2022 Porsche Cayenne

Porsche Cayenne 2021-2022 Review

For an extremely long time, Porsche was known for one car and one car only: the Porsche 911. Unfortunately a brand cannot survive on one car alone – especially one as pricey and prestigious as the 911, and so eventually they developed other products to provide easier entry to Porsche ownership. Over the years there were greats like the Porsche 928 – a front-engine, rear-wheel drive touring car – and the more modern Porsche Boxster – a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive convertible.

At each of these turns, the results were impressive if not predictable: new customers and new demographics being brought into the Porsche fold. But perhaps one of the most important introduction to the Porsche range is something that no enthusiast could have seen coming, and one that really brought Porsche into modern times and showed that they were more than just a performance car producer.

We’re talking about the Porsche Cayenne, the brand’s first SUV and one that many an enthusiast expected to entirely ruin Porsche’s direction and reputation. What many forget, however, is that the Cayenne proved to be so popular and generated so much revenue for the brand that they had enough funding to take their sports car programs to incredible new heights. The current Porsche 911 and 718 Cayman and Boxster owe a lot of their development to that revenue.

Now in its third generation, the Porsche Cayenne remains as strong a product as ever. Through the first half of 2021-2022, this SUV led Porsche sales charts with 44,050 units sold across the world – or nearly 29% of total product sales for Porsche. A close second is the Porsche Macan, which is – surprise surprise – an SUV as well.

Back in 2018, Porsche introduced the third generation Cayenne locally in its base model, and Cayenne S form. Towards the end of that same year, the Cayenne Turbo was also made available to Malaysian consumers, although availability is a bit of a misconception. The way Porsche operates in Malaysia and in many countries around the world is that almost all of their products are available for purchase – even if they aren’t officially launched or have a listed price.

One example would be the Porsche Cayenne Coupe – which is listed, though lacking in price. With this in mind, we will be focusing on the Porsche Cayenne, Porsche Cayenne S, and Porsche Cayenne Turbo for the purposes of this review.

Porsche Cayenne 2021-2022 Specifications

With this generation, and perhaps in line with other products in the Porsche range, all variants of the Porsche Cayenne come with a turbocharged engine. Even the entry level Cayenne gets a turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine pushing a healthy 340 PS and 450 Nm of torque – an engine that features prominently in other products through affiliate companies under the Volkswagen Group.

The Porsche Cayenne S, despite sitting higher in range and price, actually gets a smaller twin turbocharged 2.9-litre V6 petrol engine. This powerplant makes 440 PS and 550 Nm of torque – and is again actually similar in nature to the engine found in certain Audi RS models.

As for the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, it gets one of the most potent Cayenne powertrains you can get: a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine making a staggering 550 PS and 770 Nm of torque. You can imagine which rivals this is aimed at exactly, and it definitely has the grunt and outright performance to compete comfortably.

Regardless of which variant you choose, drive is delivered to all four wheels through an eight-speed conventional automatic transmission built by ZF – the same ones who make those fantastic automatic gearboxes for BMW. In other markets there are hybrid variants as well which prove to be especially potent when combined with these powertrains, but for the time being they are only available for enquiry.

Porsche Cayenne 2021-2022 Exterior

In terms of what you can find for exterior options, all three models are fairly flat in that they get LED headlamps and massive 21-inch wheels. Beyond this, everything can be selected as an option, which is one of the requirements when purchasing a Porsche product in Malaysia.

Porsche Cayenne 2021-2022 Interior

Driver focused is the first thing that comes to mind with the interior of the Porsche Cayenne, although unfortunately it was launched just before the advent of Porsche’s latest and greatest interior design that comes with their most current models. The switchgear is still somewhat physical with a digital display screen for infotainment and a semi digital instrument cluster. We won’t go into material choices and trim inlays as these can all be customized to suit personal tastes.

Porsche Cayenne 2021-2022 Safety Features

There is no listed information on safety systems for the Porsche Cayenne, although we can imagine your regular electronic aids like stability and traction control are present, as well as a full assortment of airbags throughout the cabin. Porsche products can be heavily optioned which means that the actual safety items you choose may vary greatly.

Porsche Cayenne 2021-2022 Strengths & Weakness

The strength of the Porsche Cayenne lies in the engineering and development that has gone into ensuring it is not only a competent vehicle when heading off the beaten path, but one that performs and behaves like a Porsche should when you’re on the tarmac. While BMW may have developed the world’s first SUV with handling as a core element, Porsche shifted the goal posts greatly with their Cayenne and showed what was possible with a bit more effort.

The problem is that this extra effort demands a premium, which is why even the base variants of the Porsche Cayenne are priced so aggressively, before adding any options. The options are also a necessity with Porsche products as they come almost bare without any options. The result is an actual transaction price roughly RM 50,000 to RM 100,000 more than the sticker price.

Porsche Cayenne 2021-2022 Price

Pricing for the Porsche Cayenne has always been on the thick end of things, although thanks to current sales tax exemptions the prices have come down by a fair amount. The entry level Porsche Cayenne goes for RM 665,000, while the Porsche Cayenne S takes pricing up a notch to RM 907,315. The current listed range-topper is the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, which goes for an eye-watering RM 1,507,375.

This jump between S and Turbo is fairly normal across a variety of different products from Porsche – the 911 is another such example with significant leaps in pricing between the S and Turbo variants as well. All products include a four-year warranty and a free maintenance package.

Porsche Cayenne 2021-2022 Features

The feature list for the Porsche Cayenne is hard to determine as Porsche makes it a point that you select options yourself. You could have everything from heated and ventilated seats, to a more extensive infotainment and navigation package, to even front night vision cameras and other items to add functionality and convenience. The best way to go about it is to visit your nearest Porsche dealer in person and look at the feature list for yourself.

Porsche Cayenne 2021-2022 Fuel Consumption

As you can imagine, for such large and heavy cars you don’t return particularly great fuel consumption figures. The base spec Porsche Cayenne returns roughly 9.5 litres per 100 kilometres, or 10.5 kilometres per litre. The more potent Porsche Cayenne S gets 9.8 litres per 100 kilometres, or 10.2 kilometres per litre. Going to the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, you see that figure jumping to 11.6 litres per 100 kilometres, or 8.6 kilometres per litre.

It pays to remember that these manufacturer quoted fuel consumption figures are just that, and real world results may seriously vary depending on the way you which you drive. Given that they are all turbocharged cars, driving aggressively can consume a shocking amount of fuel during your journey.