2013 Porsche Cayenne: Yes, It's Got A Manual

You might have heard a lot of kafuffle over the last few months regarding Porsche's inexorable move away from offering manual transmissions in its sports cars.  With the Porsche 911 GT3 no longer available with anything other than the brand's ultra-quick PDK dual-clutch auto, and word that the Porsche 911 Turbo is headed down a similar path, purists have been gnashing their teeth over the demise of what they feel to be an integral aspect of the performance driving experience.

Enter the 2013 Porsche Cayenne.  How is the brand's most affordable product - and an SUV, no less - relevant to this discussion?  Why, because it’s available with a genuine, accept-no-imitations six-speed manual transmission.  It might seem like an unusual decision for Porsche to stuff a shift-it-yourself unit inside a heavy sport-utility vehicle while at the same time stripping it out of one of the most popular sports cars of all time, but that's just how the product planners in Stuttgart roll.

• Also: Porsche Realiability Put in Doubt
• Also: A Few Changes for the 2015 Porsche Cayenne

Should we be celebrating Porsche's manually-motivated people mover?  I recently spent over 1,500 kilometres behind the wheel of a manual transmission Cayenne and discovered that the old adage that goes 'be careful what you wish for' is more apt than I had ever imagined.

Extremely Comfortable Transportation

I'd like to start off by outlining what the 2013 Porsche Cayenne does well, and that's provide top-notch comfort for its driver and passengers.  Competitively priced for an mid-size European luxury SUV, the Cayenne's road manners, leather seating, and interior space are excellent.  It's also a very practical vehicle, as cargo space is generous even with the reclining and tilting rear row of seats in place.

Of course, given that it's a Porsche, it's very easy to push the Cayenne past its $56,600 starting price if one is not careful with the options sheet.  The model I drove featured the Premium package ($8,170 - adaptive HID headlights, moonroof, navigation, parking assistance, adaptive power steering, power seats), the Bose Audio package ($2,470), 20-inch rims ($3,570) and a few other goodies like extended LED lighting and heated rear seats.  Even the Dark Blue Metallic paint job added nearly a grand to the bottom line, which after deliver fees came to $73,825 - roughly $17,000 more than the Cayenne's starting point.

Did I enjoy the optional gear?  There's no doubt that the navigation system was excellent, even if it didn't know where Canadian Tire Motorsports Park was, and the heated rear seats and parking assistance were a nice bonus.  Adaptive HID headlights should honestly be standard at the Cayenne's price point, and the moonroof was a bit on the small side.  I think bargain hunting Porsche fans will be happy enough with the base model Cayenne, making these options 'nice to have' rather than 'essential' items.

Not Quick, But Confident

Entry-level editions of the 2013 Porsche Cayenne are outfitted with a 300 horsepower, 3.6-liter V6 that is also capable of producing 295 lb-ft of torque.  The engine's exhaust note and full-throttle symphony are superb, as is the nice 'whump' sound emitted from its twin tailpipes whenever one lets off of the gas.  In terms of acceleration, however, don't expect sports car performance: the six-cylinder Cayenne can certainly get out of its own way, but I timed springs to 100 km/h in the seven second range.  Of course, on the highway the Porsche is extremely well-behaved, and despite its lack of overwhelming acceleration it's very easy to suddenly be going much faster than you had originally intended (such is the coddling of its suspension system that there is very little sensation of speed while traveling inside the SUV's luxury bubble).  The Cayenne is remarkably frugal, too, posting a 9.3 l/100 km rating during my highway travels.

No Joy In Manual Land

You might have noticed that I have thus far refrained from making any direct references to the SUV's manual gearbox.  Well, I can't avoid it any longer and I'm just going to come out and say it: I didn't really appreciate the six-speed unit outfitted to the Porsche Cayenne.  I know, I know - I'm in the awkward position of complaining about a feature that journalists traditionally beg automakers to install in models of all shapes and sizes.  Still, I can't honestly endorse the long throws and widely-spaced ratios embodied by this particular unit.

Yoking a manual transmission to a large and heavy SUV is never an easy task, and compromises must be made, which leads me to believe that the excellent eight-speed automatic tranny that I have sampled in other iterations of the Cayenne is really the best way to go when ordering this vehicle.  I simply couldn't find the proper rhythm moving through the gears in the manual unit, which is a shame because the Porsche's suspension system was more than happy to tackle curves at a rate of speed that would cause many other sport-utility vehicles to cringe and cower.  A big part of the Cayenne's confident cornering capability was its all-wheel drive system, which is rear-biased for the best driver feedback but which can still lock its rear and center differential when the going gets rough.

A Well-Executed Effort

The 2013 Porsche Cayenne is one of the best sport-utility vehicles in its price range.  The base Cayenne isn’t as generously-equipped as other people movers around the $56,000 mark, but the driving experience that it has to offer - manual transmission excepted - is difficult to duplicate.  For some people, navigation and advanced safety features such as blind spot warning and adaptive cruise control will be worth more than the ability to comfortably slice an apex on a country road, but Porsche knows that it will be able to tempt more than a few enthusiasts over to its way of thinking with this most affordable model despite its lack of gadgets and gizmos.  Just make sure you take the money you saved by sticking with the entry-level Cayenne and use it to order the eight-speed automatic.