I am new to Porsche, new to hybrids and really, just straight up new to car shopping. I've found what looks like a great deal on a 2017 Cayenne S E-hybrid platinum edition. Being a novice in those categories, can you guys recommend any specific things I should look into or make sure I get as part of the sale? Its a certified pre-owned from a Porsche dealership. Also, I have concerns about the battery, like how much life is left in it, and if I should ask for extra coverage/warranty on it. Any tips for how to evaluate the battery? Thanks for any tips or feedback.

 

We are heading back tomorrow to get the car. Any tips would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

did u take it? how is it?

 

Hi Papb2021 -

Sorry to say that I was buried with work etc when you posted this, and unable to reply back then. I just saw this when another member posted on how you like it.

If you got this Cay-S-E-Hyb-Platinum, then hopefully you got it from the dealer with the Porsche CPO Extended Warranty, which would add 2 years to any remaining new car warranty (4 yr. / 50K mi from date of 1st sale new), & now with unlimited miles.

Also, AFAIK the factory warranty on the Hybrid Batteries is for 10 years (but double check with your P-dealer). Most Hybrid batteries from all manufacturers cars seem to be lasting more than 10 years.

If you're still looking, then this will help you, and my long time P-car Tech also reccos getting a PPI & avoiding "salty roads" states' cars in general. Hopefully it's also reassuring if your did get it.

While I wasn't initially considering a Hybrid, & looking for a 2008-14 CayS V8 - I'm reconsidering that since we can use an E-Hybrid as our daily driver in E-mode, & will probably start actively looking again in late 2021 - early 2022 when prices normalize again. Those are getting a bit long in miles & years now, so we'll need to look at 2015> anyway. And we love Blue cars - which Porsche seems to only do in anything but almost black-blue here in the USA, with a one year tease of the nice mid - light blues - & their 2017 Sapphire Blue & 2019 Biscay Blue are our favorites.

So I too would like to hear how your Cay-S E-Hybrid has worked out?

Cheers!
Tom
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I ended up buying the car I originally posted about; luckily it was just before used car prices skyrocketed. We bought it from Porsche dealer with 8mo still on the original warranty + 2 yo CPO.

The buying experience: Our Porsche dealer was okay. Our salesman wasn't great but he wasn't insufferable either. Although I am not surprised, I was a little disappointed to see that the sales team there didn't really know anything about hybrids and couldn't walk me through the hybrid features of the car.

As for the car, we love it. It drives great. Its not the quickest off the line but still plenty fast. It really shines at handling, especially at high speed and maneuvering through traffic at speed. You certainly don't feel like you are driving a 5500lb car. The car also looks amazing; black paint with acid green highlights for the hybrid. People definitely eye it as I go down the street.

-The breaks are a little funky at first but you get used to them. Learning to leverage the regenerative breaks will really help with gas mileage. once you get the feel for them, you can tell when you are using the e motor to break vs standard pad breaking. Before you have that feel down, the transition between the two break modes can be a little jerky.


-Engine Modes:

-Electric mode: we get 12-20 miles on a full charge, depending on weather and roads (speed, hills, etc). Its not much but perfect for our local errands. All electric mode is not fast but not painfully slow either. One area that stinks is if you are in all electric and need extra power. This is engaged by pressing the pedal past a certain pressure point, which engages the ICE motor. This transition is kind of late and sometimes makes the car feel a bit sluggish. To remedy this, I mapped the steering wheel button to toggle e-mode on and off. This way, If I am traveling in emode but need a little more power to pull out onto a main road, I will flip off e-mode to prevent that lag.

- Hybrid Mode: With emode off, you default to Hybrid mode, which works quite well. The computer assesses your speed and acceleration and balances when to engage ICE over electric. It does a good job, transitioning from electric to ICE (unlike what I described above in purely emode, which waits a little too long to engage ice imo).

- Sport mode: This mode tweaks shift timing and pedal response. Its fun to drive and really make its feel like a Porsche, but it drinks gas.

-Another note about performance: the extra boost of acceleration comes from the 90ish hp electric motor. If you deplete the battery, you will lose this extra boost, which is noticeable in your acceleration. However, I have found the car does a great job of maintaining enough battery at all times so this has never been an issue for me. (if you are driving all electric, it will switch the car to hybrid mode with 25% battery left and always maintain that so the car can always perform). Swithing the car to sport mode will also ensure the battery always maintains enough charge to accelerate with boost.



