engines. But which one to go for? With the base Cayenne priced at £70,400 and the top-of-the-range Turbo E-Hybrid Coupe GT costing £154,000, the spread and spec of Cayenne you can choose from is vast. So we’ve played it safe opting for the middle-of-the-road Cayenne S. Largely because of its engine but also because it’s a good representation of both ends of the spectrum.

Now, that engine. Where most people are shrinking their cylinder counts and overall capacity, for this generation of Cayenne S Porsche has done the opposite: binning the 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V6 that used to power it, and lobbing in a revised 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 that Porsche first developed with Audi back in 2017.

Two body styles are also available to choose from; your conventional boxy SUV shape or a sleeked Coupe. Which, if you didn’t know, is the same as the SUV, only here the designers took a cheese wire to the boot and roofline to give it the perception of being more car-like while also compromising the luggage space at the same time. A lose-lose? Seemingly not. Buyers seem to lap this shape up, so we’d thought we’d try and find out why.

Our car is red. Carmine Red to be precise. That’s £1,851 worth of paint which kicks off some £25k worth of optional extras. Sheesh. The most expensive of which is the £3,555 Sport Design package (sportier bumpers painted in black) and the cheapest is the £9 First Aid Kit (danger never takes a day off).

In between we’ve got everything from £2,546 Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (active anti-roll bars), £2,967 worth of five-spoke 22-inch Exclusive Design Sport wheels and £741 has been spent on jazzy animated tinted rear LED lights. But our car also has adaptive air suspension (£1,760) and agility enhancing upgrades like Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (£1,158) and rear-axle steering (£1,325).

All in all, our Cayenne comes in with a price tag of £113,484. Which is steep. Especially considering some elements of the spec don’t give you the impression it should cost that much. But more on that soon…