Paul O's 5 Great Years with a Gen1 Cayenne!

[Paul O]

2 hours ago, RayK said:

Just don't see this car at all...everyone to their own I guess!

Aye, it's definitely a car that polarises opinion greatly. I didn't like them until I drove one, and have been a big fan ever since.

Plus Ive already owned a Boxster, Cayman and 911, so its good to try another car from the range  

Edited February 26, 2016 by Paul O

[Stuart21UK]

...Macan before the Disco Sport then?

[Paul O]

47 minutes ago, boxsternoob56 said:

...Macan before the Disco Sport then?

I like them, took the mrs to the showroom after we looked at the Disco, but she says it's no bigger than the Evoque and looks like an Astra at the back. Haha! So probably not. 

We both like the panamera though..!

[plynchy]

Started looking at these a few weeks ago after reading a buyers guide on them, then again I keep looking at 944's as well.......

Enjoying the write up

[Stuart21UK]

10 hours ago, Paul O said:

I like them, took the mrs to the showroom after we looked at the Disco, but she says it's no bigger than the Evoque and looks like an Astra at the back. Haha! So probably not. 

We both like the panamera though..!

We went to the Porsche Experience Centre and drove all the current range on Thursday...the Panamera is an odd vehicle...sat in the back the view of the rear of the diver and passenger seats is just odd..sort of thin and tall like the 911, nothing like the KN's 'chairs'...a bit odd as a family car too if you know what I mean, more of a car for the exec.

[Paul O]

It Talks!

I'm sure the car is trying to communicate with me in Morse Code. The amount of beeps this car makes is quite astonishing. I have tried to decipher these for the benefit of all those good readers out there. Note that all of these are 'beeps', I've tried to spell the beep sound so you can hear it in your own head!

• beep - you've put the car in reverse.
• beep-beep-beep : Parking Sensors active
• BEEEEEP : Parking Sensors say you are about to hit something.
• BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP: Parking Sensors have gone faulty.
• boop-boop-boop: You have a text message.
• ANGRY BEEEEEEEEEEP: You have left the door or boot open.
• High pitched short-Beep: You are running low on fuel.
• Bong-bong-bong - You've left the lights on.

Long Journey

Yesterday was the first long trip for the Cayenne, with 140 miles covered in a day. It handled the trip flawlessly and was remarkably comfortable. Usually when I return home, the continual motorway trudge leaves me with ringing in my ears - even in the Evoque. But not so in the Cayenne, I arrived home as fresh as a daisy. Whoop!

The To-Do List Update

• Side Steps. Still to buy.
• Duff parking sensors. One for me to keep an eye on as they are still intermittent!
• Pulsing lights. Still not tested this properly.
• Blacked out rear windows. Not Done.
• Retrofit of cruise control. Possibly.
• Update of sat nav discs. Not Done. I tried to get an update disc from the t'internet, but am told I need the dealer to do a software update first. Hmmm, sounds expensive.
• SIM card for the Phone unit. COMPLETE. PAYG SIM card now in the car and working fine. No mute button though arrrghhh!! Useless for conferences!
• Some CDs. COMPLETE
• A Porsche badge for the rear. Not Done.
• Certificate of Authenticity. I’ll get this from PCGB. On Order
• Spare Key. On Order
• A good interior clean. Booked in!

Edited March 13, 2016 by Paul O

[Jonnyspin]

Enjoy this car, Paul O.

In my early days of Boxsterownership. when I still went to the OPC for servicing, I had a series of 3.2 Cayennes as loan cars, and lover them. The only negative, apart from the image at that time, which I believe has softened, was the horrendous thirst. That's why I couldn't consider one as an everyday car - I 'need' 30mpg. Hence the SQ5 working for my needs.

Edited March 11, 2016 by Jonnyspin

[Paul O]

Certificate of Authenticity

Example pic from the web.

It’s arrived! Hurrah! In a nice little cardboard folder, it comes with a nice Porsche letterhead and hand-signed by the managing director of Porsche Cars Great Britain. Cool!!

The certificate of authenticity confirms a number of things about your car, but perhaps most interest is the options that were supplied at manufacture. For my car the list is as follows: 19” Cayenne Design wheels, Tiptronic S, Coloured Wheel Centres, CD changer, Park Assist, PCM including telephone.

That’s it! So I guess these cars are really well spec’d from new as it also has air conditioning, leather, full electric seats and automatic folding mirrors. Love those mirrors. All automatic like some robot rabbit autonotron pulling its ears back.

Stench-Removal.

