Cayenne S day-to-day experience?

[RSGulp]

I'm looking to replace my Golf R32 with a practical car for use during the week - mainly motorway and A road driving, 15-20K miles per year - and also annual trips to house in Burgundy for wine buying etc...

I'm considering a used Cayenne S due to their very reasonable (bargain?) second hand prices and huge practicality. Can anyone who drives one day-to-day tell me (from the horse's mouth) the true running costs for the kind of mileage I'm looking at? I've heard the 'internet stories' about tyre wear and gas guzzling. How much truth is there in what I'm reading?

My current R32 achieves around 20 - 25 mpg, is on long-life servicing with VW and uses a set of tyres every 20K miles. Road tax is currently £425 per year. I bought it as a very capable motorway cruiser with 4/5 seats and an ample boot for shopping and trips to the DIY stores. I don't enjoy the image it portrays or how certain other road users want to race all the time. Maybe I'm getting old!

All experiences good or bad welcomed...

 

[MarkK]

My Cayenne S is an 06 MY car and we have done 80k miles in it from new,had no problems with it apart from a few coil replacements,its a great reliable bus and is quick enough to hussle if you want to,its no slouch away from a start if you are in traffic,we love it and as you say the values especially with a few miles on the clock mean we wont be disposing of it any time soon in exchange for peanuts-great value for the secondhand buyer.Good car for everyday,on large runs i can get it on 23/24 mpg if i tickle it,get one with small wheels and the tyres will be cheaper,we have switched to N rated contis as they were cheapest quality tyre.They do sound very V8y aswell which is nice.Good for distances,such a versatile car wouldn't be without it.

 

[pwebb]

Agree with Mark, my 07MY S has done 54k and no probs either. Not even coil packs on this one, but just replaced discs and pads (£1500, gulp). Still can't get more than 19mpg in real life day to day work. Sure, over 20mpg on a run but we live in the SE so lots of heavy traffic work. Brilliant for the European runs, we go down to Spain in it and it's a great cruiser as well as load carrier. Tyre wise, I mentioned before that we picked up spare winter wheels and tyres off ebay for less than a set of normal tyres, which have lasted two winters and still have 4mm and 5mm left. This has meant the Bridgestones will last a couple of years on your sort of mileage. Not bad.
I looked at the cost of switching over to the new model, but even with a good trade in offering from the opc I decided that the gap was pretty shocking so will probably keep this one for another couple of years. Hasn't missed a beat and runs perfectly.

 

[kpd]

I've had my '05 S for 2 years and covered 28k miles since purchase. Fantastic car and averaged 20 mpg over this mileage (country and some town). Have had one largish OPC service (for warranty) and only needed new front discs and pads as per schedule. On the tyre front I got 20k miles from front Contis (on 20" technos) and after 23k the rears are about to be replaced. I had read the stories about high wear but I think alignment is key. Sure they're big heavy cars and maybe driving style has an effect but I don't think I'm especially careful with right foot (I'm sure my missus would agree!) - perhaps suspension type helps too (mine is air).

You're spot on about bargain prices. Was considering a change but now decided it's cheaper to keep it as I couldn't find anything better to replace with that makes financial sense.

IMHO S/hand RR Sports are still way overpriced for their age and not a patch on the Cayenne for driving experience and you save nothing in running costs, even for a diesel!

Hope this helps.

 

[tiskev]

Had my S from new and i can usually squeeze the most MPG out of a car but
In 35K miles it has done max 19MPG but it seems to do that whatever motorway
speed i drive it at.Apart for niggles no real problems .

 

[MarkK]

Press the economy button on the air con (i think it switches the climate off) then super light throttle,10 miles an hour slower and reset the computer i play this game on long trips to amuse myself more than the fuel saving after reading an article on "hypermileing"[]

 

[Tailor_Mike]

Not sure if you were considering a 3.2 V6 engine model, i had one a few months back and ran it for a year, best 4x4 ive had and most reliable.

Only got same mpg as the 4.5 V8 engine models, got around 17-18 mpg on run to work threw stop start traffic, average 20-22 on mototway, most ever got was 26 and that was driving at 60-65 with climate off and light throttle.

Insurance was only slighty cheaper, so would defiently go for a 4.5 V8 next time around.

Some great bargains around, not sure what your budget is, but ive seen ones up at 11,995 !!! high miles but even seen ones with average miles for 12,995.

Plenty around to look at and they dont tend to sell that fast even at the prices above, prob with petrol being so high, haggle well and grab a bargain