Are You One Of The Freaks With A High-Mileage Porsche Cayenne?

Are You One Of The Freaks With A High-Mileage Porsche Cayenne?

Normally my eyes gloss over these things when I’m looking at used car listings. They’re like dead space in between my other searches for weird cars, but a friend just put me on to a bit of a trend he’d been spotting: high-mileage Porsche Cayennes.

I was surprised by a few things about high-mileage Cayennes:

That they existed at all and hadn’t all exploded.

That people had cherished a blobby egg-shaped Porsche enough to get it to 160,934 km or 321,869 km or more in the first place.

That all of them weren’t manuals.

That last point was the most surprising of them. I was sure that the Venn diagram of “people who would keep and maintain a Porsche Cayenne up into six-figure mileage” and “people would would spec their Cayenne with three pedals” would just be a circle. I was equally taken aback that some people loved their automatic Cayennes enough to stick with them, and that the Cayennes had survived the experience.

Of course, reliability is a myth. These are high-dollar enthusiast vehicles and they attract owners who do all their regular scheduled maintenance. This is not a Chevy Cavalier running with no oil change since 1999 situation. With that in mind, let’s look at some high-mileage Cayennes, see how they’re doing, and see if we can get something out of them about their owners.

If you own or have owned a Porsche Cayenne with some seriously high mileage, please email us at tips at jalopnik dot com. We want to hear your stories and we want to know what blew up.

2008 Porsche Cayenne GTS – 386,403 km

Are You One Of The Freaks With A High-Mileage Porsche Cayenne?
Photo: Craigslist

Let us begin by saluting this Porsche Cayenne that did more than 321,869 km in the hands of its first owner. It is a GTS, the extra sporty one that’s not the Turbo. This was clearly a car bought by someone who knew what they were getting, treasured it, used it and adored it.

The second owner, the person selling the car at the moment, seems to be a bit more of a prospector, asking $US10,500 ($13,584) FIRM after putting 8,047 km on the car. From the Craigslist listing:

Asking $US10500 ($13,584) for a rare excellent condition Sand White Cayenne GTS

accept dollar value in Bitcoin ( BTC ) Ethereum ( ETH ) or USD

recent maintenance:

Replaced front and rear differentials with 90k mile units , along with new fluids

replaced AGM battery

3 sensors including: crankshaft position sensor, camshaft position sensors bank A and B BOSCH OEM

Liqui Moly 5w40 synthetic oil change

transmission serviced with Liqui Moly Top Tech and Meyle transmission filter

coolant service Audi G12 Plus purple

brake service with OEM Porsche Brembo pads and Stoptech rotors

[…]

$US90,380 ($116,925) MSRP , see OEM options sticker ; these vehicles are rising in value, a 6 speed manual is selling up towards $US40,000 ($51,748)…. please have some respect for this beautiful automatic example.

I hope this Cayenne lives to see 300,000.

2006 Porsche Cayenne — 386,243 km

Are You One Of The Freaks With A High-Mileage Porsche Cayenne?
Photo: Craigslist

Somewhat more sparse is this listing for a V8 Cayenne with a claimed 386,243 km. It’s in New Jersey, it’s an auto, the seller wants as much as an old Toyota Land Cruiser, and that’s about it. The listing in full:

this listing is for a v8 porsche cayenne in great condition, mostly highway miles drives amazing

2006 Porsche Cayenne Turbo — 115,873 km

Are You One Of The Freaks With A High-Mileage Porsche Cayenne?
Photo: Craigslist

To give a fuller picture of who is selling a used Cayenne these days, please enjoy this first-gen Turbo that someone in Manhattan only wants $US7,900 ($10,220) for. You’re not buying from the seller. You’re buying from the doorman. From the listing:

Car priced to sell, first come first served . friday morning to be shown and sold picked up by buyer.

My doorman will be showing it the phone number is mine to make and confirm meeting

The mileage should be higher to get into this list, but it’s too good not to share.

2004 PORSCHE CAYENNE S — 344,900 km

Are You One Of The Freaks With A High-Mileage Porsche Cayenne?
Photo: Craigslist

A lot can happen over the course of 321,869 km, crashes being one of them. I’m just proud that this Cayenne wasn’t felled by some routine maintenance priced out of affordability to the owner by German complexity. I’m also happy that there wasn’t anything unexpected that broke the owner couldn’t fix. There was nothing about this Cayenne being a Cayenne that kept it from getting this mileage. From the seller:

BODY MANS SPECIAL 4.5 LITRE DOHC 32 VALVE V8, AUTOMATIC, W/TIPTRONIC MANUAL PADDLE SHIFT, TRACTION CONTROL, POWER STEERING, POWER BRAKES, POWER WINDOWS, POWER LOCKS, POWER MOON ROOF, HEATED LEATHER POWER SEATS, CRUISE, A/C, TELESCOPING WHEEL, REMOTE KEY-LESS ENTRY, BOSE STEREO, NAVIGATION SYSTEM, HEATED MIRRORS, REAR WIPER, REAR DEFOGGER, ROOF RACK, TOW PACKAGE, ALLOY WHEELS, GOOD TIRES, RUNS EXCELLENT.

2003 Porsche Cayenne S — 354,056 km

Are You One Of The Freaks With A High-Mileage Porsche Cayenne?
Photo: Craigslist

Another sad entry into the 321,869 km club is this 2003 with its front end off. The seller only wants $US1,500 ($1,941) for it as a parts car. From the listing:

2003 Porsche Cayenne S 4.5L V8 with a badly scored cylinder #8. 220K miles, good body, grey leather interior, xenon headlights, new tires, clean title. Car is partly dismantled but 100% complete, for now. Includes brand new radiator, water pump and other misc extra parts. Worked perfectly until the cylinder went. Will need a tow truck from Carpinteria. Text only please.

There is a limit to what a high-mileage Cayenne owner will put up with, and I guess finding a new engine is somewhere past it.

2012 Porsche Cayenne V6 Manual — 173,004 km

Are You One Of The Freaks With A High-Mileage Porsche Cayenne?
Photo: Cars and Bids

It’s not all that hard to find a Cayenne with over 160,934 km for sale. I have another 10 tabs open of them.

In that sense, this Cayenne is unexceptional, racking up a mere 173,004 km down in Texas, impressive as that is for a second-generation Cayenne. What is distinctive is that it has an actual six-speed manual. Most of the “manual” Cayennes out there are Tiptronics, which do let you play around shifting with paddles. The manual explains two things: Why the seller is currently over $US12,000 ($15,524) on Cars and Bids at the moment, and why the car is in such immaculate shape. This car has been cherished. Beloved. Think about it the next time you consider a Cayenne. Somebody else adored it. Why not you?


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