Porsche Cayenne 2020 review: Coupe Turbo

The Cayenne Coupe's 'coupe version of a coupe-styled SUV' package made no sense to me when it first appeared last year. But after having stared at it for a week on my driveway, I accept that it's the more ‘Porsche’ of the two Cayenne shapes, and is actually quite evocative of the iconic 911 from the beltline up.  

If you read between the lines it’s actually pretty much a Lamborghini Urus with Porsche details, where the regular Cayenne is more Volkswagen Touareg in its shape. The Cayenne, Urus and Touareg actually share a lot of parts under the skin, given all three brands are part of the broader Volkswagen Group.

In the optional Lava Orange, the Cayenne Coupe is simply unmissable. (image credit: Malcolm Flynn)

The actual differences between the Cayenne and Cayenne Coupe are more pronounced if you put them side by side, with the Coupe’s entire roof line being smoother from front to rear, while the rear hips have been pumped slightly and the simpler tailgate moving the number plate down to the bumper. 

It actually takes a few leaves out of the smaller Macan’s book, and represents a coming-of-age for the Cayenne that first appeared two generations and 17 years ago.

If you read between the lines, the Cayenne is actually a Lamborghini Urus with Porsche details. (image credit: Malcolm Flynn)

In the optional Lava Orange of our test car, it brings an unintended safety benefit of being simply unmissable on the road. 

But, given the Turbo is double the price of the base model and about 50 per cent more than the S that sits between them, you might find that its subtly different front bumper, wheels, exhaust outlets and badging aren’t enough to distinguish it.

Not very, for a car of this size to be honest. It will take up a lot of room in your garage, but the way the roof tapers from all angles really eats into the interior space. 

It’s still got lots of room for four adults, and Porsche has lowered the height of the back seat to give you more room under that sloping roof, but it’s hard to imagine it being much more space overall than the smaller Macan SUV. I had no trouble in the back seat behind my driving position with my 172cm height, but it might start to feel a bit claustrophobic if you’re much taller.

One important detail to be aware of is that the back seat natively comes with positions for only two passengers. This enables more supportive cushions for the two outboard positions and a handy storage console in the middle, but you’ll have to tick the no-cost optional three-position back seat if you need to carry more than two people back there. The same applies for child seats too, you only get two sets of top-tether and ISOFIX mounts if you go with the default layout.

There are two sets of top-tether and ISOFIX mounts in the back. (image credit: Malcolm Flynn)

Despite the tapered roof, you shouldn’t have any trouble fitting three child seats across the back if you do opt for the three positions, but as always, it pays to trial fit your own seats to be sure. My two 0-4 child seats easily fit either side in their forward-facing positions.

The boot space is quite large at 600 litres, but this is 170 litres less than the regular Cayenne due to that roofline again. It still fit our full-size pram no worries, and would have no trouble fitting enough luggage for a family weekend away with a bit of planning. 

There’s a space saver spare under the boot floor, which is more handy than an inflation kit, but not as useful as a full-size spare.

The interior is bursting with convenience features, from extra vents in the back of the B-pillars, to an extra two climate zones for back seat passengers, and the rear suspension can be lowered to make loading and unloading the boot easier. 

There’s also an electric tailgate, and the rear windows have a very dark tint to help protect those in the back from the sun.

The requisite dual cup holders in the front and back and bottle holders in each door are there too. 

That sloping window line does eat into access when loading kids or for taller passengers, but unlike plenty of other sports-styled SUVs the Cayenne Coupe keeps a flat beltline. This meant that my two toddlers still had a good view from their child seats.

The sloping window line eats into the access when loading kids into the back. (image credit: Malcolm Flynn)

ANCAP is yet to rate any Porsche models, but Euro NCAP gave all regular Cayenne models a maximum five star safety rating according to 2017 standards. 

It’s yet to officially recognise the Cayenne Coupe that arrived two years later, but all features are matched across the two body styles.

These include front and knee airbags for both front occupants, side airbags front and rear and curtain airbags covering both rows of seats. 

It’s also got Lane Change Assists and forward collison warning, along with AEB with an unstated speed range, that can apply full braking but not bring the vehicle to a stop. This will cost you an extra $3570 and comes packaged with active cruise control, which should be standard at this price point, with the same true of lane-keep assist, which costs $1220.

It’s also got an active bonnet, which deploys in the event of a collision to help minimise pedestrian injuries.

Beyond the $259,400 list price, our Cayenne Coupe Turbo was also optioned with the sports exhaust system with gloss black tips ($5,970), Lava Orange paint ($5000), four-wheel steering ($4300), tinted LED active headlights ($3210), the Torque Vectoring Plus extension of the stability control ($3120), head-up display ($3070), tinted tail-lights and centre strip ($1750) and the Porsche crest embossed on the headrests ($950), which proves how easily you can spend an extra $27,370 on your quarter of a million dollar SUV. 

After those numbers, the fuel consumption may seem of little relevance, but it’s very rare to better the official combined figure during a road test. The Cayenne Coupe Turbo’s officially capable of 12.3L/100km on expensive 98 RON premium unleaded, but we saw 10.4L/100km on the dash after 200km of genuinely mixed driving. This suggests a range of around 865km between visits to the servo in the real world.

The Cayenne Turbo requires expensive 98 RON premium unleaded. (image credit: Malcolm Flynn)

Like all Porsches, the Turbo Coupe is covered by the brand’s three year, unlimited kilometre warranty. This is still around average for the big premium brands, but note that Genesis and Mercedes-Benz have stepped up to five-year periods. 

Service intervals are noted as a decent 12 months or 15,000km, but rather than offering a capped-price servicing plan, Porsche leaves pricing up to individual dealers.