Used 2006 Porsche Cayenne Consumer Reviews
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Fix the tranny
NABMAN, 07/07/2008
2006 Porsche Cayenne S Titanium Edition 4dr SUV AWD (4.5L 8cyl 6A)
23 of 25 people found this review helpful
The Cayenne is great. High performance, fast, corners well, luxurious and well built. Excellent performance on the highway but this vehicle has one major problem- the tranny. In the city, it is not nimble enough to weave in and out of traffic. It is hard to control. Too fast or your punching it to switch gears. The acceleration is inconsistent. (I understand they changed this in the 08) The tranny takes forever to decide which gear it should go into and this creates lag. If you are accustomed to high performance cars in the city, you will feel this. Likely to save gas, the tranny shifts up too quickly and down late in normal slow city driving. I have had this reset and am told thats it
Best SUV
John, 05/25/2007
2006 Porsche Cayenne S 4dr SUV AWD (4.5L 8cyl 6A)
10 of 10 people found this review helpful
I have to say this is the best SUV on the market, hands down. Ride comfort, true utility and of course the Porsche acceleration and tuned exhaust make driving the Cayenne S a must. Ergonomics are perfect, even for a guy my size (6'3" and 375#). Turning radius is much better than expected. It's takes a bit of getting used to the transmission which solidly downshifts, keeping you always in an optimum engine torque range. Very tight in corners. Options and controls are intuitive, no problem getting to know the bells and whistles without reading the owner's manual (the manly thing). Interior lighting at night is exceptionally well engineered.
A White Elephant
Steve B, 11/27/2017
updated 05/27/2020
2006 Porsche Cayenne S 4dr SUV AWD (4.5L 8cyl 6A)
66 of 75 people found this review helpful
Yes, the Cayenne S has performance, it is downhill from there. I have had the car for 14 years, currently at 165 K miles. But the repairs and regular upkeep drives me nuts. You need a new set of tires every 15,000 miles ($1500). You need new brakes every 25,000 miles ($2500), replacing the battery will cost you $1000 because the stupid battery is located under the driver seat. Here is a partial list of things that went wrong - power steering fluid leaked (bad seal), turn light bulbs in the headlight assembly would blow up every 5,000 miles - stopped replacing . The fancy terrain following headlamps don't work too well, power train shaft had to be replaced, engine vacuum problem, all eight ignition coils had to be replaced ($800), gas tank fuel pump plastic flanges cracked ($1500), even the washer fluid container cracked. I had to sue Porsche in small claims court to get them pay for the fuel pump replacement ( a recall item). If you have cash to burn , go ahead buy a Porsche - otherwise stay away.
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second time around
sonogun, 04/18/2014
2006 Porsche Cayenne Turbo S 4dr SUV AWD (4.5L 8cyl Turbo 6A)
40 of 46 people found this review helpful
This 2006 replaced my 2004 turbo. Strangely, it is not as peppy in that the tranny does not adapt quickly enough for your spirited driving mood. This prompted me to put it on an all wheel Dino and it is putting out on the first pull but suffers from heat sink on the second and third pull. My 2004 lost the heating pipes and the Cardon shaft along the way to 100,000 miles where it loss the fuel pumps. During that span I did two brake jobs, replacing rotors both times. My 2006 six had 60,000 when I bought it and after 20.000, I have had zero repair cost.
I absolutely love this car - now at 250K miles!
Eric Berlin , 03/04/2020
2006 Porsche Cayenne S Titanium Edition 4dr SUV AWD (4.5L 8cyl 6A)
16 of 18 people found this review helpful
I didn't intend to buy a fancy SUV but I stumbled onto this in May 2016. I was looking for a something capable for off road for my summers in Colorado. As soon as I sat in it, I knew I would drive it home. I purchased it for $13,500 with 113K miles. I stopped by the European car guy in my town and had him look it over. It was in great shape needing nothing at the time. He did warn me about the plastic engine cooling pipes that would eventually go as well as the driveshaft mount. These are well documented issues with good solutions. With good maintenance, this car has been relatively trouble free ever since. Those two issues did come up. When changing the coolant pipes, we did the water pump and alternator. I also had a wheel bearing go and the transfer case for the 4WD. We also replaced the battery at around 150K. Nothing else mechanical. I am on the original suspension and exhaust. The suspension still feels the same as the day I bought it. The engine still purrs its throaty growl like new also. Amazingly well-built machine. The interior has held up well under heavy use with a dog and child in the outdoors. The rear hatch struts also go and did on mine and needed to be replaced. The exterior has held up very well and still doesn't look dated for a 15 year old car. I have a car wash pass that allows me to wash it daily if need be, so the New England road salt hasn't affected it. I have a few small chips to paint once the weather is warmer, but without anything more than regular washing the paint looks awesome. I picked up a spare set of rims at tire rack for snow tires and have had great success in the New England winters with them. Summers I spend in Colorado and have navigated serious jeep roads to high peak trailheads to hike 14ers. The only time I got stuck was in Great Sand Dunes National Park where we just didn't have enough ground clearance for the sand. I got through the same road several times the previous year, but last time we just slid into the tire ruts and bottomed out. It is a serious towing machine as well. It has tons of towing capability. I have towed large UHaul trailers without feeling a thing. Lots of folks use their Cayenne to tow their race cars to the track. The only nagging issue I have with the car is the stereo. I am a musician and have always swapped out head units when buying older cars and intended to do the same here. Unfortunately, since the wiring of the car is fiberoptic, there are no real solutions short of a complete rewiring of the car which would have cost $2-3K. I ordered some gadget I found at Crutchfield and it cost me tons twice what I paid for it for two Porsche specialized mechanics (one an audio specialist who SWORE he could make it work) to try and make it work. The best we could get it to do was get a single channel when streaming on the rare occasion we got anything to connect. Never got the phone to work. So, I use a Bluetooth headset for phone and when I want to stream music, I use an FM modulator with adequate results. When playing CDs or the XM radio, the sound is absolutely fantastic. I only wish I could use the steering wheel controls for phone. Finally, there is a lose connection for my GPS receiver, so the in dash nav no longer works, but I use my phone anyway. Oh yeah, the navigation system is a DVD player under the passenger seat and is very dated. You can get a somewhat updated disc, but I recommend simply using WAZE on your phone. Gas mileage with premium gas is expensive, but you do get acceleration 0-60 in 6 seconds with an SUV and it is incredibly fun to drive. I consistently get 16-17 mpg and sometimes a little better on my yearly trips across the country. I drive it a lot, two months shy of 4 years since buying it, I am about to flip 250K in the next day or two. That is 137K since I bought it. Pretty amazing 4 years with it. Would be happy to do it again.
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- Technology
- Performance
- Interior
- Comfort
- Reliability
- Value
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