By embracing the SUV market with the Cayenne, Porsche saved its sports cars. Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Cayenne GTS is pretty sporty despite its size and function. Let’s decide if we all are good sports regarding its price.
When it comes to baked potatoes and cars, being “loaded” is usually a good thing. It’s not, however, when associated with questions or people who are “angry drunks.” The 2014 Volkswagen CC 4Motion Executive we looked at yesterday was pretty loaded and, hence, fell in that first category. Also in the VW’s favor was its $14,495 price tag as that proved not to be too loaded, and it earned a solid 53 percent Nice Price win as a result.
The 3.2-liter VR6 in yesterday’s CC was a very popular performance engine for VW at the time. It appeared in several of the company’s cars and vans and also found its way under the hoods of various Audis, Skodas, Seats, and Porsches.
The 2013 Porsche Cayenne GTS we’re considering today does not have the VR6. For this model year, the GTS was fitted exclusively with Porsche’s own 4.8-liter quad-cam V8. That gives the crossover a cool 420 horsepower and 380 lb-ft of torque, a sizable gain over the VR6-powered base model’s 296 horses and 295 lb-ft of twist. That’s also 20 horses and 11 lb-ft more than the same V8 in the lower spec Cayenne S. Completing the picture here is a six-speed ZF automatic, more aggressively-tuned suspension, and fuss-free automatic AWD setup. That all makes for some spry performance from a car that weighs in at over 5,100 pounds.
This Cayenne has it in the looks department, too. It’s black over black over black, with paint, an Alcantara-trimmed interior, and optional 21-inch alloys, all wearing a goth teen’s favorite color. It all looks to be in solid shape, too, despite having done a claimed 123,700 miles.
On the exterior, the paint presents as shiny as new, and there appears to be no curbing of the wheels. Moving on to the interior, it’s a similar story, with no appreciable wear visible in the pictures and the seller’s vow that “Everything is in working order.” Porsche-branded all-weather floor mats and double headphones for rear-seat passengers come along for the ride, as well.
Under-hood may be a sea of plastic, but Porsche did manage to dress up the space enough to make popping the hood a bit of an event. Everything looks clean enough to eat off of here, and the seller says that the car has current tags and a clean bill of health from the smog tester, so there shouldn’t be any need to go further than admiring the engine when under-hood. A clean title is the cherry on top of this $16,900 performance crossover sundae.
Before we get too deep into that asking price, let’s turn back the clock to when this Cayenne was brand new. Back then, the starting point for any GTS model was over $85K out the door. Add to that any number of options (those 21-inch black-painted wheels alone cost over $2,600 at the dealer), and the price could quickly balloon to over six figures. That’s a lot of peppers for Peter Piper to pick.
Depreciation, of course, brings those crazy prices down into real-world terms, and now, with that context in mind, we need to decide this Cayenne’s fate. What’s your take on this seemingly well-cared-for GTS and that $16,900 asking? Does that seem like a deal to shake Porsche’s money-maker? Or would that amount be better spent on one of the company’s sports cars?
You decide!
San Francisco Bay Area, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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