I personally think that Cayennes have the nicest feeling interiors out of any vehicle I've been in.
Mind having a thread about your Ridgeline for what you did and didn't like about it?
I personally think that Cayennes have the nicest feeling interiors out of any vehicle I've been in.
Mind having a thread about your Ridgeline for what you did and didn't like about it?
In reply to mtn :
Love the Ridgeline. It has almost 260k on it now.
What I don't like.
The transmission shifts constantly. And I do mean constantly. Even in flatlandastan. It's neverending, even with the cruise control set.
Road noise. It's noisy. It's not tire noise, it's just noise. Everything gets transmitted through the bushings. Old asphalt is deafening.
It won't tow my boat or my enclosed trailer for any distance. It doesn't have enough torque to make a decent tow rig. Maybe in 3rd, but then it's getting 13 mpg which is no better than a full size truck.
That's it. So I'm looking for something that will do better at the above without buying a monster truck. The VAG triplets with the TDI seem to punch all of those buttons.
In reply to Toyman! :
Despite my orneriness I'll say I like them a lot and if I had only two kids I'd have one. I'd look at the x5 diesel as well. They seem to have less big issues than the vw ones, when I looked into it. I'm also a sucker for an online six diesel.
A word of advice. I'd be worried about buying any emissions defeat devices now. Once those places get busted they can suppeona all the customer records. I don't see the epa going after the little guy now but that could easily change. An emissions compliant tune will really wake up the little oil burner.
In reply to Toyman! :
Thanks. Sounds like it is still a nearly perfect vehicle for my needs.
In reply to mtn :
The ridge line would be good for me but three kids makes it tight.
The Ridgeline will be staying in the family no matter what I do. If the wife doesn't want it my eldest does.
Toyman! said:In reply to mtn :
Love the Ridgeline. It has almost 260k on it now.
What I don't like.
The transmission shifts constantly. And I do mean constantly. Even in flatlandastan. It's neverending, even with the cruise control set.
Road noise. It's noisy. It's not tire noise, it's just noise. Everything gets transmitted through the bushings. Old asphalt is deafening.
It won't tow my boat or my enclosed trailer for any distance. It doesn't have enough torque to make a decent tow rig. Maybe in 3rd, but then it's getting 13 mpg which is no better than a full size truck.
That's it. So I'm looking for something that will do better at the above without buying a monster truck. The VAG triplets with the TDI seem to punch all of those buttons.
Cayenne responses for ya since everyone else just wants to talk about emissions:
The transmissions post-Dieselgate got reprogrammed as part of "the fix" and they basically want to be in 8th gear all the time if you are just cruising. There is enough torque to where that's not really an issue, though it can make the drivetrain feel laggy. My solution is to hit the Sport button, which makes better use of all gears and wakes the whole thing up. The Malone Stage 1 tune retains emissions gear and, according to owners who had their Cayennes pre-Dieselgate, makes them feel "pre-fix" again.
It is, like I said, an Aisin 8-speed and pretty durable. I shift mine manually with the enclosed trailer so it doesn't do the constant 5-6-7-8-7-6-5-6-7-5-6 sort of dance. It's happy towing in any of those gears depending on how flat the terrain is. Torque converter locks up from 2nd gear onward I believe.
This is one of the quietest cars I've ever owned inside, second only to my L322 Range Rover (which didn't tow well enough to recommend). I'm on new Bridgestone Alenza Sport tires, obviously an all-terrain will both impact towing confidence/stability and add to noise so I like having the highway tires instead.
I've towed with a Ridgeline and you're right, it's fine at towing but you have to zing that poor J-series into the limiter to make power. This is the exact opposite experience.
FWIW the Touareg TDI and Cayenne Diesel are the same size, platform, etc but I did NOT like how the Touareg drove or felt compared to the Porch. It was much more "generic" feeling and not nearly as sporty. There are suspension and bushing differences, from what I know, that contribute to them driving so differently. And of course, different interiors. You can add CarPlay/Android Auto to the factory head unit on the Cayenne for about $300. Seats are some of the best I've sat in, I have the 14-way heated/ventilated. Bose audio is fine but not outstanding, mine got better with the CarPlay install as the little circuit board gives you its own EQ to mess with.
I'll stop gushing but I really, really like my Cayenne.
In reply to Brake_L8 (Forum Supporter) :
Do you know if the Cayenne suspension stuff can be put on the Touareg?
Somebeach (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Brake_L8 (Forum Supporter) :
Do you know if the Cayenne suspension stuff can be put on the Touareg?
