Porsche Cayenne V6 Diesel: King of the premium SUVs

Today’s crop of premium SUV buyers want it all: style, sophistication, on-road performance to rival that of a sports car, offroad prowess that can survive the nuclear holocaust, and yes, diesel because filling up is cheaper.

Many contenders offer themselves to be the King: Merc’s new ML, BMW’s X5, Lexus’ LX and Range Rover’s full-size Rangie. But Merc’s is more of a crossover people carrier-type MPV, with focus on refinement and passenger comfort with some offroad ability. On the other hand the X5, arguably one of the sharpest road-biased SUVs makes no excuses for its lack of offroad ability. The Lexus’ LX570, meanwhile, isn’t exactly the last word in dynamic handling and finesse, and the all-new Ranger is still new and as yet untested. Hence, the jack-off-all-trades and true master of everything SUV-related is the Cayenne.

The all-new second generation Cayenne is a good 400-kg lighter depending on variant and specifications, looks visually shorter and lower (but is actually longer and taller than its predecessor), and comes loaded with Porsche’s Traction Management (a mix of stability and traction control), Porsche Hill Control Terrain Management (off-road assistance software) which allows the Cayenne to brake 40-degree slopes with ease at a steady 3 kph. It also has the impressive Borg-Warner VGT turbocharger-equipped 3.0 TDI V6 with the hot-side-inside turbo location, having the latest Bosch common-rail direct injection system (this engine being fitted in other Volkswagen-Audi products such as Audi’s A6, A8, Q7 and Porsche’s own Panamera V6 diesel, and has direct links with Audi’s own 3.7 V6 race engine on their Le Mans Winning R18 TDI racer) attached to an 8-Speed Tiptronic automatic with paddle shifters behind the steering wheel.

The Cayenne delivers an amazing 245 ps and 550 Newton-Meters of torque to deliver a credible top speed of 240 kph and accelerate to 100 kph in 7.2 seconds, marginally faster than the (lighter) V6 gasoline variant, with our particular test-unit weighing in at just under 2.1 tons.

In offroad mode, the Cayenne raises itself by 268 mm from its base height, and lowers itself by 158 mm at speeds past 30 kph. This mode also helps lardy fat people like me to exit. Aside from these two, the Cayenne has 4 other ride height settings depending on terrain, speed and road conditions; it  offers self-leveling suspension fore and aft to maintain proper balance and, therefore, proper handling dynamics.

The brakes are also impressive: 340-mm front and rear rotors clamped down by Porsche-Brembo brakes, 4-piston stoppers up front and 2-pistons at the back. In sports cars and performance cars, nobody knows and does braking performance better than Porsche-Brembo brakes.  Brake feedback, feel and modulation would shame other purpose-built performance cars; pedal effort isn’t so heavy that it would tire you out completely on a long-drive.

1st-class fitment

On long drives, you’ll love being inside as the Cayenne’s interior offers first-class fitment, style, sophistication and comfort: the front seats adjust 14 ways; the handsome 3-spoke steering wheel has controls for audio, cruise control and vehicle systems, adjusts both tilt and telescopic; not to mention you’re faced with the Porsche-specs 5-cluster, displaying speed, engine revs, fuel and coolant levels on one side, a multifunction-screen on the other, and oil-temp level plus user-defined vehicle settings.

I’ve attended offroad clinics abroad using the Cayenne as a test vehicle and, when equipped with proper offroad tires, my balls run out first prior to the Cayenne’s abilities, so no questions there. On a 42-degree slippery slope, the Cayenne, with five people on board, can expertly climb up a steep hill. This test was validated in 2012 when Porsche held its Roadshow in Clark and we had even more Cayennes scale the steep slopes beside the Clark International Speedway going to the planned autocross track beside the pit garages. Even with regular, highway-terrain tires, the Cayennes easily went both up and down the slopes and offroad trails; the Cayennes take much skill and guesswork out of the equation and provide an amazing driving experience everytime, on or off the beaten path.

Extremely stable, secure

But really, its on-road performance has to be sampled to be believed at. On the highway one can find himself/herself cruising at over 150 kph, defying logic. Once on a drive down south, me and the Missus were enjoying some quality time together when we suddenly noticed that we were leaving everyone behind. A quick glance at the speedo and we were over 150 kph already! Such was the NVH refinement and comfort that it’s easy to creep well past legal speeds with ease. And yet, not once did we felt unsafe, or worried, because the Cayenne is extremely stable, secure and confident. The steering weighs up nicely and evenly as speeds pile up and there’s really good connectivity with generous feel and feedback to handle high-speed maneuvers with ease.

On another instance at a Porsche Club of the Philippines event earlier this year, me and the missus were invited to join and drive up the Cayenne diesel to the ultra-classy and rustic Sonia’s Garden in Tagaytay. In the company of full-fledged 911 sports cars of various vintage, the Cayenne acquitted itself. With four-up on board, we kept pace with the faster sports cars until it got a wee bit too risky. Going up the Santa Rosa-Tagaytay Highway, the Cayenne’s towering ride height allowed me to see further ahead and overtake slower moving cars with ease, thanks to the punchy power and responsive transmission, it was like shooting  fish in a barrel.

The V6 diesel has enough toys and goodies, offers surprisingly good fuel consumption (almost 9 km/liter), has good interior space for long drives, looks much better than its predecessors, sounds amazing (the diesel V6 has been tuned to sound like a Hans Mezger-designed flat-six which powers all high-performance variants of the 911 range), has impeccable build quality, the list of superlatives go on, you literally run out of praises when thinking and describing the Cayenne V6. About the only seriously negative aspect about the Cayenne is its price. Pushing for P7.5 million (basic, with no major options), it is indeed for the well-heeled enthusiast.

With the Cayenne having been extensively tested and signed-off at the famed Nordschleife (Northern Loop or the old track) at the Nurburgring, it’s not so amazing to think that the Cayenne handles high-speed driving with ease having a very stable, secure and confident feel. You’ll run out of talent well before the Cayenne loses its cool. All hail the King of SUVs!