Gadgetory

lower shorter sleeker rounder and lighter this thing's actually starting to look like a Porsche let's jump in the 2011 Cayenne S and check the tach easy to spot the second-generation Cayenne doesn't come off like such a blunderbuss anymore much more curvaceous has eyes like a Carrera a cabin from a Panamera a shorter nose to tail distance and fuel economy you won't have to hide your head over now inside the new Cayenne you could also be inside the new Panamera they've carried over that cabin design with this wide deep very button laden center console and stack is a lot going on here we have the PDC C which is the full-on in-car electronics package that includes a navigation system it's got a very nice-looking map these days Porsche has come a long way in that and compared to some other poor shows especially some recent 911s they've really moved the screen up and tilted it towards you it's a touchscreen as you can see it's not like any other interface in the car biz you've got this guy here to unroll some sort of mini icon widget buttons no one else really does that when you touch the screen it pulls up a few more things like magnification and direction you've also got a knob to handle zoom here this is kind of a one-off in the auto business let's go to our audio now sources on that guy include am/fm satellite radio discs we have a single disc slot right here and we've also got auxilary which in this case can include bluetooth streaming as well as a standard aux and a USB over here and we have a Bose audio rig that's optional as is the nearly $6,000 Burmaster surround system we can tell you it sounds good but not the most stunning we've heard once we've off the center stack lots of what's devoted to the console our comfort controls and sissy grab bars as well there here on the door and the console you've got cooled seats heated seats all manner of ventilation controls here and here is our 8-speed Tiptronic shifter a manual gate on this side your usual PR nd in the middle and paddles that are very disappointingly mounted on the wheel instead of on the stalk where they should be over here are your drive controls a sport mode here takes over all the vehicle sort of behaviors or you can independently adjust your suspension for comfort normal or sport which includes lowering the chassis you've also got a manual chassis lowering control here and you've got a terrain control over on this side nice Porsche cluster here in front I like the one that's just to the right of the tachometer that is this sort of multifunction round video screen you can check tire pressure look at vehicle stats on mileage and range look at your audio system what you're looking at currently there's navigation texts for your next direction here's a subset of the map there are my phone status indications now for a near hundred thousand dollar car as equipped from a very esteemed engineering company this Cayenne is kind of full of small not so small ergonomic gaffes the worst one has to be the two cupholders here nicely placed beautifully stable and well engineered too well engineered these little prongs that hold your cup together are designed by the devil because they're too stiff and they're too grippy you do like this they won't let go and then all of a sudden that other frustrations include the unlock button the master for the car is over here on the console there isn't one on the doors this overhead console here has lots of Legends printed on these buttons and there's lots of them but they're so flat facing you got to do this and look way underneath there that's fun while you're driving now the engine bay of our cayenne ass holds a wonder of a motor a 4.8 liter v8 with just about everything cool about gas engines going on within it direct injection quad cam or valves per cylinder all manner of variable valve timing throughout it you've also got dry sump lubrication so instead of the usual crankcase hanging down under the engine there's a reservoir offshore and all the lubrication is pumped in under pressure this is about as good as they get the numbers are also nice 400 horsepower 369 foot-pounds of torque it feels good across the rev range aside from where the transmission gets in the way and 1622 mpg 400 horsepower is considerable but power was just not the main memo I got from this car handling was nothing this big or tall or heavy has the right to feel this much like a car and a nimble one at that and not only does it stick but it does so without feeling like it just performed a miracle when it does and that's the real matter I blame the 8-speed Tiptronic automatic for the power delivery being not much like a sports car there's just too much thinking and gear shuffling going on when you stab it need to get some power right now and you can go into sport mode which helps a lot but then there's too much talk nurse and too much busyness in the rpms I just never found a good happy medium between taught and comfortable everyday driving okay let's price this big boy this new generation 2011 cayenne ass basis at about sixty four seven then it's like going to one of those fancy restaurants or even the potatoes are all a cart let's start with PCM which gives you hard drive nav DVD playback USB for iPod and thumb drives it's kind of a key thing but 3,600 bucks XM is still 750 on top of that rear seat entertainment is about three grand just buy a couple iPads and save two thousand a rear park camera and park sensor package is a stunning eighteen hundred dollars no wonder we just had the sensors even the factory can't afford ceramic brakes are an absurdity on an on turbo at eighty two hundred dollars instead spend just a little more on a combination of rear torque vectoring active suspension air shocks and active anti-roll to double down on what this vehicle does best I did a quick tally and could easily put together close to 40 grand in tech and interior options alone before doing all the bespoke stuff on the inside and the outside that isn't tech so it wouldn't be hard to spend more on options than the $64,000 base price of our Cayenne s and there's just something wrong about that