OK, maybe the title is a little bit over the top, because nobody takes a Porsche Cayenne to the Borneo Safari. However, you will be surprised to know that the family-friendly off-roading activities are one of the fastest growing leisure activities for Porsche Cayenne owners, from USA to Europe to China. The essence of what we’re trying to convey is still there, minus the Land Cruiser-rivalling bit.

The reason? Prices of used first generation Porsche Cayennes have come down so much that many families are buying it for cheap, fit it with off-road driving kit, and don’t lose sleep when one of the fenders get dinged.

Do a search and you will find that there are plenty of Cayenne project builds for off-road use.

It’s easy to understand the appeal of going off-road with a 20-year old Porsche Cayenne, as compared to say, a Range Rover. You don’t need to be a mechanic to know which one will hold up better. More importantly, a used Cayenne is A LOT cheaper than a similar age Land Cruiser. Yes, go look it up.

However, as a car manufacturer, Porsche’s goal is to sell new cars, not used ones. Which brings us to the new facelifted E3 generation Porsche Cayenne that we see here. Authorised distributor Sime Darby Autop Performance (SDAP) wants to impress its customers that it is better and safer to do all their family adventures in the latest and the best Porsche Cayenne ever.

The pitch is a very compelling one. People who do Borneo Safari-level activities don’t buy a Cayenne, and while the husband might be keen on the Land Cruiser’s image, the missus eager for the Instagram-glamping lifestyle, might not be keen on a rough looking Toyota. In comes the Porsche Cayenne.

Launched in October 2023, this new Porsche Cayenne starts from RM 599,999. As before, it’s locally assembled (CKD) at the Inokom plant in Kulim. Unlike imported Porsches, which often require customers to add many more options, this Cayenne CKD’s price is a real drive-away price.

The nip-and-tucks treatment is minor, but it’s enough to make you notice that this is a leaner, tauter, fresher looking Cayenne.

The biggest difference is inside. Out goes the previous car’s semi-digital instrument panel, centre console, and gear shift lever. In their place is a new fully digital 12.6-inch instrument panel, accompanied by a 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment display. The gear shifter is now a Taycan-style knob that sticks out from the dashboard, between the infotainment screen and instrument panel.

The Sports Chrono package is included in the price. This adds an analogue lap timer at the centre-top of the dashboard – a feature you won’t use but Porsche cars are designed such that without it, the car feels like it’s missing something very critical to its identity.

A 14-speaker 710W Bose audio system is also included in the price.

Under the sculpted bonnet, the 3.0-litre V6 now makes 13 PS and 50 Nm more than before, totaling 353 PS / 500 Nm, paired to an 8-speed torque converter Tiptronic S gearbox that send power to all four wheels via an electronically controlled multi-plate clutch all-wheel drive system.

If you are wondering why the Cayenne uses a torque-converter when the Macan has switched to a dual-clutch gearbox, the answer is towing capacity. The Cayenne is designed to be a proper active lifestyle car, and you can tow a boat with it, if you fancy such things.

To do active lifestyle activities, you need a car with high ground clearance, so you can drive into places regular cars can’t. While you may want to take a boat to the sea, you don’t want your car to ride like a boat on land, so low ground clearance is preferred.

With the Cayenne, adaptive air suspension is a standard feature, allowing you to adjust the car’s ground clearance between 193 mm to 238 mm.

But if we are honest, none of the technical details above matter to a typical Cayenne buyer. If you are shopping for one, you just need to know that the latest Cayenne is cheaper than previous generation models, and it goes as fast as a VW Golf GTI but has superior flash flood-wading capabilities.

With all-wheel drive, it can also drive further along when the tarred road ends. However, with 20-inch all-terrain tyres instead of properly chunky off-road tyres, don’t stray too far off the trail. Camping sites for the family? Easy peasy, unless your family name is Irwin or Grylls.

On the road, the Cayenne is everything you expect from a Porsche – superbly built; spot-on ergonomics with supportive seats, near-perfect driver’s seating position. The latter is rarer than you think. Buy a Cayenne, attend the Porsche Experience advance driver training and let the instructors teach you the finer points of correct driving positions, and you will soon understand why everyone else around you is driving the wrong car in wrong seating positions.

On the move, stability and agility are things that customers want from their cars but control theory mathematics say this is impossible.

A fighter jet plane cannot be stable because to be agile, it must always be in a constant state of instability, like a boxer that’s constantly making small bounces, ever ready to pounce. By contrast, a cargo ship cannot be agile because it is designed to sway as little as possible, no matter how big the waves are.

In car terms, it simply means that a sporty handling car is tiring to drive on long stretches of highway. The steering is fidgety, the tyres are constantly distracted by road imperfections, as if it’s hunting for a non-existent curve.

The Porsche Cayenne is one of the few cars that somehow manage to slip into this elusive, very tight zone where stability and agility overlaps, even if it’s ever so slightly. The fact that it’s an SUV makes this even more amazing. It’s road manners on the straight roads are excellent, but get off the highway, the chassis is ready to dance.

All the above translates into a confidence-assuring, comfortable ride, no matter the road conditions.

Is it a perfect car? There’s no such thing as a perfect car. Outward visibility is a weak point for the Cayenne. The dashboard is a tad too high, and shorter stature drivers may struggle to find a good seating position.

Since all Porsches have to pay respect to the 911 – the core of the brand’s identity – the Cayenne’s front-end has sculpted fenders that curve in all axis. This is great for a low-slung sports car, but when driving on an off-road trail, the curved edges make it difficult to steer and judge the space in front.

There’s a reason why utilitarian off-road cars have boxy front-end, with indicator lights mounted at the top-edge of each side. Such designs make it very easy to steer the car. Look at the front-end of the classic Land Rover Defender, or the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, or the flat edges of a Toyota Land Cruiser. Of course, none of these boxy utility-first SUVs can measure up to the Cayenne’s road manners.

For a car of its size, the Cayenne isn’t very spacious inside. Sit inside a Honda CR-V and you will understand that the difference between the two is not just about price and performance, but there’s a Pacific Ocean-size gap in usable space between the two SUVs.

Overall, the Porsche Cayenne is an SUV without a strong rival. On-road and (light) off-road, no other car marries luxury, performance, with active lifestyle activities as well as the Cayenne. Like any car, the Cayenne is not perfect, but with a Porsche crest on the bonnet, there’s no need for any further justification. Cars wearing the original Porsche Centre number plate holders are even more exclusive, as they belong to the select few who don’t negotiate for discounts from a parallel importer.

If there’s a better option than the new Cayenne, it would be two Cayennes – a new 2024 Porsche Cayenne, and an early generation Cayenne bought for less than the price of a new Perodua Axia, allowing you to go to camp sites you wouldn’t take your new Cayenne to.