It’s been more than 20 years since Porsche showcased to the world that it will build an SUV. While Porsche is a sports car manufacturer, it clearly needed a practical vehicle that would sell in huge numbers in order to fund the company’s vehicle development.
Three generations and a mid-cycle facelift later, we now have the 2024 Porsche Cayenne, which while it looks similar to any Cayenne before it, comes with a comprehensive set of changes both inside and out. Looks can be extremely deceiving because lurking beneath the evolutionary exterior is a suite of upgrades that maintain the Cayenne’s position at the top of the midsize luxury SUV hierarchy.
Evolutionary Exterior
Despite this third-generation model receiving a mid-cycle facelift, you’d be challenged to spot the aesthetic differences unless you’re a huge Porsche fan. That’s no bad thing, however, since in typical Porsche fashion, while the changes are merely evolutionary, they help maintain the Cayenne’s identity on the road, regardless of the generation or the model year.
Believe it or not, for a minor facelift, most of the exterior panels of the 2024 Porsche Cayenne are new. The fenders are now more sculpted, and thus, the standard-fit adaptive matrix LED headlights are positioned higher. Those headlights also feature the brand’s newest four-corner LED daytime running lights, while the front bumper has wider air intakes. The side profile remains largely unchanged, but the rear end gets a new tailgate design to accommodate the newly-restyled full-width LED taillights, wherein the Porsche script is now exposed as opposed to being kept inside the taillight housing. Lastly, the rear bumper is also slightly reshaped, and of course, in typical Porsche fashion, every vent and exhaust you see here is functional.
A Highly Digital Interior
Where you’ll easily spot that this is the facelifted third-generation Cayenne (unofficially called E3 II) is with its heavily-revamped interior. The 2024 Porsche Cayenne goes an increasingly digital route, with the new dash design now accommodating two large screens as standard. The driver gets a fully-digital 12.6-inch gauge cluster that unfortunately ditches the middle analog tachometer, while the main 12.3-inch infotainment screen runs the latest Porsche Communication Management (PCM) operating system. As an optional extra, a third 10.9-inch passenger display can be equipped, and that screen is tinted from the driver’s view and allows the front passenger to watch movies while on the road.
Take away the tech stuff, and you’ll appreciate the fundamentals of the interior. It won’t wow you with the lack of gimmicks it has, such as a comprehensive ambient light design like in its rivals, but where it impresses is with the impeccable build quality and material choices that even punch above the likes of BMW or Mercedes-Benz.
It’s a typically solid Porsche interior where everything you touch is rock solid and the sounds they emit are a pleasure to the ears. Ditto the climate controls, which are clicky and satisfying to operate, unlike its competitors that have been waging war against physical knobs and buttons. My only gripe? The major expanse of piano black spans the center console, which is a fingerprint magnet, but not as scratch-prone as the ones found in mainstream cars.
A Porsche For The Demanding Family
The 2024 Porsche Cayenne isn’t a small car; therefore, there’s plenty of space on all two rows. There are plenty of storage places wherever you’re seated, and it’s worth noting that all seats in the Cayenne get both heating and cooling, with the latter being a godsend in our hot climate. The rear window shades are power-operated, while the Bose surround sound system in the Cayenne is the best implementation of this sound system by far. Finally, as for trunk space, the 2024 Porsche Cayenne has 772 liters of cargo space, which trumps the X5’s 650-liter cargo capacity.
But then again, the Cayenne carries the Porsche badge, and a car only deserves the badge if it has the driving performance to match. With that, the “base” Cayenne we’re driving comes with a 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 that produces 348 horsepower and 500 Nm of torque, a 13 hp and 50 Nm boost from the pre-facelift Cayenne. Since our tester is fitted with the Sport Chrono package that comes with Launch Control, its 0-100 kph time is just 5.7 seconds, two-tenths faster than the previous Cayenne and three-tenths faster if it didn’t have the Sport Chrono package.
