The Porsche Cayenne is a five seat mid-size luxury SUV manufactured since 2002, with North American sales beginning in 2003. The Cayenne is capable of 161 mph and is a demon off-road.

Its platform was developed by Porsche and is shared with the Volkswagen Touareg and the Audi Q7. It is the first V8-engined vehicle built by Porsche since 1995, when the Porsche 928 was discontinued. The Cayenne's frame and doors are sourced from Volkswagen, who uses the frames and doors for the Volkswagen Touareg model. All other aspects of vehicle design, tuning and production are done in house at Porsche.

First Generation

The base model introduced in 2003 was powered by a 3.2 L VR6 engine that was also used in the Volkswagen Touareg and Volkswagen Golf R32. Acceleration from 0 to 60 mph (97 km) was 7.5 seconds with manual transmission and 8.1 seconds with the Tiptronic S.

The the additional initial models were the V8-powered Cayenne S and Cayenne Turbo. Later in the model cycle, VR6 and diesel-powered versions joined the lineup.

The August 2003 issue of Car and Driver had the highs for the car as being 'Power and torque worthy of the Richter scale' and the lows as 'Mass worthy of the Richter scale'. Its verdict was 'Porsche builds a Nietzschean uber-Hummer'.

Second Generation

The current Porsche Cayenne went on sale around April–May 2010 as a 2011 model. It is visually shorter and smaller than its predecessors with a more slanted rear window and less upright windshield, a more sloping roofline, door-mounted mirrors, smaller windows at the rear of the vehicle, headlights inspired by the Carrera GT, taillights that extend onto the car's tailgate, LED daytime running lights and a vastly redesigned interior modeled after the Panamera. The 2011 Cayenne is almost 250 kilograms (550 lb) lighter than the previous models due to extensive use of aluminum and magnesium, making it more fuel efficient than the previous lineup.

The Cayenne is again the first of the three new SUVs from the VW group along with the new Volkswagen Touareg and the next-generation Audi Q7.

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