2024 Porsche Cayenne S review

All versions get a bit more power, but the one to focus on is this one – the Cayenne S – because while it has only 32bhp more than the car it replaces, it has a full litre of engine capacity and two more cylinders to boot: for the first time in nearly a decade, the Cayenne S has a thumping great V8 under the bonnet. At 468bhp it is ludicrously understressed, producing almost 200bhp less than essentially the same motor does in the Lamborghini Urus Performante, but we won’t hold that against it.

This is a deliciously well-suited powertrain for this application, offering solid if not startling performance, a mellifluously woofling soundtrack and essentially zero lag. The only significant downside once the car is bought and taxed is its fairly atrocious fuel consumption: officially only slightly worse than the V6 its replaces, I managed around 25mpg when I was driving it very gently. When I wasn’t? Well, on a decent road you can halve that number with ease.

And you may want to. With optional air springs and four-wheel steering, plus new standard two-way dampers that isolate and separate bump and rebound, it handles ridiculously well for such a high and heavy car. It’s not great at mid-corner changes of plan, but so long as you set it up well in advance, aim well and fire it through the apex, it will reward by turning in with very little roll and zero lurch, finding your apex with unquestioning accuracy and cannoning away from it like a cork out of a bottle.

What I find so impressive about the Cayenne – whether you consider yourself an SUV person or not – is that 22 years after it transformed Porsche’s fortunes and future, it is still by a distance the best handling, most rewarding SUV there is, at least unless you’re prepared to spend double the money on an Aston Martin DBX707 or four times as much on a Ferrari Purosangue, if that can even be considered an SUV.

And even before this comprehensive suite of upgrades, the Cayenne was still the best-selling Porsche of them all, shifting in greater numbers (and at presumably far higher margins) than even the Macan. The gift that keeps on giving? On this evidence, I’d say it deserves to.

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