-MPG: the 12-20miles of all electric is great for my local errands. When I travel beyond that, I balance using the electric mode and the hybrid mode, depending on the road conditions and travel speeds. When I have done 50 mile trips that are highway and local, I get about 45 effective mpg (when switching between e mode and hybrid). On longer high trips without traffic, I get about 22-25mpg (traveling at 80+ MPH). On long trips with traffic, where you can utilize the hybrid mode, I’ve achieved about 28 mpg. When I switch to sport mode and drive like its meant to be driven, I get 15-17 mpg.


quite a lot to read but let me know if you have any other questions.

 

its also worth stating... the upgraded head lights are gorgeous and perform great, I would never go with the stock. Panoramic roof is gorgeous as well. Heated steering wheel is great in the winter. Bose sound system isn't too bad; you definitely have to up the bass in the settings a little bit, though; still im pretty happy with it. the Platinum package is worth the cosmetic upgrades. I do wish it had adaptive cruise control, though.

 

Thanx PapB,

You don't by any chance tow with your Cay-S-eHybrid?

If so - what do you tow & how was your performance & mpg? .... & how was the towing experience?

We're looking for a Cayenne to both be our daily local, as well as to tow our restored 1960 Avion T20 (looks like Airstream, but better ;-) to vintage trailer events etc. - its about 3000-3500 lbs wet & loaded - & well within all Cayenne's 7716 lbs tow rating (no the Westy cannot tow it). There are a few Cay-e-Hyb owners on the Airstream Forums who tow their similar Airstreams, but not many yet.

FYI - this is what we'll be dragging behind the Cayenne, but would opt for a V8 Cayenne if the V6 versions were a bit weak on the hills & mountains.





We also have a much smaller 660-1000 lbs 1970 Eriba Puck vintage trailer that we would tow with the Cayenne, but it's no issue since both our 1988 Westfalia & 1985 BMW 325e E30 Coupe can tow it!




PS - I'll also be towing my `73 914-2.0 "914S" to PCA Concours on a TBD flat or enclosed trailer too, whenever its resto is done.

Now that we're both retired & semi-retired/home office - we'd probably have a similar local use profile to yours - with most everything local errands etc. well within EV range for perhaps half of it's use, & some longer distances mid-range drives, with 50-70% longer distance with the trailer or not. We'll be getting 240v charging set-up at the house with the electrical upgrades that we're doing on the home resto, & we may also do Solar &/or Wind &/or micro-hydro generation - which work well here in SoCal. Our son has a Tesla S, & we'll probably end up with something EV or plug-in-Hybrid in any case - so it will get used.

However, with the SoCal heat, black is not a good color for us, nor is the seemingly nearly standard-option panoramic roof with all that glass (those Germans live in the snow, & apparently think that everyone here does too).

So while Black on Tan is a beautiful combo - it's too hot here, & it would be a PITA to prep for the occasional PCA Concours that we'd do.

How about a Photo of your beauty!?

Thanx for your feedback above, & to come.

Cheers!
Tom
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We haven't actually done any towing (don't even have the tow bar installed). And to be honest, I have never towed anything ever so I couldn't even give you feedback on how I think the CSeH may handle it. I am pretty sure they don't offer the off road driving features in the hybrid model but I am not sure if any of that translates over to towing packages/capabilities.

The pano is great but I get your comments about the heat. Even here in CT, the sun can really cook the car. I always try to remember to close the pano shade and raise the rear window shades when not in use. Also, the car is black on black, which would probably give you 3rd degree burns in socal. lol

I was pretty lucky I did a kitchen reno a few months after getting the CSeH. This opened the walls up between the driveway and the electrical panel and allowed me to run a 50amp/240V line. Charge time on the 240V is about 2.5hrs. Charge time on the 120V was about 10-11 hrs.

Another nice feature about the hybrid model is you can precool or heat the car (as long as it has charge). Porsche doesn't support (or believe in) remote engine starting so the hybrids are the only models with the capability.

Of course it snowed two days after I picked her up (back in Feb).

 

Nice looking PapB! Thanx for the charge time info.

PS - That snow 2 days later gave you a chance to play in the snow with AWD!

