Ownership Verified: "Diesel" is the closest thing to a "Texas Edition" that Porsche offer

Nugget

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"Diesel" is the closest thing to a "Texas Edition" that Porsche offer

Apparently the boat from Germany was faster than expected and our 2015 Cayenne Diesel arrived in Houston on Wednesday, a couple weeks ahead of schedule. The dealer had it cleaned up and ready for delivery by Friday. This is way earlier than Porsche expected, evidenced by the fact that there are no owner's manuals ready yet. I'll have to swing by and pick that up in a few more weeks. I'm not even sure they were supposed to release the vehicle before November, but I'm sure my salesman was eager to get the sale in his October numbers so here we are...



This truck replaces our old 2012 WRX and will serve as my daily driver as well as the tow vehicle for the track car.

With less than 60 miles on the odometer it's hard to have too many opinons. 2015 is a minor facelift of the Cayenne, and the changes are relatively minor over the previous years. Interior is effectively unchanged (although now it has the same steering wheel as the 918 Spyder -- which is weird, right?). The air suspension is a dream on the horrible Houston roads around my house and office. I never thought I'd ever own an SUV, but life has a way of being weird sometimes. A few things I've noticed so far:

Sadly, even though I declined the sport chrono, I've got the wart on the dashboard (in clock form). The online configurator made it look like I might escape without the thing. If I'd known I was going to get the wart no matter what, I'd have probably specced the Sport Chrono. I might have been tempted to get the "center upper dash" extended leather option too.

Seeing it in person, the rear-view mirror in leather (AVW) is "kinda nice." The completionist in me wants it, but if I'm honest it doesn't really add a lot:


The steering column casing in leather (ALL) is "really nice" and very noticeable especially from the passenger seat:


It took us forever to find the heated steering wheel button (sure would have appreciated an owner's manual to assist).

I wasn't sure what to expect with the door leather surrounds in leather (ALT) but it was definitely worth getting, especially with the non-black leather. It's subtle but very nice not having that plastic right next to you. It matches the rest of the leather on the door very nicely:


I'm really digging the LED headlamps, they look imposing and very cool:


I also bought an amethyst metallic key cover (thanks Suncoast!) for equiraptor so we can keep our two keys straight. Somehow she managed to get Key #1 again this time, leaving me with the shameful Key #2. Grr!


And here's a proof pic:
 
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I've said this before, but...

HOLY CRAP!

HOLY CRAAAAAAAAP.

Whatcha doin' LeMons weekend? So, uh, wanna test out the towing capabilities?

Also, I MUST SEE IF IT WILL BUNNY!

I have to agree:
a) I never thought I'd be superjealous of a SUV purchase, either, or need a mahogany metallic one of my own to fill with spare wheels and Puffalumps.
b) Yeah, it's because racecar.
 
Very nice!
 
I want to prod all the buttons and touch all the leathers.

Also, I just noticed the HVAC is set to metric. Nice touch. :lol:
 
"Texas Edition" = heated steering wheel? :D :p

Good car for sure, well as good as an SUV can be... ;) have fun with it!
 
I've already favorited a few photos over on Flickr, but I had to stop by to give my stamp of approval, and also give you some rep. Now take a road trip here to Orlando so I can see this thing!
 
Brown interior... so 70s :)
Porsche must be stuck in the 70s. If you want the "natural leather" interior (which is a significant upgrade from the standard leather), your choices are brown or brown (espresso or espresso and cognac - we have the latter).

Also, I just noticed the HVAC is set to metric. Nice touch. :lol:
The oil pressure gauges in the Porsches are labeled in bar, rather than PSI, as well. And that's not a user controlled setting - that is just how it is.

"Texas Edition" = heated steering wheel? :D :p
Oh, certainly yes! *cough* The trick of it is, you only get to use the heat if you can find the button to turn it on. On prior Porsche steering wheels, the button was in the back, but it's not on this one. I've found it, but only because I carelessly threw my thumb around while turning aggressively.

I've put most of the current 58 miles on the thing, so a "first drive" review, perhaps? Warning: The following is colored by "new car excitement". ;)

In short, it's definitely a Porsche. Some cars are perfectly happy to sit back sedately, accelerating gently, conserving fuel, turning for the comfort of your passengers and cargo. This thing, big as it is, diesel-equipped as it is, still calls out to go. The automatic transmission has 8 gears. EIGHT! With that many gears and a big diesel engine, there's always torque eager to push you ahead. Combine that with a fairly eager throttle response (not a laggy drive-by-wire, this), and it gets you off the line quite well. It keeps pulling, too, up through gear after gear. Admittedly, it's only been on central Houston freeways so far (so relatively low speed limits), but I'm pleased with the acceleration at this point.

