Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Cayenne is powered by a Volkswagen diesel engine, something that, for obvious reasons, the company no longer sells. Let’s find out if this last of its breed is still worth considering.
The most maddening thing about the 2000 Buick Regal GS we looked at yesterday is that GM doesn’t make them anymore. Heck, these days Buick doesn’t even sell cars in the U.S. Instead, the brand has chosen to focus exclusively on tallish crossovers and a tiny little thing called the Encore. What exactly it’s encoring I don’t know
That Regal, however, was the real deal, what with its torquey supercharged V6, roomy interior and an actual trunk, its $3,950 price was a real deal too. At least that’s the takeaway we got from the massive 86 percent Nice Price win the car enjoyed.
Speaking of brands and crossovers, I for one am thankful that Porsche decided to go the tall wagon route. If it weren’t for vehicles like the Cayenne and Macan, the little Stuttgart automaker wouldn’t be able to crank out ever faster iterations of its legendary 911 nor the insanely capable Cayman. For those who think such brand dilution is bad — mixing crossovers and sportscars — get a grip. As it turns out, a Porsche crossover can be a pretty engaging ride as well. That’s even when it doesn’t carry a Porsche engine.
Porsche has a long history of using engines from parent Volkswagen, starting with the four-cylinder 914 in 1969 which was succeeded by the Audi-powered 924 seven years later. The Cayenne has shared a number of VW mills, and that’s the case with this 2014 Cayenne, which uses a 3 liter VW turbo diesel. That’s an engine that also found its way into the VW Touareg and Phaeton, as well as under the hoods of various Audi cars.
That is, it did until Volkswagen got caught cheating on diesel emissions pretty much everywhere. That scandal ended sales of diesel Cayennes along with pretty much all other Volkswagen group oil burners. It also resulted in Volkswagen having to shell out over a billion dollars to retrofit or re-purchase cars with the 3 liter diesel engine. The generation 2 cars like this Cayenne were eligible for repair and a payout to the owners/lessees for the hassle. That should have ended the story right there, but the fact is, the scarcity of this model owing to the production discontinuation has made them highly sought after in the used car market. For whatever reasons, some people just love their diesels.
There’s a lot to love, or just like with this Cayenne. The mileage is a fairly modest 136,000 and those don’t show on either the Meteor Gray Metallic paint nor the 19-inch factory alloys. This is a Platinum Edition which means it has silver accents applied to the grilles, window trim and spoiler edging. That all looks appropriately natty.
The interior is black leather and features its own brightwork to spruce the place up. The 242 horsepower turbo diesel is backed up by an Aisin eight-speed Tiptronic automatic which gets steering wheel controls along with the standard console stick. There’s a Navigation screen here, along with enough buttons in here to keep you busy for hours just figuring out what everything does and how it gets done. The back seats look like they’ve rarely been used and get their own air vents and even more buttons. There are also some Porsche branded winter mats in the boot. A panoramic moon roof tops it all off.
The dealer selling the Cayenne gives pretty much no detail in the ad, sufficing instead that the Porsche is a “Must see.” We can see it in the pictures just fine, so it’s now time to give it a once-over and then consider its $20,999 price tag.
What do you think about this Porsche with a Volkswagen diesel and that $20,999 asking? Does that seem like a fair deal to grab a slice of scandal? Or, is that too much for a stepchild with a tainted past?
You decide!
Seattle, Washington, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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