First Drive: 2019 Porsche Cayenne
The Blue Mountains, ON - Necessity is the mother of invention, or so the saying goes. In the early 2000s Stuttgart鈥檚 fabled Porsche brand was in trouble. Producing only two cars鈥攖he 911 and the Boxster鈥攚as just not enough to pay the bills. Porschephiles and car enthusiasts everywhere gathered in an angry mob accusing Porsche of losing its way. These were the same people still sobbing about the 911鈥檚 departure from air-cooled engines, choosing instead to go with new water-cooled units. 911 fans can be a difficult bunch to please, overly sensitive to change no matter how small. An SUV from the maker of one of the most legendary and successful sports cars in the world was decidedly blasphemous. Luckily for them though, the Cayenne proved a resounding success, helping to nearly double Porsche鈥檚 sales volume over the following years. The polarizing first-generation Cayenne with its fried-egg headlights and frumpy styling won drivers over with impeccable road feel and sporty handling that belied the size and mass of the thing.
And unlike some of the competition, the Cayenne didn鈥檛 shy away from off-roading duty but rather embraced it with standard locking differentials and low range gearing, giving it the capability to go almost anywhere. Optional turbo power made this the fastest SUV at the time, capable of lapping the Nurburgring in just 8 minutes and 42 seconds. For 2019 there鈥檚 a brand new Cayenne, arriving in dealer showrooms at the time of this writing. Porsche Canada invited us to put this new model through its paces on a drive route that would take us from Pearson Airport up to Creemore and then to our destination in The Blue Mountains. As far as redesigns go, Porsche is typically conservative choosing not to mess with a successful formula. Although every single body panel is new, you have to look hard to spot the differences, especially from the front. Larger air intakes give the new Cayenne a wider appearance, and the standard LED lighting with distinctive elements are one way to tell it apart from the old model.
The LED taillights have turned into an elegant thin strip that spans the width of the rear hatch housing the Porsche logo in the middle. This is a nip and tuck style surgery that has retained what was best about the last model and refined what wasn鈥檛. The overall design aligns the Cayenne with the rest of the Porsche family, taking elements from all the models and blending them in a cohesive fashion. Even though it鈥檚 grown a bit wider, taller, and longer you really can鈥檛 tell. But there鈥檚 more room in the interior and a full 100 litres of extra cargo space. On the inside, the centre console full of hard buttons makes way for a sleek black touch panel very similar to the one in the new Panamera. While it looks fantastic, I found myself having to take my eyes off the road for too long. A bit of time to get familiar with it made things better, but I still miss the lack of buttons that now seems to be the norm with most luxury car makers. A new 12.3-inch centre touch screen sports ultra-sharp graphics and the latest version of Porsche Communication Management (PCM).
The instrument cluster also features two user-configurable 7-inch screens on either side of the analog tachometer. New rear seats have a 10-way manual adjustment and had a good amount of room for my 6-foot frame. Build quality is tight as a drum and everything feels like its milled out of a block of steel. Lifting the center armrest cover multiple times makes for a great tricep workout. The body is now made almost entirely out of aluminum and there鈥檚 also more of it in the chassis which sees a 20 percent increase in torsional rigidity. It鈥檚 helped to make this the lightest Cayenne yet: 275 lbs lighter than the previous generation and a whopping 461 lbs lighter than the first generation. A redesigned suspension and a standard 19-inch staggered wheel setup (20 and 21-inchers are available) take advantage of the reduced weight to help make this Cayenne more agile through the corners. We had a good mix of twisty roads to put this new SUV through its paces.
An excellent driving position and a large greenhouse make for an easy car to drive. The steering is pin sharp and provides good feedback. Through some of the tighter, slower corners the weight and relatively high centre of gravity make itself apparent but the stiffly sprung chassis remains solid and planted. Body roll is minimal and the grip is astounding for something of this size. I recently drove the new X5 and this new Cayenne easily had the superior driving dynamics displaying more eagerness to turn in, less body roll, and a general playfulness that wasn鈥檛 present in the Bimmer. Our tester was the base Cayenne, that comes with a 3-litre single-turbo V6 that pumps out 335 hp and 332 lb-ft of torque at a low 1340 rpm. Coupled with a new 8-speed automatic, now sourced from ZF, it can scoot to 100 km/h in 5.9 seconds. The X5 makes similar power but is a tick or two faster to 100. Either way, the power is more than adequate and should be enough to satisfy most customers.