I took the car to a local detailer to give the interior a full shampoo clean everywhere and set off one of those deodoriser explosives in the car. When I collected it, it had a neutral smell about it, with a hint of floral. A week on, it now smells of nothing really, which is kind of the point of these. They remove any odours engrained into the headlining, plastics etc. and leave car ready to add your own scent. My preference is Auto Glym’s AutoFresh, which smells lovely. The detailer (OJB detailing) said that sometimes it might not get rid of the smell completely as smoker smell can be really stubborn, if that’s the case to return it and he’ll do it again. He also cleaned the car outside complimentary so it looked as good outside as it did inside.

Whilst I ordinarily use Spearsy for all of my work (Spearsy is top-drawer detailing), he was just in the middle of moving premises when I needed it doing, so thought I’d try OJB for this job and am happy with the results.

 

The To-Do List Update

Certificate of Authenticity. COMPLETE.
SIM card for the Phone unit. COMPLETE.
Some CDs. COMPLETE  
A good interior clean. COMPLETE.
Private number plate. COMPLETE. I purchased a new plate with both mine and the wife's initials on it. I had the plate made up at the local Porsche dealer. Free coffee, browse around nice motors and the Porsche dealer title on the bottom of the plate. Finishes the car off nicely.

Update of sat nav discs. NOT DOING. After a few months with it, no in-car SatNav can even compare to Google maps on the iPhone, so seems little point. The Cayenne PCM is great as a ‘get you home’ tool, but the pain and problem of updating it doesn’t seem worth it when the iPhone can do the job for free.

Spare Key. On Order for this month.
Side Steps. Still to buy. In plan for this month.

Blacked out rear windows. Not Done. In plan for next month

Duff parking sensors. One for me to keep an eye on as they are still intermittent!
Pulsing lights. Still not tested this properly.
Retrofit of cruise control. Possibly.
A Porsche badge for the rear. Not Done.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Paul O

[John T]

Now then Paul

 

Great thread Mate. I'm not a fan of the looks personally but have no doubt its a great car to drive, it is a Porsche after all. The enthusiasm and detail of your write ups is great to read though, full of emotion and feeling, I like that  

[Paul O]

Hello, Ladies….

I bring surprising news! This car seems to turn more than its fair share of heads. Admiring glances can be spotted on many occasion when driving about in this car. I certainly hadn’t expected that, but perhaps this aging SUV still carries a degree of cache, with Father Time having softened the appearance somewhat as SUVs are now ubiquitous on our roads.

…Except my lady.

Unfortunately, my good lady wife cannot get on with this car. At all. She doesn’t like driving it, doesn’t feel in control with the automatic, and it’s too big and too clunky. Something has to be done. In fact, something has been done in that we’ve bought another car to go alongside the chunky Cayenne. Never before have any of our cars divided our opinions so extremely. I love driving this car, its cheap to buy and relaxing to drive. The Mrs hates it. We are typically somewhere off centre with our opinion of cars. Some of our previous ones she has loved, I thought were OK, and visa-versa. Not with the Cayenne. This is a love-hate relationship. But since its staying for the time being, we’ve added another car to the fleet. J

The Cayenne will remain as our family car for long hauls and holidays as it is really comfortable for all of us, and for my commutes to the office when needs must.

[2Epic]

Cool thread man. My uncle wants a Cayenne!!! but he says they use too much petrol. i think hes talking about getting a later one as they are meant to be better.

[Paul O]

Oh yes, they like a drink! Avoid the 4.5 as engines can go pop. Mpg on mine is about 17mpg around town, 22 on a commute and 25 on a long unhindered motorway cruise.

But an old car will cost you £7k, a newer on maybe £15k... That's a lot of petrol.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Paul O

[Menoporsche]

17 minutes ago, Paul O said:

Avoid the 4.5 as engines can go pop. 

 

Sounds like a true Porsche!

[Paul O]

6,000 miles and 6 months on the Cayenne has been our chunky trooper. The time has certainly flown by and so far, overall, so good. Here is a reflection on our time with the Cayenne, along with some recent updates:

The Good.

I have a new spare-key! Hurrah! Porsche Euro ordered the key for me and it arrived a few weeks later. Not cheap at a few hundred quid, but I decided it was a price worth paying should my only key suddenly develop a fault. Whilst John was coding the key, I mentioned to him the flickering lights and the fact the car seems to rock itself when stood idle. A quick check with his expert eye and a confident declaration that the alternator was knackered. A new one from Porsche was an eye watering £800, with a pattern part coming in at £400ish for the parts only. However, John had a third solution: “I can have the existing part refurbished for much cheaper”. Let’s do that then! A week later, and a full on door-to-door collection and return service of my car within the day and John had fixed all of these problems with the refurb of the alternator. The cost? £220. Superb value!! I’d highly recommend Porsche Euro.

In other news, everything else is working fine so far, and the interior is holding up well. Very relaxing to drive. I love it. The Mrs would still like a Discovery Sport though...

