One thing I won’t be doing on my upcoming fiftieth birthday is driving a Porsche, as I recently sold the Cayenne. It was just at that point where the condition was still pretty good, mileage was highish but not unacceptable, there were few good examples available to buy and I was satisfied that my Cayenne itch had been scratched.
As the snow fell across England, I put it on eBay as a ten-day sale with a set of good pics and a decent description, including the long list of all the things I had done to it in my five years of ownership. The ad generated an excellent response and brought in good interest from genuine buyers, which reached a crescendo as the end of sale approached.
A local motorsport specialist came round to see it on the final morning, we had a good drive and he placed a strong bid in the final minutes of the sale. However, the auction ended with a buyer in Essex claiming the Cayenne for just over £6k. I had quite a lot of spares and accessories that I planned to offer the buyer first refusal on, but the final price was the most I have seen an ’04 with similar mileage sell for on eBay, so I just put everything in the boot and sent the new owner off delighted.
A few friends who I spoke with after the sale end seemed to have the impression that I regarded the Cayenne as some sort of burden, with parts being changed on a monthly basis and me basically rebuilding the truck while I had it. This is not the case. I did have to go through a long-winded gearbox rebuild, but that would have been sorted much quicker and less painfully had I just taken it to a decent gearbox specialist right from the start.
Elsewhere, there were new parts for the heating and fuel supply systems, a crank position sensor change, bits and pieces for various MOTs and so on but, other that that, it was relatively easy company over five years and 50k miles, with no particular appetite for oil, tyres or brakes. Would I recommend a Cayenne as a used purchase? For sure. I particularly like the later 957 GTS models, but they are still big money, so an upgrade was never on the cards for me. I wouldn’t go into debt for a car that was still depreciating and I have better things to spend money on than a luxury daily driver.
A fortnight after the Cayenne’s departure, I don’t miss it too much, but there is nothing that can really hope to replace it. I’ve been looking for another Subaru Legacy estate, but my ideal spec is a needle in a haystack that has not come on the market in the last twelve months. So I’ve bitten the bullet and switched back to my 2006 Honda CRV: a good example with all the toys and one previous owner that’s been more bulletproof than a riot van over the two years I’ve owned it. It’s comfortable to drive and easy on the back, so I’ve added a Stag Q-Next LPG conversion to bring the fuel costs down to acceptable levels, which essentially bolts me into the CRV for the next three years.
Gas will save at least £1000 a year in running costs on this car – it saved twice that per year on the Cayenne – so is a no brainer. The main downside of the (grey) CRV is the absolute blandness of the exterior: it won’t upset anyone and that is one thing I will really miss about the curvy Cayenne. There’s also an hint of “I’m borrowing my wife’s car” about using the CRV, but passing fifty allows one to be increasingly less concerned about this stuff.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
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