I have had 5 cayenne turbos and now thinking about a Lavante S. Has anyone test driven them? Any thoughts?

 

Only that Maserati and 'glutton for punishment' comes to mind.

I considered one but there weren't any on-shore in the US when I put in my order for a Cayenne. Since then I've not been hearing positive things about the number of service campaigns they've had to perform on them. Could be an issue of shaking out the bugs on a new platform/model. But the sedans are seeing similar service requirements.

Porsche isn't immune to service campaigns, of course, but I'd want to hear how the year 2 production run is going before I'd go near one.

 

I own one a 2017 Lavante S and I love it. Its fast handles like a champ had no issues and gets all the attention. Looks reallly good in sport mode and exhaust note is very exiotic. Interior is like any Maserati very fancy and brakes are good too. Down shifts are amazing and sound so good with the rev match. I actually modified my exhaust work done by Top Speed Motorsports sounds a little bit more louder and way better. Give it a try

 

Yes, just drove one on a track on Friday.

Sounded very good in sport mode, very growly. Acceleration was good, handling was OK but not as crisp as my Cayenne GTS, although the Lavante may have had all-season tires on it.

It didn't seem as quick as my GTS, but that's hard to tell. Certainly, it wouldn't compare to a Cayenne Turbo power-wise if that's what you are used to. They need an 'R' version of the Lavante with 550 hp if they want to compete against the faster SUVs.

Interior was good, overall the car seemed pretty solid.

Does the Lavante compete against the Cayenne or the Macan? I wasn't sure about that. It seemed smaller than a Cayenne.

 

2 friends got gibli's and they don't like their cars. had a cheap lease, but they're disappointed with the quality of the car. one sold the lease to someone else. they were bored with the car. the second has had lots of service calls. he can't wait to finish the lease.

 

I've heard about quality issues on them. As noted above that may be some teething issues with them.

For me, I need to stay with the Cayenne as the Maserati won't accommodate that 6,100lbs of boat I haul around for about 2,000 miles per year.

 

At what point does the cost to haul it around exceed that of a slip or boatel storage?

 

if you like to try different waterways, then it doesn't. I like trailerung my little Chris Craft Speedster to different lakes in Mn, land of 10,000 lakes

 

Gorgeous boat - looks super fun!

 

Yeah..I tow mine between usually 3-4 lakes per year. Most of the season it's up in Lake Tahoe (about 500 miles round trip) at a rented slip, but it also goes from the Bay Area up to Shasta Lake (about another 500 miles round trip). Between those two trips, and a few more, 2,000 miles adds up pretty quick.

Overall my CD does fine pulling it...I get about 17.5mpg out of it though.