The Bad.

MPG? Christ. It drinks the stuff! DRINKS it, I say. I think it sniffs petrol even when turned off.

I’ve also got a puncture. I need to get that fixed.

The stench of smoke is still making an appearance too, despite the big valet that I had done a few months ago. I purchased a bottle of AutoGlym odour eliminator to try and that seems to be really good. I suspect the headlining is the main issue, but a good squirt every week or so and it seems to be sorting it. It’s certainly nowhere near as bad as when I bought the car.

I think I do want cruise control; it is something I am really missing on the monthly 160 mile round-trip. That’s probably the only thing that’s missing really from the actual driving experience.

The stereo is a strange one. It sounds absolutely fine, and it is incredibly bass-y if you want to crank up the choons. However, it lacks the clarity of the Bose system from my Cayman, and definitely much worse than the Meridian system in the Evoque. It’s not unpleasant by any stretch, it just sounds a bit ‘dull’ on high volume. But I’m being picky. And I don’t listen to loud music very often either.

The Ugly.

Cayenne Scratch

Oops. My own stupid fault. I decided I wanted to see if I could get the Cayenne into a single width garage by myself without anyone watching. Heading nose-first was a no-no, impossible to see around the sides of the car, so I reversed in instead. All was going well until I got the front wings, when I heard a crunch. I thought this was merely the wheels landing on the drain grates in front of the garage, but as I continued back, the ongoing crunching suggested otherwise. I looked out of the window to see the wing attached to the bricks. Fek!! Next job: Chipsaway.

Edited July 15, 2016 by Paul O

[Stuart21UK]

unlucky...

[Paul O]

New Ditchfinders!

I have somehow ended up with a slow puncture on one of the rear tyres, which was halving its pressure every few weeks. A repair was needed and so I took it to my local ATS. They do a standard check across all wheels and noticed that the tyre on the opposite side of the axel had hit the replacement wear markers. I always replace my tyres in pairs, and so there was little point in continuing with a puncture repair. Instead I asked for a price to replace the tyres, requesting the budget variety as this car doesn't do any extreme sports - be that seat-of-your-pants driving, or cliff mountaineering.

The tyre fitter came back a few minutes later with a price on the Simita tyres that I also have on the front, at a very reasonable £89 each. Ever the bargain hunter, I checked Black Circles who were similar in price for a set of budget tyres and so I elected to book directly with ATS for the Simita models.

The next day, they had arrived and were fitted. I'm a few hundred quid lighter in the wallet, but I knew I'd have to replace these, this year, when I bought the car anyway.

Onward for more happy days of motoring in the Cayenne beastie!

 

[Paul O]

Sat Nav Update

I looked into updating my Nav a while ago but was told that I’d need a software update from Level A on the PCM to Level C, which would then accept the new maps, which sounded too much like hard work as it would require time at the OPC. I didn’t want new maps that much.

However, at a recent car meet I got talking to a fellow owner who happened to have the discs to perform the update.

And so I decided to give it a go and nine minutes after starting the process, the update was completed! I had to put Level B disk in the head unit, then C into the Nav unit, and finally my new Map DVD into in the navigation drive. Voila! I am now up to 2015 maps. This is great, it now knows about various motorway link roads which weren’t around in 2005, and also recognises that my street is finished!

It brings additional extras too, such as the traffic reports and auto-diversion for major issues – something which I had on my previous 911 and it was very useful. It also has improved display on junctions, the nav will zoom in on a ‘target’ showing when you need to take action. It’s a small, but useful improvement over the standard nav of 2005.

No postcode search still – and that will probably never change, but at least it now knows the majority of street names.
All in all, it gives me the confidence back in the product and that I can now put my google maps away on the phone and be relatively sure that the nav will take me the best way home possible. Don’t get me wrong, it is still not as good as the Google Maps that you may have on the phone, the PCM simply doesn’t know about every minor delay (I still don’t know just how google knows about these so precisely, very clever tech!) and therefore isn’t as intuitive for the best way home all of the time – but it will avoid any major delays during travel.

The only thing (aside from postcodes) that is really missing now from the PCM is Bluetooth for the phone. Integration is possible via Dension and similar adapters, but it really isn't worth the expense. There are also aftermarket stereo systems available which look very similar to the Cayenne Gen2 model PCM. These systems are bang up to date with tech, but for what I use it for, I think I'll stick with my stock system and its updated maps.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Paul O

[EXY]

As entertaining as always Mr. O 

[Richard Hamilton]

23 hours ago, Paul O said:

Sat Nav Update

No postcode search still – and that will probably never change, but at least it now knows the majority of street names.
 

