A little over a year ago I had to make some large changes to my business, I was getting squeezed by insurance reimbursements, payroll, costs, etc. That caused me to sell my Land Cruiser to put more of a cushion in the bank. I bought a cheaper VW Touareg TDI as I couldn't find a Cayenne Diesel with the options I wanted. Who knew it'd be basically impossible to find one with roof rails and a tow hitch? A year later and happily the changes I've made have made a positive impact, I was missing some of the options I wanted for the Touareg and it decided it wanted some attention. I sold it to a nice fellow, disclosing everything, even put it on my lift and went over it with his mechanic friend, so no surprises.
I narrowed my search to a 2015-2018 Cayenne Turbo, those have the same interior as our Cayenne Diesel, which while button heavy, I like. I had a specific option group I was targeting, I wanted heated and cooled seats, heated steering wheel, Burmeister sound package, tow package and roof rails. The Porsche sport exhaust, limited slip rear diff (PTV+) and active swaybar control (PDCC) and active/radar cruise control were nice to haves, but not must haves. I also wanted to stay away from the ceramic brakes (PCCB's) due to rotor replacement cost and the fact that you need to run 21" wheels to clear them. You can clear the standard turbo brakes with 19" wheels, which would allow me to swap the snow wheels from the Touareg to the Cayenne Diesel, then put the snow wheels from the Cayenne Diesel onto the Cayenne Turbo I bought.
Well, the best laid plans, etc. It's really hard to find a Porsche with the options you want, with the color combination you want. I found one that checked almost all the boxes in Salt Lake, where a good friend and fellow Porsche owner lives. He checked it out for me and while the interior was in great shape, the exterior had scrapes, dings, etc. Despite being a CPO'd car, it rarely went to the dealer and didn't have a good service history, along with the transfer case not being replaced. The transfer cases are a known problem on these, to the point where Porsche extended the warranty on them, so this one not being replaced was a red flag for me. I decided to pass on it.
On Rennlist I found a 2016 Cayenne Turbo S, which mechanically is the same as the 2016 Cayenne Turbo, only difference is a software tune to make more power. However, the Turbo S's have PDCC and PTV+ stock. This one had all the options I wanted, including all the "nice to haves" that were on my list. The only bummer is all Turbo S's have PCCB brakes. This one had been dealer serviced its entire life and also has almost two years of CPO Porsche warranty left. So really nothing to worry about mechanically. I liked the color combo and it looked very clean.
It's in the LA area and I've got friends in So Cal, so Monday a good friend of mine checked it out. He called me with the very enthusiastic thumbs up, saying it looked new and drove incredibly well. So yesterday morning I wired over the money, which I have to say, weirded me out BIG TIME. Huge leap of faith there, thankfully it seems to be working out. Seller sent me the signed title and a set of keys, shipper is picking it up this afternoon and it should be here Friday. I've made the appointment with the DMV to move the plates from the Touareg over.
Will need to get it VIN Verified and smog tested this weekend, I'll drop by the dealer and see if my friend/service advisor there will print out all the service records for me. It was more than I wanted to spend, the Turbo S's have a significant cost delta compared to the "regular" Turbo's, apparently because Porsche only brought in 350 of them a year. I'll get tax savings on it, and between the money from that, selling the Touraeg and a retention bonus from the Air Force, that'll pay for it. In the end I thought it was worth it given it was so clean, was CPO'd for 2 years and was the color combo/option group I wanted.
