As the 9:30 a.m. Pilates class filtered out of the studio, nearly every fit and flexible practitioner gave the 2024 Porsche Cayenne at least a passing glance. The instructor asked to sit inside and commented on the pleasant leather and roomy back seat. Somewhere, a Porsche designer felt the warm glow of successfully reaching the desired audience. The Cayenne was created for exactly the demographic that can take a pricey midmorning exercise class and appreciate both a chiseled body and a firm yet flexible chassis.
If a car could work out, the Cayenne would definitely be first up to the barre and a regular on a Reformer. Ever since its introduction, the Porsche SUV has refined its muscles and improved its balance and performance. Even in entry-level trim, the Cayenne is fit and powerful with a turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 making 348 horsepower and 368 pound-feet of torque, a 13-hp and 36-lb-ft bump from 2023. It's easy to overlook the turbo V-6 in favor of the Cayenne's flashy plug-in hybrid and rumbly V-8 options, but the base six is plenty quick. It doesn't generate the off-the-line neck snap of the higher-horsepower models, but the V-6 still leaves hard enough to know you're going somewhere, and this Porsche gains momentum at a pace that makes easy work of merging, passing, or just bumping the accelerator for a momentary thrill. At the test track, our test car ticked 60 mph in 4.7 seconds and passed the quarter-mile marker in 13.4 seconds at 102 mph.
If you're willing to slow down long enough for spectators to get a good look, they'll find the Cayenne cuts a fine figure. Overall it keeps its bubbled profile and inflated-911 front end, but for 2024, this high-riding German gets a minor reworking of its exterior, with tweaks to the fender angles, a new hood, and smaller headlight housings around a double row of LED lights that resemble the horizontal pupils of a mountain goat. In the rear, Porsche tucked the license plate holder lower and widened the taillights across the hatch for a cleaner back view, which is good, since that's what any challengers to your rightful lane-space will see.
More noticeable changes are in the cabin, where a dashboard full of digital screens grabs attention like the billboards in Times Square. In all, you'll find a 12.6-inch digital gauge cluster visible through the steering wheel, a 12.3-inch central touchscreen, and an optional 10.9-inch shotgun screen capable of mirroring the infotainment or playing videos, only viewable by the front passenger. At nearly $1500, we'd skip that third display; let them stare down at their phone as nature intended.
Climate controls get a separate shiny panel—this car should really come with a branded chamois—and there's a phone charging pad in front of it and a small change cubby behind it before you get to the cupholders and padded center console. At this point, you might wonder where the shifter is, and you'll keep wondering until you accidentally brush against a dash-mounted nubbin jutting out behind the steering wheel. We can appreciate an efficient use of space, but a shifter is a control that really benefits from visibility. Ah, well—the owner will quickly learn the pattern, so it's really just a problem for the valet.
At startup, there are more glowing app tiles than the desktop of an unorganized MacBook, but the Cayenne's touchscreen interface is easy to use when it comes to connecting your phone or adjusting drive settings. Several car-setting and stereo controls are repeated on the steering wheel, where our car's $1110 Sport Chrono package adds a dial for zippier drive mode changes. It's worth a grand just to have the ability to engage Sport mode quickly and to avoid having to track down and disable the engine start/stop each time you get inside. Some manufacturers have perfected the art of a seamless cut and restart of the engine. Porsche is not one of them. Besides a noticeable shudder, the power steering takes a split second to return once the engine fires back up. It's annoying enough that we never stayed in Normal mode. Then again, why would you when Sport gives such a nice mix of response without tipping into tailbone-bruising stiffness from the adaptive dampers?
When it comes to comfort, the base Cayenne delivers like a leather library chair. The 14-way power front seats (a $1290 option) offer heating and optional ventilation. They smell like an expensive handbag and are both supportive in turns and relaxing in traffic. When put to use as an errand runner, the Cayenne has room for more groceries than most of us can afford, and when unladen, it delivers a very convincing imitation of a sports car, clipping corners with precision and making short work of long straights.
