In Consumer Reports, it scored worse than average with reliability. Tell your friend he won't be able to find a nicer SUV than the one he has right now. Not by a long shot.

 

just advise him to get a CPO'd Cayenne....

 

CPO otherwise expect hefty repairs. There is a reason why used Cayenne S are so cheap....

 

The original Cayenne took Porsche's once high reliability ratings way down, they are unreliable and expensive to fix. It will be way more unreliable then your friends Landcruiser. The VW Toureg is built off the Cayenne platform and is incredibly unreliable too, it has been one of the most unreliable SUV's on the market.

If your friend wants a sportier SUV and does not need major off roading capability as you say he should look into a BMW X5 or Acura MDX, the MDX will be far more reliable then a X5 or Cayenne but not as sporty.

 

my exact same thought, the Acura MDX. I think its quite more sporty than the land cruiser and its the only thing that will get similar reliability. I have not have much experience with the X5, but one of my relatives has one and it does seem to go to the dealer a lot.

 

Anecdotally, my buddy has had zero issues with his.

According to JD Power:

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com...e/Reliability/

Imo, the Cayenne S is the best SUV on the market right now. Great interior, power, incredible handling, etc.

The X5 is a solid SUV that handles better than anything short of the Cayenne. Their reliablity is hit and miss like most BMW's.

 

I have nothing against the X5, like i said, I have had very little experience with it, and it does look gorgeous in my eyes

 

My neighbor has a Turbo S model, nothing but 20k oil changes, its a couple years old nothing wrong with it

 

I saw some list on reliability and the author had Porsche second after Lexus.

 

Some of the "information" posted in this thread is just way off base...

Two stick out - someone posted about a 15% to 20% 911 IMS failure rate. That is a) unbelievably overstated and b) has now been covered by Porsche in any event. IMS failures are rare in general, were even rarer after the late 2005 to 2006 model year and were eliminated in the 997.2.

Another was the suggestion that BMW has a better chassis/suspension set up than Porsche. That's way off base. BMW doesn't (and can't) build a car that can handle as well as a modern Porsche. It's not even close. The engineering that goes into a modern Porsche (and the engineering capabilities of Porsche) is way ahead of anything from Munich, Stuttgart or Ingolstadt.

They are, by some margin, the best cars coming out of Germany.

 

I guess it's too late to answer this 4-year-old question but I can add my own experience as a data point to this thread.

After a year and 9K miles on my 2012 Cayman S, I've had one minor problem: the rear-spoiler sensor / switch failed to detect and stop the electric motor when the spoiler reached the lowest position. This was easily fixed under warranty.

I also had the oil changed once and the brake fluid changed twice - because I track the car. (Probably did not need the 2nd brake fluid flush but I like to know my brakes are going to work on the track.) The oil change cost a little more than, say, an IS F service because the Porsche uses synthetic oil and the IS F does not. Otherwise, routine service at a dealer is not particularly more expensive than Lexus. Also, a lot of Indy shops are available to take car of Porsche cars at lower prices than a dealer - I've had a hard time finding Indys for Lexus.

If I were to pursue this track stuff more, I think a 996 Turbo would be a great car for track toy. You can get them for $30K to $35K and as mentioned above, the 996 Turbo does not suffer the (often overstated) IMS problem compared to the base 996 and 986 (Boxster).

At one of the DE events, I got a coach ride in a 996 Turbo. (This is were you ride in the coachs' cars for a couple of laps on the track to see how it's supposed to be done.) The difference in horsepower on the straight sections of the track between the Turbo and Cayman was visceral. (The Turbo handled about the same as the Cayman but gave the feeling of being forced through the turns while the Cayman just turns.)

Love the Cayman and will put up with a lot Problems (so far none really) to keep it.

 

I always see them way up at the top of the reliability lists. Sometimes right under Lexus. Seems odd that the best selling Porsche is also the least reliable apparently .