Cayenne's interior shows stunning fit, finish and quality of its materials. (Photo: Porsche)

Styling: Our tester was a wonderfully understated Cayenne Turbo trimmed out in meteor grey metallic paint, with stone/steel grey full leather interior. Perhaps when you spend $100k for a car, some folks would like something a bit more blingy than the Cayenne. Not me. To my eyes, this color combination worked very well on this body.

After all, the Cayenne isn’t a 911 visually, and so it doesn’t need to be Guards Red or a deep black to look good.

Interior: If you’re a large, middle-age person like I am, it surely is a revelation to have comfortable ingress and egress in a Porsche, and here the Cayenne shines. You don’t have to perform anatomical origami to get in and out, which already gives it a huge advantage over the Cayman and Boxster.

The real revelation, though, is the absolutely stunning fit and finish of the Cayenne’s interior and the quality of its materials. I would put this car up against any other car in any price class for its quality of cockpits materials and assembly. A bold statement, I know, but one that the Porsche backs up.

And give kudos to Porsche for simultaneously including the requisite number of high-tech interior devices — cockpit-adjustable suspension, nav system, etc. — without requiring you to have an engineering degree to operate them.

Functionality is the key word, here: The Cayenne Turbo gives you everything you need in a car in terms of comfort, performance and quality, yet it never is pretentious, fussy or hard to operate. You get in, you drive. Note to some other high-dollar German automakers — this is how it’s supposed to be.

Bottom Line: While the 2009 Porsche Cayenne Turbo certainly is not inexpensive, it is proof of the old saw about getting what you pay for. The Cayenne Turbo is absolutely faithful to Porsche’s core values of performance, quality and competency without making you apologize for bringing the children along with you. In my book, that makes it a winner.

Details

Vehicle type: Five-passenger, four-door SUV, all-wheel drive.
Engine: 4.8-liter, twin turbocharged V-8
Transmission: 6-speed Tiptronic automatic
Wheelbase: 112.40 inches
Length: 188.78 inches
Curb weight: 5192 pounds
EPA gas mileage: 12 city/19 highway

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to