have a '05 Cayenne Turbo, for the most part the performance is great and do like the car. However, in two instances the car consistently lags in acceleration. First situation, on the highway when one goes to pull out and pass another car - there is a 6 second lag before the acceleartion kicks in - kinda scary.

the other situation is in the middle of and at the end of exiting a medium to hard turn, the car won't let you dig into the acceleartion but will hold back on the throttle - again no acceleration for 6+ seconds.

I can overcome most of this by using the tip shifters and manually over-riding the shift patterns. Left to its own devices, the car wants to sit in 6th gear as long as possible. But for a car that costs 90k+ and has 450 HP, kind of a joke that one has to manually shift the car to get even reasonable performance. Bad software design.

I'm guessing that Porsche wrote the software this way to conserve on gas mileage.

Is there a software upgrade that one can get at the dealer to overcome this poor shift pattern mapping?

Would be nice if they had a "sport mode" where one could have the shift patterns lowered at all speeds, the acceleartion accentuated and the psm softened - kind of like the sports chrono on the 997s.

 

The Cayenne DOES NOT have turbo lag.

It has serious transmission/shifting lag yes, but ZERO turbo lag.


This is on purpose so it doesn't shift on you in the middle of a turn and cause a problem. The way around this is manually shift to the gear you want as you enter the turn. No big deal.

Here is the quote from Porsche:
"Unlike conventional automatic gearboxes, Tiptronic S does not up-shift when you lift off the throttle heading into a corner, only to shift down on exit because speed has fallen off. This enhances overall stability for better control and safety at speed."

Have you tried turning the PSM off. I think you will find things are a little different in automatic mode...

Also you know there is a kick down button under the gas pedal right? Make sure you are pushing the pedal 100% to the floor in order to press this button and kick down into the lowest gear. That might be part of your problem as well.

Choices are better than no choices at all. I'd say 90% of the Cayenne drivers out there cannot handle a 450hp car without all the electronic help. I know my fiancee couldn't.

By default they keep it civil and gas effiecent. They give you choices via turning off PSM or manually shifting or both to liven up the performance and shifting lag.

They do...it's called turning PSM OFF!

*NOTE even with PSM off, it is still active under braking.

 

I have the same problem and I do not have a Turbo. FOr whatever reason or explaination, it is a true nightmare and very dangerous.

most of the time it is not a problem but in traffic with aggressive driving and lane changes the Cayenne just 'sits' and cannot shift right.

No combination of turning off PSM or manually shifting seems to work for me. I try each day and every day and in fact it seems to be getting worse.

As a result, my mission is to make sure to share my experiences with anyone and everyone who is considering buying one,

So far, I think I have 6 'kills'...

Love the CS on most other levels, if it had crisp shifting like most other cars it would be safer and much more fun for me.

SPort mode by turning off PSM??? haha....that sounds good and everyone says it but welcome to the world of the herky jerk...so rough, it is really the worst...not only is it horribly jerky, it still has trouble finding gear...

How do you press the pedal to the floor to 'kick down' when you are in moderate traffic?

Of course all my experiences might be related to my particular verhicle, although I doubt it.

I am looking to get rid of mine...

 

I don't notice any problems on my car... I guess I am very lucky...

 

"Choices are better than no choices at all. I'd say 90% of the Cayenne drivers out there cannot handle a 450hp car without all the electronic help. I know my fiancee couldn't."

Electronic help even extends to the **** poor way the remote lock and unlock feature is as poor as the shifting...yeah, I have had all the updates and fixes and new keys..

When I drive any other car, I am constantly surprised that the door actually opens when I press the unlock button on the key.

God forbid you get it wrong with the Cayenne...you are then punished and have to wait...endlessly annoying.

I am convinced the horrible shifting is directly related to the locks...

All my other Porsches are my friends...THe Cayenne is a moody stubborn *****, just like her cousin the Tourareg, and second cousin the Audi Allroad which laid down and died all the time...As bad as I thought that was (I sold it because of the tranny problems), the Cayenne is 10 times worse. My gf has a Tourareg and has the exact same problems...

 

This is a very good point and is even worse in the Turbo!

There is no solution for it that I know of, other than shifting manually.

 

right..with the turbo you are doing 60 in a second it seems..