This facelift also improved upon the Cayenne’s benchmark-setting driving dynamics, in which the Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) adaptive dampers are now offered as standard equipment. This is complemented by the new two-chamber dampers, which separate the compression and rebound dampers, allowing PASM more nuanced control of its ride and handling.
A Midsize SUV That Corners Beyond Belief
The result? The new Cayenne is at a point of no compromise. In standard setting, the Cayenne rides beautifully, albeit with a degree of firmness since the last thing Porsche drivers want is total isolation from the road. Therefore, going over the terrible undulations of NLEX, even that infamous “jump” after Candaba Viaduct, won’t upset the Cayenne’s ride and handling balance. The ZF eight-speed automatic is silky smooth and transparent in normal driving circumstances and in typical German luxury car fashion, the amount of sound deadening and the highly-rigid chassis mean that it’s easy to underestimate your speed limit on the expressway.
Bringing the 2024 Porsche Cayenne V6 to a set of twisties whilst putting it into Sport Plus mode will transform this midsize luxury SUV into something that can challenge true sports cars in the handling department. The steering stiffens up to a point that it feels like there’s a rigid connection between the wheel and your hands, while the PASM stiffens itself up and brings the Cayenne’s ride height to a hunkered-down position. The V6 engine becomes more hyperactive, the ZF eight-speed automatic will respond faster to your paddle shift inputs, and the transmission itself will let you feel the gear changes.
This car corners flat, with extremely high grip limits that, as cliche as it sounds, give you the confidence to hustle this two-tonne SUV at high cornering speeds. You sometimes wonder if the Cayenne has any right to corner this good. The BMW X5 is already a sporty midsize luxury SUV, but the Cayenne takes it to another level. The V6 is also linear in its power delivery, with Porsche’s engineers doing a good job in how the torque has been spread in a wide rev range. Even the brakes have a firm pedal feel and a very strong bite, which further makes this midsize SUV so manageable in back-to-back winding roads.
My minor gripe would be its engine note, which is a bit too quiet for my liking, though there’s an optional active exhaust you can spec for the Cayenne V6. Also, as for fuel economy, the 9.5 km/l it registered during my use is pretty good considering the sheer performance it offers and its size, but for comparison’s sake, the diesel-fed BMW X5 (review coming soon) easily does more than 14 km/l under similar conditions.
Lastly, as for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), the 2024 Porsche Cayenne doesn’t offer a lot. Adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, blind spot warning, or rear cross traffic alert are optional extras, though on the upside, automatic emergency braking and lane departure warning are standard equipment, which is good enough for us. After all, with a Porsche, the last thing we want is to have a robot driving this supremely sporty midsize luxury SUV.
Verdict
The 2024 Porsche Cayenne was the vehicle that induced fear among the hardcore fans. It was supposed to be a vehicle that would dilute the Porsche brand, but more than 20 years later, it’s clear that this didn’t happen. In fact, like the Macan, the Porsche Cayenne didn’t dilute the brand. Rather, it raised the bar for what people can expect in a midsize luxury SUV.
These days, owning a sports car has become increasingly challenging, so the next best thing for anyone is to purchase a practical vehicle that could do it all. That’s exactly what the 2024 Porsche Cayenne is. Whether it’s the family duty, the occasional track driving, or just discovering a fun mountain pass to exploit the Cayenne’s handling, there’s no other midsize luxury SUV out there that seamlessly combines practicality and comfort with track performance and handling. Sure, a BMW X5 will be good enough for most people, but for those seeking for superlative levels of sportiness, the Cayenne is the only option and the segment’s benchmark. It is an SUV that only a brand like Porsche could do.
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Pricing and Rating
Exterior Design: 9/10
Interior Design: 8/10
Space and Practicality: 9/10
Features: 8/10
Safety and Driver Assistance Tech: 7/10
Acceleration: 8/10
Handling: 10/10
Comfort: 9/10
Fuel Efficiency: 7/10
Value For Money: 8/10
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