Porsche Cayenne

Love or Money? It’s a question that 17,000 members of www.makefriendsonline.com were asked and apparently one third said they would prefer to win the lottery jackpot rather than find the love of their life.

Swayed by the cynicism of age I’d go for the former because winning the lottery would enable me to buy the love of my life – a Porsche. Why? Because it’s good looking, with a drive that will make the hairs stand up on the back of the neck. It’s guaranteed to provide a thrill a minute and it has outstanding safety features giving a ‘wrapped in cotton wool’ haven.

The Porsche Cayenne is a little different. Personally I think its revised exterior looks make it look quite ugly but it does have other attractive features, such as performance. It’s not obviously a Porsche and so the roar on acceleration can be quite surprising. It’s just not what you would expect when you see what you think is a traditional lumbering four by four.

This SUV is as good on the road as it is off road. An exhilarating 0-62mph is achieved in 8.5 seconds and says Porsche the Cayenne will reach a top speed of 141mph. And it does so very quietly. The cabin is a relaxing place to be but not for long because this Porsche does attract attention. So it is more likely to attract Mr. Leo who is one of the money driven third in the survey who will love you forever if your numbers come up – but they may not hang around if their own do!

The Cayenne’s interior is luxuriously attractive with very comfortable optional sports seats with memory, optional automatic air conditioning and well laid out easy to use dials and buttons. You can choose if you want a comfortable or sportier ride and you can select a button for motorway or off road driving. Cruise control, climate control and a CD changer are standard features but I missed the steering wheel audio controls found on the less expensive Korean model I was road testing the week before. There are lots of storage spaces and the boot is very large. The tailgate is heavy but automatically clicks all the way shut if just pressed lightly into place.

There are six airbags, traction control and four wheel drive, plus an anti roll over system as standard.

Despite being a very large car and as one of my vertically challenged friends said, ‘a long way off the ground’ I found it very easy to handle and to manoeuvre. I would favour the optional Park Assist feature though because it’s not always easy to see how near an object is when reversing towards it.

It does eat up the fuel with a combined consumption of 21.9mpg and CO2 emissions are 310g/km so you’ll need to have won a pretty penny on the lottery to keep the Porsche Cayenne. But then there’s probably more chance of winning the lottery than finding Mr. Sagittarius who lives in the London Borough of Ealing. Apparently he is one of the romantic 85% of residents who prefer love over money!

Facts at a Glance
Model: Porsche Cayenne
Price: From £37,100 to £74,650
Engine Options: 3.6 litre, S and turbo
Performance: 3.6 litre Auto 0-62mph in 8.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 141mph.
Combined fuel consumption: 21.9mpg
CO2 emissions: 310g/km

By Sue Cooke