Porsche Cayenne: Fast. But how quick do you need to get to daycare?

Consumer Reports News: January 17, 2011 08:38 AM

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There's a little sticker on the dashboard of our Porsche Cayenne, right next to the ignition switch, advising drivers to keep their speed below 150 mph because it has mud and snow tires. Good advice, I suppose, and it's thoughtful of the Porsche folks to put the sticker prominently in a spot where drivers will see it every time they fire up their $63,000 SUV.

But you have to wonder how many Cayenne drivers have the faintest notion of taking their Porsche up to 150 while carting the kiddies to school, or at any other time. One would hope they don't.

Maybe the reason for the sticker is to help reaffirm Cayenne drivers that they're still cool, even if they're driving a big honking SUV. At the least, the sticker is a regular reminder that since they spent so much money for the thing, they know it can go that fast.

To be fair, the Cayenne is a nice ride, even if, as noted in our road test, it's got a few flaws. As our engineers pointed out, the cabin is chock full of small, confusing switches and an overly complicated audio system. But after spending the better part of a week with the Cayenne, I've pretty much figured all that stuff out.

What I don't yet understand is how the Cayenne became Porsche's biggest-selling model. It's impressive how Porsche engineers succeeded in giving it the agility and body control reminiscent of their sports cars and a gorgeous cabin, but at the end of the day it is still a 4-door SUV that functionally doesn't do much more than the Mercedes-Benz ML or even the Nissan Murano. Both SUVs offer plenty enough performance, luxury, and utility for most families. We also think highly of the $32,000 Kia Sorento--an even cheaper alternative.

But they don't have that 150 mph speed limit sticker. Maybe that's the point.

—Jim Travers