The back seats are almost as plush as the front and offer plenty of space for maneuvering car seats and large adult passengers alike. Few road imperfections find their way through the optional adaptive air suspension, despite our car riding on 22-inch wheels wrapped in impressive (but probably unnecessary for a grocery getter) Pirelli P Zero Corsa summer tires with an 80-treadwear rating. On its sticky sneakers, our Cayenne pulled 1.02 g's on the skidpad and came to stop from 70 mph in 152 feet without a whisper of brake fade.
We should point out that our test Cayenne pushed the boundaries of baseness with options that include all the above luxuries, as well as rear-axle steering and a Premium package that adds a Bose sound system, ambient lighting, a panoramic roof, heated rear seats, and adaptive cruise control, all of which brought our as-tested price to the cusp of $105,000. That sizable of a window sticker could net you the V-8-powered S model, although the V-6 does eke out a couple more miles per gallon, with an EPA rating of 19 mpg combined, besting the V-8's 17.
Not only will the base Cayenne save you a few bucks in gas money, it wouldn't be hard to ditch a few more frivolities and stay closer to its $80,850 starting price. We'd forgo the big wheels in favor of the standard 20-inchers, which for 2024 get an inch of additional tire sidewall for a more comfortable ride, even without air suspension. We'd also pass on the rear-wheel steering, which makes the Cayenne twitchy in low-speed turns and parking maneuvers.
We didn't dislike the added control and ride-height variability of the air suspension, but the standard steel-spring suspension still gets Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) and new two-valve shocks. Add to that mix a variety of comfort features like auto-dimming mirrors, heated seats, and those 13 extra horses, and there's no real reason to feel pressured into optioning up. Use that extra money to re-up your gym membership.
Specifications
Specifications
2024 Porsche Cayenne
Vehicle Type: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $80,850/$104,830
Options: 22-inch Exclusive Design Sport wheels, $4220; Black/Mojave Beige leather interior, $4180; Premium package (panoramic roof, adaptive cruise control, Bose surround-sound audio, heated rear seats, ambient lighting), $3590; Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control, $3590; adaptive air suspension w/PASM, $2390; 14-way seats w/memory, $1290; rear-axle steering, $1280; Sport Chrono package, $1110; ventilated front seats, $850; Algarve Blue Metallic paint, $850; ultra-high performance tires for 22-inch wheels, $630
ENGINE
twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve V-6, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection
Displacement: 183 in3, 2995 cm3
Power: 348 hp @ 5400 rpm
Torque: 368 lb-ft @ 1500 rpm
TRANSMISSION
8-speed automatic
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: multilink/multilink
Brakes, F/R: 15.4-in vented disc/14.1-in vented disc
Tires: Pirelli P Zero Corsa PZC4
F: 285/40ZR-22 (110Y) XL NC0
R: 315/35ZR-22 (111Y) XL NC0
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 114.0 in
Length: 194.1 in
Width: 78.1 in
Height: 66.8 in
Cargo Volume, Behind F/R: 60/27 ft3
Curb Weight: 4922 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 4.7 sec
100 mph: 12.8 sec
1/4-Mile: 13.4 sec @ 102 mph
130 mph: 25.7 sec
Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec.
Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 6.0 sec
Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 3.4 sec
Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 4.2 sec
Top Speed (gov ltd): 156 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 152 ft
Braking, 100–0 mph: 304 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 1.02 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 16 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 19/17/23 mpg
Like a sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Scherr didn’t know her calling at a young age. Like many girls, she planned to be a vet-astronaut-artist, and came closest to that last one by attending UCLA art school. She painted images of cars, but did not own one. Elana reluctantly got a driver’s license at age 21 and discovered that she not only loved cars and wanted to drive them, but that other people loved cars and wanted to read about them, which meant somebody had to write about them. Since receiving activation codes, Elana has written for numerous car magazines and websites, covering classics, car culture, technology, motorsports, and new-car reviews. In 2020, she received a Best Feature award from the Motor Press Guild for the C/D story "A Drive through Classic Americana in a Polestar 2." In 2023, her Car and Driver feature story "In Washington, D.C.'s Secret Carpool Cabal, It's a Daily Slug Fest" was awarded 1st place in the 16th Annual National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards by the Los Angeles Press Club.
