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New Models
DRIVEN: Cayenne GTS Hits Winning Formula
Porsche’s best-selling model is an SUV, which includes an impressive driving edge along with ego-boosting bragging rights.
The Porsche Cayenne GTS easily slogged along the slippery mud surface of a rain-soaked Arizona desert road. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
Porsche has become more of an SUV company than a sports-car company. Not really a surprise, though still heretical to the Porsche performance community.
Cayenne’s remarkable sales success gives Porsche leaders something to crow about and greater opportunity to thumb their noses at the naysayers who once forecast that the Cayenne would drag the small automaker under like a rowboat tied to a two-and-a-half-ton SUV.
My recent drive of the latest Cayenne GTS provided some clarity. The performance, handling and overall drivability are absolutely superb, the interior is splendid and the Cayenne’s ability to turn heads and provoke glowing comments is a significant ego booster. Could have been those gleaming red brake calibers shining through the glossy-black spoked wheels.
I’m not sure when the transition happened of Cayenne topping Porsche’s sales, but results for February show yet another month in which Cayenne purchases far exceeded those of Porsche’s renowned sports cars or its image-busting four-door luxury sedan.
In U.S. sales last month, Porsche sold 2,805 vehicles, up 31 percent over February 2012, with 1,173 of them being Cayennes, the automaker reports. The next-highest seller was the new 911, at 855, then the Boxster/Cayman, 392, and the Panamera sedan, 385.
In starker terms, then, many fewer than half of Porsche sales were of sports cars.
For well-off drivers, the Cayenne presents a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too opportunity to drive a Porsche and still have enough space for family, friends and groceries. For those who care about such things, Cayenne’s capabilities both on and off the road are impressive.
The GTS model is new for the second-generation Cayenne. It’s made for drivers who desire all the suspension, braking, styling and other features of the top-dog Turbo model, though without the roaring power of the 500-horsepower turbo V8. Instead, the GTS gets a naturally aspirated version of the V8, which still provides plenty of poke with 420 horsepower, a gain of 20 over the otherwise similar engine of the Cayenne S.
That might sound like a thin market – a slower version of the Turbo – but other than the hot engine, all the good performance and appearance stuff is here for about $26,000 less. Not that the GTS is inexpensive, starting off at around $82,000. But still a lot less, an entire midsize sedan less in the world where most of us live.
The base model Cayenne, priced under $50,000, gets a 300-horsepower V6. There’s also a new gas/electric hybrid model as well as a new turbodiesel-V6 version, Porsche’s first diesel-powered vehicle in North America.
The transmission is an electronically controlled eight-speed automatic that works flawlessly and responds well to its aluminum paddle shifters.
The new generation of Cayenne comes to us about 400 pounds lighter through the inclusion of aluminum and other lightweight materials, as well as removing heft from the suspension and all-wheel-drive system. Compared with the first-generation, the GTS feels more agile and responsive, and with less of a tendency to understeer.
Fuel mileage for the GTS is still paltry.
Cayenne’s remarkable sales success gives Porsche leaders something to crow about and greater opportunity to thumb their noses at the naysayers who once forecast that the Cayenne would drag the small automaker under like a rowboat tied to a two-and-a-half-ton SUV.
My recent drive of the latest Cayenne GTS provided some clarity. The performance, handling and overall drivability are absolutely superb, the interior is splendid and the Cayenne’s ability to turn heads and provoke glowing comments is a significant ego booster. Could have been those gleaming red brake calibers shining through the glossy-black spoked wheels.
I’m not sure when the transition happened of Cayenne topping Porsche’s sales, but results for February show yet another month in which Cayenne purchases far exceeded those of Porsche’s renowned sports cars or its image-busting four-door luxury sedan.
In U.S. sales last month, Porsche sold 2,805 vehicles, up 31 percent over February 2012, with 1,173 of them being Cayennes, the automaker reports. The next-highest seller was the new 911, at 855, then the Boxster/Cayman, 392, and the Panamera sedan, 385.
In starker terms, then, many fewer than half of Porsche sales were of sports cars.
For well-off drivers, the Cayenne presents a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too opportunity to drive a Porsche and still have enough space for family, friends and groceries. For those who care about such things, Cayenne’s capabilities both on and off the road are impressive.
The GTS model is new for the second-generation Cayenne. It’s made for drivers who desire all the suspension, braking, styling and other features of the top-dog Turbo model, though without the roaring power of the 500-horsepower turbo V8. Instead, the GTS gets a naturally aspirated version of the V8, which still provides plenty of poke with 420 horsepower, a gain of 20 over the otherwise similar engine of the Cayenne S.
That might sound like a thin market – a slower version of the Turbo – but other than the hot engine, all the good performance and appearance stuff is here for about $26,000 less. Not that the GTS is inexpensive, starting off at around $82,000. But still a lot less, an entire midsize sedan less in the world where most of us live.
The base model Cayenne, priced under $50,000, gets a 300-horsepower V6. There’s also a new gas/electric hybrid model as well as a new turbodiesel-V6 version, Porsche’s first diesel-powered vehicle in North America.
The transmission is an electronically controlled eight-speed automatic that works flawlessly and responds well to its aluminum paddle shifters.
The new generation of Cayenne comes to us about 400 pounds lighter through the inclusion of aluminum and other lightweight materials, as well as removing heft from the suspension and all-wheel-drive system. Compared with the first-generation, the GTS feels more agile and responsive, and with less of a tendency to understeer.
Fuel mileage for the GTS is still paltry.
The Lyonheart K
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