The Porsche Cayenne, along with the Boxster, helped bring Porsche back from the brink.
Breaking sales records, and giving the company enough money to return to Lamont.
Now, not everybody was happy with the traditional sports car brand pushing an SUV, but over time, the car cemented itself with a great mix of luxury and sport.
Now entering its third generation, the 2019 Porsche Cayenne still sings the same tune.
Porsche's trademark focus on dynamics might not be for everyone but it is very evident that Porsche threw everything but the kitchen sink in this new Cayenne.
And how is it?
Well, lets find out.
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Well, it took me a little bit of time but I've come to the realization that I like the 2019 Cayenne more than any other Cayenne before it.
It's a lot more in line with all the other late model Porsches like the 992 generation 9/11 and the new refreshed McCone.
It doesn't need to shout at you.
It doesn't have flashy aggressive bumpers or crazy sculpting anywhere.
It's vary under the radar even in the sporty or s trim of my tester.
I think it just looks great and undeniably like no matter what it looks like a Porsche.
Now the interior is just as delightful In my opinion, the seating position is nice and low and the seats themselves are supportive.
They hold you in without holding you in in a Joe Biden kind of way.
The standard fixed glass roof has a nice amount of airiness.
And my dashboard is completely uncluttered.
I love the simple layout and with my testers $3,750 leather interior option, everything I touch has a little cushion for the pushing.
It's pretty great.
I mean there's login headroom for days in the back and even behind that the cargo space, there's tons of it.
There's more than enough space for say a family's worth of bags for weekend vacation or if you're more my speed by the dozen bags, the mulch My only main gripe about the interior is the glass center console here.
The button are behind it in kind of a haptic feedback.
And even if you don't spec all the options, they're still there.
They're just grayed out, and you can see them in direct sunlight.
I mean, do I really need to be shamed every time I get into my car, knowing that I couldn't afford all the options for my vehicle?
It's It's just, it's ridiculous.
And on top of that, this is an $80,000 SUV.
How in the hell are two front heated seats a $535 option?
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Under the hood, the Cayenne S uses the same motor that's found in every other four door S model Porsche.
It's a 2.9 liter twin turbo V6.
Now in my kind act it puts out 434 horsepower and 406 pound for you to talk.
Those are some pretty good numbers and feels pretty good on the road.
Plenty of talk across the rev range and when you're goosing your way up there makes a nice little exhaust note too.
Now comes made it to an eight speed automatic transmission that's a little less exciting.
It's super smooth on its way up the gears but when you're slowing down coming to a stop and it's decelerating and downshifting through those gears It gets a little jumpy.
Further complicating smooth stopping is the $3490 break option on my tester.
Porsche calls it Porsche surface coated breaks.
Now what it is about a 100 micron layer of tungsten carbide on an iron rotor, made into a pad of secrete proprietary material.
The trick is to kind of work as an in between between iron rooters and carbon ceramics which are pretty hard core.
And I think it works.
It stops on a dime and it does this really neat thing where, as you're breaking, it polishes the rooter to a mirror finish which is kind of cool.
But at the same time, again, it's just like the transmission, low speed antics, it gets very jumpy, the breaks really kind of hard to modulate.
So, if you're looking for smooth stopping It's a little tough.
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There is no hiding this car's sporting pretensions.
I mean you've seen the badge on the hood, come on.
The Cayenne S offers only optional air suspension and the three mode adapters that come standard, well they're pretty stiff in all three modes no matter what you do.
I would personally recommend leaving this thing in normal mode 95 percent of the time to counteract that kind of default anxious state.
Which isn't made any better by the fact that my tester has upsized wheels to clear the porous surface coded brakes.
Honestly, when it comes down to it though, it's a sporty SUV.
You know you're getting a sporty SUV with a Porsche.
If you were looking for something with a pillow soft ride, you wouldn't be looking here.
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Standard on every Cayenne, behind it's 12.3 inch screen is the latest iteration of Porsche's PCM infotainment system, and I love it.
It's fast, it's responsive, it's It's easy on the eyes.
It's not perfect though.
There are a lot of menus and sub-menus so you will find yourself digging through a lot of dense information to get where you're going,but again, it's easy to commit to muscle memory over time, so you'll get the hang of it.
And when it comes to Apple Car Play, that is thankfully standard, but Android Auto, not here at all.
Now if that's not enough screen for you, don't worry.
There are two more flanking the last remaining physical gauge in the cluster.
On the left side you get just a little bit of information, but on the right, you're able to swap through your trip meters, vehicle read-outs for information like temperature, tire pressure, things like that.
In the full navigation map and it's all done through the two little scroll wheels here on the steering wheel which are super easy to use.
It's a great little system that has just a bit more flexibility to the infotainment system.
And when it comes time to charge you will find two USBs and 112 volt outlet in each row.
Well as for safety systems well I hope you brought your wallet.
You get parking sensors and automatic braking standard on the Cayenne, and that's it.
Want anything else, got to pay up.
If you're looking for let's say a surround view camera, $1200.
Lane keep assist?
$1300.
Adaptive cruise control, $2,000.
And then there's Porsche's InnoDrive system, which combines ACC and LKA for kind of a single lane highway holding system.
That is $300 more than both those packages combined.
Safety is not cheap at Porsche.
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Now Porsche's arent meant to be cheap and the 2019 Cayenne S defiantly isn't.
Even at the starting price of $82,900 there is not a whole lot that comes standard.
Stuff that I find on my freaking Volkswagen Golf like keyless entry, heated seats, and an auto dimming rear view mirror.
Now with what few options this tester does have equipped it's still a tough lump to swallow at ninety eight thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars after destination.
Yet I am still keen to recommend the twenty nineteen Porsche Cayenne's it has plenty of hustle and everything from the seating position to the suspension reminds me that Porsche builds sports cars first and foremost.
This one just you know happens to have a couple extra doors and a couple extra inches of ride height.
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