Used Porsche Cayenne GTS: A Sports Car With A Trunk, At Half The Price
Five years of depreciation have turned the Porsche Cayenne GTS from a $110,000 exotic into a $60,000 performance bargain. Here is what you get — and what could go wrong.
Twenty-odd years ago, Porsche building an SUV sounded like heresy for a brand built on some of the best sports cars on the planet. Today, the Cayenne is living proof the Germans knew exactly what they were doing.
The third generation arrived in 2019 with sharper tech, a reworked cabin, and an engine lineup running from a 335-horsepower turbo V6 base model through a 434-hp twin-turbo S, all the way up to increasingly unhinged V8 and hybrid variants.
Why The GTS, Specifically
The real sweet spot showed up in 2021, when the GTS trim got its V8 back. The character shift is obvious — a properly aggressive exhaust, standard sport air suspension, and that elusive middle ground between comfort and adrenaline that makes the GTS the enthusiast’s pick without the Turbo’s price tag.
Under the hood sits a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 making 453 horsepower and 457 pound-feet of torque, paired with an eight-speed automatic and all-wheel drive. Zero to 60 mph takes 4.2 seconds, top speed is electronically capped at 167 mph, and the thing weighs nearly 4,932 pounds — a number that only makes how composed it feels on a back road more impressive.
A new 2021 Cayenne GTS started at $107,300, with the Coupe version from $110,500 before fees and options; the original test car, loaded up, stickered at an eye-watering $162,760. Five years of depreciation later, a used GTS with around 50,000 miles now carries a Kelley Blue Book Fair Purchase Price of roughly $59,300, with the Coupe at about $62,400.
What Could Go Wrong
Start with the air suspension — struts, compressors, and ride-height sensors can all age out and fail. Electronics are next: early third-gen cars have shown infotainment freezes, Bluetooth hiccups, and the occasional phantom warning light. There is a more serious concern too — in 2021, Porsche recalled a small batch of GTS, GTS Coupe, and Turbo models over a cylinder-bore defect that, worst case, meant a full engine replacement. Other campaigns covered rear suspension fasteners and the passenger-seat occupant-detection system. A pre-purchase inspection by a Porsche specialist, and ideally a Porsche Certified Pre-Owned example with its two-year warranty, are worth the extra effort before signing anything.
The luxury performance SUV segment is crowded enough — the Audi SQ8, the 523-hp BMW X5 M50i, the Mercedes-AMG GLE53, and the smaller but arguably more entertaining Porsche Macan GTS are all reasonable detours, provided you are willing to trade some trunk space or some character.
The Cayenne will probably never win an award for the most sensible used SUV on the market — it is thirsty, expensive to maintain, and stuffed with tech that could eventually generate an unpleasant repair bill. But buying a Porsche was never meant to be a rational decision. And for around $60,000, you can now drive one of the most entertaining SUVs of its generation.
Source: Motor1.com (https://www.motor1.com/reviews/813457/used-porsche-cayenne-buying-guide/)