I don't know if you are aware, but it does have partial postcode searches.  Enter the first few digits of the post code in the 'Town' field when entering a destination (WF10 5, for example), and it will then list the areas and roads within that code.

[antjrice]

Love this thread.

I want one of these next as the family wagon so this is very interesting.

[Paul O]

Thanks fellas, appreciate the feedback and comments!

Richard - yep, I know about the partial but thanks for mentioning it. I've not found it very useful to be honest as it doesn't seem to get close enough to where I actually want to be and the town is sometimes faster to key in anyway. I wonder why Porsche/Garmin can't just add in the extra codes to the maps database to give it full function? I'm sure it can't be beyond them to do it technically - I suspect maybe its to keep the tech of its time and get you into something newer? Who knows!

I do love this car though. I have been browsing the auto-t for the newer models (2011 shape), and some nice kit available, now starting at £25k. But then that is 4 times more expensive, which makes my current car seems like a considerable bargain and it just seems like a crazy thing to be thinking of throwing such a big wedge at the same type of car. That money can be put to better use and it a newer car won't make my smile much bigger than the current one!

Unrelated, but one of our relatives just purchased a new Vauxhall Viva! Its now a small car with the old big-car name, and very nice it is too. It has half leather and the typical modern car bits and pieces like air con, nice radio, bluetooth etc. It cost just £7,500 which is so cheap for a car really, but then I am reminded that my hulking tank of luxury motoring was actually five hundred quid cheaper!! It might not be the latest soft-touch plastics, or shiny shape, but.... Value folks, value!

antjrice, get one bought!  

 

Edited August 20, 2016 by Paul O

[Stuart21UK]

9 hours ago, Richard Hamilton said:

I don't know if you are aware, but it does have partial postcode searches.  Enter the first few digits of the post code in the 'Town' field when entering a destination (WF10 5, for example), and it will then list the areas and roads within that code.

You know, the Cayenne and 981 both have more up to date PCM modules than Paul's Cayenne BUT I still find it easier to search town/road name than using the postcode facility...using the Postcode search still means you have to select the town then the road, it just means that it already knows what the answers to each of these are, you having input the postcode...more button presses to get to the same destination (see what I did there!).

[Paul O]

Things I don't like about the Cayenne

Given my reports are generally filled with glory and happiness at the value-for-money proposition that the Cayenne now presents to the modern world, I thought I'd balance it with things which could have done with some more R&D. These are small things, but irksome nonetheless.

1) The Boot. On all of the Cayennes that I looked at, the boot only raises up by about 85% of its allowed height. If you want it up at maximum level, you need to give it an extra push up with your hand. Now, that might not sound such a big deal, but the amount of times both me and the wife have doinked the ol' noggin on the top of the flippin' thing when getting the shopping out is embarrassingly more than I'd like to count. Silly design.

2) The AirCon. This blows icey cold upon request - and it really is cold. Great. However, no matter what I try, I can't seem to get it to cool the air around the car. It is either freezing my t*ts off (literally), blowing a gale in my face, or the car just stays warm. Its as though the only way to make it feel cold is to blow it right at you. No matter where I swing the vents, its either offering zero effect, or chilling you to the core. I wonder if this is simply due to the size of the car and that it can't push enough air about the place to make the whole environment feel cool?

That's about it really. Everything else is more 'what you see is what you get'.

In other news... Service Time.

Again. Blimey. That's come around quickly. I thought that the servicing was every 20,000 miles as per the handbook. John at Porsche Euro told me otherwise and that they require an oil change at the 10,000 interim, but I just hoped he was misinformed. Of course he wasn't misinformed, its what he does for a living! Anyhow, the computer is telling me that I've got a thousand miles left before its time for a check-up at the 111,000 miles mark. I'll keep you informed.

Average miles per gallon by the way is around 22mpg on a long run, and about 18-20mpg on local runabouts. This is pretty consistent over the duration, if anyone is wondering.

Edited October 4, 2016 by Paul O

[RCS]

3 hours ago, Paul O said:

1) The Boot. On all of the Cayennes that I looked at, the boot only raises up by about 85% of its allowed height. If you want it up at maximum level, you need to give it an extra push up with your hand. Now, that might not sound such a big deal, but the amount of times both me and the wife have doinked the ol' noggin on the top of the flippin' thing when getting the shopping out is embarrassingly more than I'd like to count. Silly design.

If its a powered boot lid you can reset the height it goes to (push/stop at required height and press and hold the boot close button until it beeps) - but I'm guessing its not?

[mike597]

10 hours ago, RCS said:

If its a powered boot lid you can reset the height it goes to (push/stop at required height and press and hold the boot close button until it beeps) - but I'm guessing its not?

If not is it not just a tired gas strut that needs replacing?