I don't, but I suspect the mounting points are all the same between the two so you could throw whatever shocks on and use different springs, bushings, etc easily enough. Platform-sharing means you can't change too much and keep it cost-effective so...
They do drive very differently. I drove them back to back when I bought our cayenne. Ended up with the cayenne, despite the cost difference because the cayenne just drove better. Better transmission programming, better handling, I liked the interior more...
I have had two first gen Cayenne Ss and now have a 'Dieselgate' 2012 TDI Touareg. I have used them for a lot of towing. The '04 Cayenne's longest trip was from Ok to Fl for the 2019 Challenge towing a trailered Boxster, getting up to 17 mpg highway and I could almost forget that I was pulling a trailer the way it handled. The Touareg tows the same, but gets 20 mpg pulling a loaded trailer and 30 mpg highway unladen. Only issue with TowPig has been a couple times of CEL for "Exhaust gas recirculation cooler bypass valve 2 implausible signal" which has been covered under warranty and got me a new EGR cooler.
Pepper:
TowPig:
How much Cayenne can I get with $20k? I want to replace my Expedition with something not as long but can still occasionally tow. I'm looking at 2013+ GL450's as a first choice. I do love Cayennes as well.
Well after a bunch of reading, thinking, and searching, Carvana will be dropping off a 2014 Touareg TDI Sport Tuesday.
The Cayenne diesels I found were all out of the salt belt or more than I wanted to spend. The Touaregs run about $10k cheaper than a comparable Cayenne and I didn't think the advantages of the Porsche would justify the extra cost.
I'll spend next week putting it through its paces and I'll let you know if I made a mistake or not.
yupididit said:How much Cayenne can I get with $20k? I want to replace my Expedition with something not as long but can still occasionally tow. I'm looking at 2013+ GL450's as a first choice. I do love Cayennes as well.
All the 955/957 in the world or a good 958 S. They are different, drive them both and see what you like.
Javelin said:Yes to Cayenne, NO to diesel! Read this: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/project-winecheese-cayenne-diesel-overland/183736/page1/
A Cayenne Turbo or Turbo S would be my vote.
This is me, the car is STILL at the Porsche dealer since May, according to them it needs a NEW engine. It set injector faults and scored the bore. The extended emissions warranty clearly states the "engine long block" is covered, but they are not honoring that, trust me I have tried to fight it.
Do you want to buy mine with a blown motor and swap it? :)
If I were to do it again, I would buy a V8 957 since they are WAY cheaper and have much better off road potential and aftermarket. The difference in MPG doesnt make up for the $15-20k increase the 958's go for now. They are getting to be very popular, 3 of my co-workers have bought them for offroading and Paul at Braid USA has one too!
In reply to engiekev :
DUDE. Sounds like lawsuit time to me!
In reply to Toyman! :
I think you're going to love it. Towing and working it now and again is very good for things like variable turbos and emissions gear. They clog up during grocery getter duty.
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :
And yet ours has been fine for 70k miles, being driven by my wife, who drives like a great grandma.
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :
I tend to drive a vehicle fairly hard so I doubt I will have a problem with not exercising the turbo and burning/blowing the crap out of the DPF. It's also going to be my tow beast which should help as well.
docwyte said:In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :
And yet ours has been fine for 70k miles, being driven by my wife, who drives like a great grandma.
Might be that You're at altitude and your turbo is already working harder.
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :
Given the way my wife drives, I find that highly unlikely. She tootles down the freeway in the slow lane doing 45-50mph. However her drive to work is fairly long so I'm sure the trucks emissions systems are hitting the regen cycle several times...
In reply to docwyte :
Fair. But In general all turbochargers work harder at altitude to maintain a original power. Garrett has a good article. But yes you're right the dpf etc would t see extra use.
https://www.garrettmotion.com/news/newsroom/article/how-to-turbocharge-at-elevation-counteracting-lower-air-density/
So, when are you going to lift it? Haha.
Euro wise makes a good set of parts for these. https://shop.eurowise.com/
In reply to engiekev :
Given that it's my wife car, never. She just doesn't care, so it'll remain stock until we sell it. I have a land cruiser to handle off roading and it does it much better than the cayenne given the fact it's a real 4wd with a low range transfer case...
docwyte said:In reply to engiekev :
Given that it's my wife car, never. She just doesn't care, so it'll remain stock until we sell it. I have a land cruiser to handle off roading and it does it much better than the cayenne given the fact it's a real 4wd with a low range transfer case...
My Cayenne is real 4WD with a low range transfer case... 
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