Most of our driving has been on the city streets, which means lots of 90? turns. This particular vehicle not only has PASM, but also has the air suspension, so it's rather flat through the corners. The fantastic damper tuning, too, means it holds its tires on the ground well, even over rough pavement. While I have no doubt the WRX had better handling on a track, on the rough Houston roads the Cayenne feels more confidence inspiring, more consistent, more predictable. I turned out of the grocery store parking lot yesterday, on the way home, in a way the WRX simply couldn't have. The WRX couldn't have kept its tires on the road. The Cayenne did, and was able to use its torque through the turn, slotting us into a gap in traffic with ease. I actually can't comment much on the steering feel at this time - I'd say it's the suspension that's given me what confidence I have. The tires are all-seasons in 265/50R19, and just from that, I'm not expecting super fantastic steering feel.

The vehicle feels huge. When I try to park it, I feel like it's bleeding across every line - both sides, front, and back. Then I get out and look, and it's taking up barely more space than the WRX did. I think it's the higher ride height fooling me. I'm used to seeing certain things out the windows to figure out where the edges of the car are and the higher ride height has changed the visual cues I'll need.

All of this driving, BTW, has been done with the vehicle in "normal" mode. It has a Sport button. I haven't yet touched said Sport button. One of the things that has surprised me is the lock-up in low gears. In normal mode, on the street, under about 25 mph (40 km/h, perhaps?) the torque converter stays locked up and the transmission holds its gear. This means it noticeably slows when I lift off the throttle at this pace. I wasn't expecting that - none of the other automatics I've had were programmed this way. I was expecting effectively no compression braking from the thing, since it's an automatic, or maybe a touch of compression braking if I left it in manual mode. I'm pleasantly surprised by this programming.

I'm eager to spend more time in it on my "normal" roads, which is where I'll learn the vehicle most quickly.
 
At the time we ordered, the color choices on the diesel were very limited. It was basically flat white, metallic white, flat black, metallic black, dark brown, dark blue, silver, or a desaturated brown that to me looked sickly (someone on our street has one. I do not like it). Paint to sample was not available at the time (still isn't, I think). I do not want a large, dark vehicle in Texas when the vehicle will likely spend all day in the sun at track events, so that limits our choices to flat white, metallic white, or silver. The metallic white is more... interesting... than either the silver or the flat white, so that's what we went with. The metallic fleck in it is very subtle, but it ends up being a slightly different shade of white.

Now, the Peridot Metallic is available - that hideous bright green. It's pale enough to not be roasting in the Texas sun and definitely interesting. I would have considered that. I'd have loved it if the blue on the Macan was available on the Cayenne - it's a bright blue not that far off from the WRB of the WRX, and I'd have been very happy with it. But no. We got to choose between boring, boring, boring, and boring, so chose the most practical boring for the environment where we live.
 
On the color front, I really liked the mahogany metallic while playing around with the online configurator, but when we actually went to the dealership and looked at the colors in person I didn't care for it nearly as much as I thought I would. I think it looks spectacular on a 991 Targa, but the Cayenne is just so freaking huge it doesn't work as well in person as I'd hoped. Color is strictly a matter of taste, of course, but I think the white looks really great with the natural leather interior and it will certainly be a livable color here in Texas. I mean, this looks really classy to me:



Additional notes from our driving around yesterday --

The bluetooth in the radio is more annoying than the Subaru. In the WRX you could stop the car then come back later and the song you'd been listening to would start right back up. With the Porsche PCM, it reverts back to radio when you first start up instead of just patiently waiting for the bluetooth handshaking to complete. It's jarring and you then have to manually choose bluetooth once it's ready. I hope there's a fix for that behavior, but I'm not optimistic.

Nobody seems to want to cut you off when driving this thing. It's not just an SUV reaction, because I drive my business partner's X3 sometimes and it's not the same at all. But in the Cayenne it seemed like everyone gave us space and consideration on the road in a weird way I was not accustomed to.

The panoramic roof is really great. I'm so happy to have gotten it.

Also: lowest redline on a Porsche I've ever seen! :)

 
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This is the 3.0 V6 TDI Audi uses, right?
 
Wow. If you squint, you can almost see an engine under there. :lol:
 
Which of the many 3.0 V6s is this? 286 or 313hp i'd guess?
 
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