2009 Porsche Cayenne GTS (photos)

The GTS is Porsche's street-oriented Cayenne, a model with more horsepower and a lower suspension of the standard version. It delivers on a promise of sports car handling in an SUV.

Wayne Cunningham

Feb. 1, 2010 3:30 p.m. PT

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The Porsche Cayenne embodies many of the virtues of Porsche cars in an SUV body. Porsche also finds the Cayenne a more reliable seller than its sports cars. The GTS model, intended for street use, sits lower than the standard Cayenne.

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The Cayenne's styling is very unique for an SUV, incorporating design language borrowed from Porsche's sports cars.

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The Cayenne GTS uses the same 4.8-liter V-8 as the standard Cayenne, but Porsche tweaks it for an extra 20 horsepower, up to 405. Fuel economy is poor, though, at 11 mpg city and 17 mpg highway.

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Typical for an SUV, the Cayenne GTS seats five with ample cargo area in back.

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The GTS uses big six piston brake calipers in front, painted red and sporting the Porsche name.

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All Cayennes use an air suspension, including the GTS. We noticed plenty of lean in hard cornering, but that can be corrected with an optional dynamic handling package.

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The rear cargo area is sized appropriately for a five-seater SUV. There is no third row seat option.

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Along with its sport reputation, Porsche also maintains a high level of luxury. The interior of the Cayenne reflects that luxury with fine materials throughout.

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The steering wheel's triangular hub hold buttons along the lower two sides for audio and phone control.

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For a sport-oriented SUV, the tachometer is surprisingly small in the instrument cluster. The center display shows information about trip, music, and navigation.

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It is rare to see a manual transmission in an SUV. This one has very close ratios, but the shifter itself is too long for fast gear changes.

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Porsche fitted the 2009 Cayenne with a whole new cabin tech suite, called the Porsche Communication Manager (PCM). This one uses a hard drive for maps and music.