I was originally thinking of 30/240 because our big Avion is at that 30A hook-up (Puck is std. house 120V 20A), but the 50/240 for faster charging EV's is better, & I can always use a 30-50 plug adapter for the Avion. We'll be doing 3x 240 spots: 1 - 30 or 50 A @ detached garage for tools &/or cars (very tight 17'-6" W x 18' L outside dims. 1921 Garage - so not sure the Tesla or CSeH will fit in there with the 914), 1 - 30A at a combo Trailer-port Trellis/Outdoor Kitchen/Dining, & 1 - 50 A at the driveway for EVs & Trailer.

It was handy that you could work in the fast charge port with your kitchen work!

FYI if you or a future buyer wants to tow - ALL Cayennes since 2003.5 MY are pre-set-up at the factory for towing (no extra option - oddly for P-cars!), but you do need to buy the optional factory hitch new, or after from the dealer - who can install & reset the ECUs for it, then add any USA spec 4-pin &/or 7-blade or combo trailer electrical plug at the pre-wired harness. And the self or dealer installed "any brand" trailer brake controller has a pigtail in the glove box to install it under the dash - but I prefer to not muck up the dash, & already have a Tekonsha RF wireless controller mounted on the Avion's A-Frame, & I plug-in the handheld control unit into the round 12V/Lighter port for power, & keep it handy in my lap or center console - vs. reaching to the lower dash for the trailer brake boost button in an emergency stop or maneuver.

With the factory Cay Hitches (& Macan, Touareg/Atlas, Audi Q5/Q7/Q8), as soon as you plug the towbar into the hitch it senses & changes to towing mode, & that automatically changes the engine trans, brake, suspension, etc. mapping to tow mode (as opposed to pushing a button on the dash or shifter every time with a

There is also an extensive Airstream Forums topic on towing with the Cayenne/Macan, Touareg/Atlas, Audi Q5/Q7/Q8 & even MBZ & BMW, LR & some other non-pick-up tow vehicles - if you ever need any info &/or have towing questions cor yours.

https://www.airforums.com/forums/f46...rs-134917.html

And also this article by an expert on the CD - which is applicable to all other Cay sub-models FYI - it's a 958.1 2015 or 2016 CD towing a big 30' Airstream, whose 405 #/ft TDI Torque will be close to or less than that of your 2017 CSeH's combined V6SC + EV TQ - so performance would be similar with yours. This test is from a towing expert, and there are many Cayenne owners at that link above who tow with all versions of 955, 957, 958 & whatever they've dubbed the 2019> Cayennes (I hate the non-9XX naming now).

However, I'm not recco-ing TDIs because my long time P-Tech since 1975 has advised me to stay away from the TDIs because I tend to keep my vehicles long term (`73 914-2.0, `85 BME 325e E30, `88 Westy), since he knows that Porsche will wash their hands of them after the DieselGate settlement's 10 yr/100K mile warranty/support period (just like 996/986 bearings, etc.).

https://www.canamrv.ca/blog/post/hit...ch-diesel-417/




Thanx again for all the great CSeH info!

I'll probably see if I can rent a CSeH or CeH & others for a weekend to test towing with our Avion when we get back to looking for Cayennes again, now that Porsche has a rental program. I know that the 2008-10 957 & 2011-14 958.1 CS normally aspirated V8s will tow great, but they're getting hard to find with low miles now.

Cheers!
Tom
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great info on the towing; maybe one day I can afford a boat. haha.

One side note about the charging times and outlets. The 2017 hybrids have a 3.6 or 7.2kW onboard chargers. Mine has the 3.6kW charger. That said, a 20 amp / 240V circuit would be more than enough for my 3.6 kW charger. Getting the 50A is really future proofing for that Taycan which I believe goes up to an 11kW charger. lol

I am not sure but I think the newer hybrids are still 7.2kW chargers.

 

They still offer the 7.2kW onboard charger up to 2021 (& 2022?) as an added cost option, but well worth the cost for 2x faster charging when available chargers can support it.

So Taycan Cross Turismo?




Unfortunately for us who would really prefer a lower Touring (station wagon) - neither Porsche nor Audi provide the towing option for USA cars in Panamera & Taycan Sport Turismo, nor for Audi's A6 Avant sport wagons - not sure about the MBZ & BMW wagons, but they're far easier for us old folks, & more fun for everyone with lower CG than SUVs!

PS - Porsche, Audi etc. do have towing options on most cars & wagons in the UK & EU, but don't bother with it here in the US - probably to help drive their SUV sales here.

Cheers!
Tom
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