Porsche Cayenne Coupe 2019 reviews: can it topple the BMW X6?

Image 1 of 10

Porsche’s new Cayenne Coupe SUV has just arrived in British showrooms and critics have lost no time in seeing how it stacks up against its key rival: the BMW X6.

The new model is based on the third-generation Cayenne SUV, but Porsche has introduced a sleeker boot lid that gives the car a coupe-like silhouette.

The company pioneered the performance SUV with the original Cayenne back in the early 2000s. Since then Porsche has been the go-to carmaker for buyers looking for sporty off-roaders.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

To put this into perspective, Porsche makes more money selling 256,255 cars – mostly SUVs – than Volkswagen [Porsche’s parent company] does “shifting umpteen million” vehicles in a year, so the “temptation to mine another profitable seam is overwhelming”, says Top Gear.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Cayenne Coupe, as well as what the critics are saying:

Reviews

The Cayenne Coupe is Porsche’s attempt at injecting “driving dynamism into a class where generally speaking there is none”, says Autocar. This shouldn’t be difficult, given that the regular Cayenne is arguably the “best big SUV of the lot for those of us who love driving.”

To start, its design is subtle and “not a jarring shape” like its BMW X6 rival, the magazine says. The Coupe is stylish on the inside, too. The car sports an optional full-length panoramic glass roof and the same wall-to-wall touchscreen infotainment system as the standard Cayenne.

Not only do the Coupe’s interior and styling have the edge over rivals, the car is also a strong performer on the open road.

The US-based magazine Motor Trend says the Coupe “rides better” than the BMW X6, while the faster Turbo model has the edge over the top-spec BMW X6M in terms of performance.

That said, the Coupe doesn’t improve on the performance of the regular Cayenne, according to the magazine. This suggests most buyers will opt for the Coupe for its looks alone.

It’s unlikely they will choose the Coupe with practicality in mind as the new model’s boot is considerably smaller than that of the standard Cayenne, says Top Gear.

Despite the Coupe being “a little less practical” and “a little more expensive” than the standard Cayenne, it “won’t matter one iota” to the buyer this car is likely to attract thanks to the car’s kerb appeal, says Auto Express.

“It remains one of the sharpest SUVs on sale and now comes in a package some customers will find impossible to resist”, the magazine concludes.

Release date and prices

Orders are open now, with deliveries due to get underway at the end of the month.

Prices for the entry-level Cayenne Coupe start at £62,129, while performance-focused Turbo models command a considerable premium at £104,729.

With car manufacturers offering more customisation options than ever on their new models, those prices will probably rise once a few boxes on the spec list have been ticked.

Design

Although its design is almost identical to that of the standard Cayenne, the Coupe’s body has been completely reworked from the A-pillar structure (the section of bodywork either side of the windscreen) to the back of the vehicle, says Evo.

The roof is 20mm lower than the base car and the rear is 18mm wider, the magazine says. There’s also a small spoiler extending from the roofline and an electronically controlled wing below the rear window.

The car’s overall look isn’t dissimilar to the Lamborghini Urus or Audi Q8, both of which are built on the same production platform as the Cayenne.

Does the roofline affect boot space?

Yes. The Cayenne Coupe has a boot capacity of 625 litres with the rear seats in place and 1,540 litres when they are folded flat, says CarBuyer.

Meanwhile, the standard Cayenne boasts a luggage capacity of 770 litres when the rear seats are upright and 1,710 litres when they are stowed away.

Engines and performance

Buyers who opt for the standard Cayenne Coupe will get a 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 engine producing 335bhp and 332lb-ft of torque, says Car magazine. This fires the SUV from 0-62mph in 6.0 seconds, while also delivering a combined fuel economy of 23.9mpg.

Porsche has fitted its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine on range-topping Turbo models and this delivers 543bhp and 568lb-ft of torque, says the motoring magazine. Acceleration performance is an impressive 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds and the larger engine only marginally affects fuel economy, which is between 20.2mpg to 20.8mpg on average.

All models come with four-wheel-drive systems and eight-speed automatic gearboxes.