Cayenne remains hot property for Porsche

Who would have thought it?

After launching its Cayenne SUV to the world in 2002, Porsche has now built more than 250,000 examples -- significantly broadening its customer base and creating what, in Australia, has become its single biggest-selling model. The Cayenne currently out-sells all other Porsches including the iconic 911.

According to Porsche AG Chairman Dr. Wendelin Wiedeking, the Cayenne "Was an important strategic step for Porsche. The five-seater is not only a great addition to the range for our many long-term Porsche customers, but it also opens up to us an entirely new customer segment."

The Cayenne was developed in conjunction with Volkswagen's Touareg and came to Australia in 2003. It incorporated enough Stuttgart magic to make it a quite different vehicle.

Available in 3.6-litre V6 (ex VW Passat R36) and 4.8-litre turbo and non-turbo V8 form, the Cayenne is also about to get a 3.0-litre 176kW/550NM V6 turbodiesel variant that will go on sale this April (as it happens, the 250,000th Cayenne produced at Porsche's Leipzig plant in Germany was a diesel).

Now in its second generation after a March 2008 revision, the Cayenne has accounted for 2861 local sales for Porsche since 2003.

The fact it outsells all other Stuttgart models in Australia doesn't mean the Cayenne has been unaffected by the economic downturn: year to date VFACTS figures show the Porsche SUV's local sales are off last year's tally for the same period by  37.9 per cent, which is fairly typical of the pain being inflicted on most heavy SUVs.

However the Cayenne is faring much better than the 911 (down 58.3 per cent) and Boxster (down 56.1 per cent). Only the Boxster-based Cayman shares the load with the Cayenne in helping stave off big falls with sales down on 2008 year-to-date figures by 36.1 per cent.