REVIEW

The Cayenne is widely regarded as the car that saved Porsche. While it caused a lot of controversy when it was launched in 2004, the Cayenne rapidly became Porsche’s biggest selling model and opened the door for the Panamera saloon and smaller Macan SUV which now far outsell the company’s sports cars. Porsche bosses have repeatedly said that there wouldn’t be a GT program (that creates the 911 GT3, GT2 etc) without the money that the Cayenne brings in. Well now the Cayenne is in its third generation and although from the front you’d struggle to tell it apart from the previous model, it’s all-new and better than ever. The rear sees the biggest changes on the outside, with a slim, wide rear light setup that mimics the one on the Panamera Sport Turismo, while the interior takes obvious inspiration from the latest Panamera too, with a high centre console and large infotainment screen. This Cayenne S sits between the base model and Turbo, and gets an all-new 2.9 litre twin turbo V6 petrol engine putting out a feisty 436bhp – that’s more than the old Turbo model! With all that power the 0-62mph time drops to 5.2 seconds and you can top out at 164mph should you find yourself on an Autobahn.