2005 Porsche Cayenne Test Drive

More Spice, Less Sauce

The Porsche Cayenne might be sacrilegious to some, but it's hard to argue with the recipe.

Interior

For those expecting the Cayenne to be supremely luxurious, you're going to be disappointed. Yes, you can get heated seats and a heated steering wheel; a glove box that is chilled via the A/C is standard, as are six 12-volt power outlets and five-leaf sun visors to block light when you commute into a setting sun on I-70. But none of these features are breakthroughs in the luxury realm; you can get the A/C cooling glove box in a lot of economy cars.

Sure, like all Porsches, the interior of this car is very refined, with everything working toward improving the driving experience and reducing distractions. And there are nifty metal door latches and metallic trim accents offsetting the tobacco or gray leather interior and suede-like headliner. But this Porsche, which shares a chassis with Volkswagen's forthcoming Touareg SUV (Porsche developed the chassis, VW worked on electronics and Porsche essentially trades its engineering for VW's larger production capability) isn't nearly as swanky inside as the sticker price might suggest. BMW's X5 $66,800 4.6is looks downright sexy inside by comparison, and so does the $71,200 Range Rover.

Pay more by using Porsche's Tequipment customizing system to get unique trim if you like, but that's still not going to buy you such ultra-luxe baubles as cup holders that swivel just so -- nor will you have 15 of them, all suitable to hold Big Gulps.

The point is, this is not the most utile, or the most diamond-encrusted, family hauler around. There are far larger SUVs for the money, and there are more family-friendly ones for certain. Then again, there are several other high-end SUVs that don't cater to families with toddlers, and these still sell quite well.

All that said, there are several attributes here that should be praised. First, both the Cayenne S and Turbo get precise, oversized controls throughout the cabin. One caveat: Get the optional navigation system and you'll find a field of buttons that complicate matters, but unless you really need that kind of system, we'd recommend the more spare setup of the stock switch and dial pattern.

Second, all Cayennes come with a gauge package that's definitely unique in the SUV world, with interlocking circular readouts that are instantly comprehensible and will remind any owner that this is a Porsche, a company that hasn't changed much about its instrumentation in 60 years. (However, in this case the RPM gauge isn't at the center of the console; in 911s and Boxsters drivers want the RPM readout in the middle so that at the track they can see the redline before the fuel cutoff kicks in.)

Third, the Cayenne has absolutely top-notch front and rear seats. These are comfortable whether you're ripping down the backstretch of a racetrack and need serious side bolstering or taking in long stretches of American interstate. Not only is it rare to find any SUV with sports car-caliber perches, but Porsche has once again realized that the driver, no matter his or her height, has to be able to sit in an optimal position for hard driving and also for commuting.

The Cayenne somehow lets both this smaller reviewer and a colleague who is lanky and well over 6 feet get comfortable, have the right relationship with the wheel and pedals and never feel as if we were sitting "on" the car. You can't feel as if you're driving a sporting vehicle if your hindquarters aren't engaged with what's going on at the road surface.

Lastly, the Cayenne gets a 14-speaker Bose audio system that not only features amazing surround-sound technology and some of the cleanest bass you'll ever hear in any car (bass in cars, even those with subwoofers, usually sounds muddy, rather than precisely emulating, say, the resonance of a cello). The system also has the first speed-adaptive noise compensation technology that doesn't over-boost the volume when you lower a window to pay a toll or when the Porsche's potent engine comes to life. In other words, you get only more of the sound that's washed out by extraneous noises, not a big boost in all frequencies.