Double Road Trip: 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel, New York City & Victoria, BC

Review and photos by Jonathan Yarkony and Brendan McAleer

Wait, what? What do you mean Double Road Trip? Well, unbeknownst to either of us, Brendan and I each booked a Porsche Cayenne Diesel for a mid-March road trip (what can we say, great minds think alike). My trip was to attend the New York Auto Show and witness the North American premiere of the 911 GT3, Porsche’s street drivable track car, but my wife joined me and we planned for an extra day in the city to enjoy the sights and the food, specifically, a steak. Brendan was off for a much shorter trip from his Vancouver stomping grounds to Victoria, but his voyage included a ferry ride, so he gets bonus points for that.

Road Trip: Victoria, BC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel & Road Trip: NYC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

Why the Cayenne Diesel? Well, for my part, I couldn’t imagine a better combination of qualities for a road trip culminating with driving in Manhattan and its outlying boroughs and, well, the idea sprang to mind with our friendly neighbourhood Porsche PR rep on the phone. The long highway miles eaten up efficiently, an abundance of torque to power up some of the hilly ranges on our route, a comfortable, luxurious cabin, the heightened vantage point of an SUV, and again that torque for dominating the intense New York City traffic. Personally, I find driving in The City a thrill, an adrenaline rush exceeded only by a proper track or autocross course. It demands your full attention and rewards a razor-fine balance of aggressiveness and caution. I lost count of how many times my wife uttered, “ohmigod, watch out” in the first five minutes on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.

Our destinations, however, couldn’t be any different. I’ll let Brendan start with a little description of Victoria.

Road Trip: Victoria, BC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

Brendan McAleer:

Victoria, home to the newly-wed and the nearly-dead. That’s not the official city motto, by the way, just a somewhat ageist observation made by both mainlanders and self-deprecating island types. British Columbia’s capital has had some odd demographics in the past, with a large university and college student body mixing with the retirement-age folks settling down by the seaside.

It was a place for afternoon tea, of tourist-traps, fish and chips and long afternoon naps: quaint, quiet, and about as excitingly avant garde as a John Constable landscape painting. But the city is changing.

With a burgeoning tech industry providing good-paying jobs that encourage graduating students to stay and an outdoorsy lifestyle attracting an influx of young families, Victoria – like many of us – has a swelling middle. Touristy favourites like Miniature World and the Royal BC Museum are still big draws, but there are many hidden neighbourhoods with lesser-known attractions. As yours truly spent two years living on the island, let’s explore some of them together.

Road Trip: NYC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

Jonathan Yarkony:

New York City, on the other hand, needs no introduction. If it did, I wouldn’t even know where to start. The City. The Big Apple. Gotham. Empire City. The Capital of the World. The City that Never Sleeps (apparently several other cities have also earned that moniker).

Okay, maybe I’ll start with my experiences there. Having lived there for a couple years (oddly parallel to Brendan’s two years in Victoria), perhaps some of the sparkle is lost among the memories of workday commutes on the subway, happy hours at a local dive bar after work, and far too many hours wasted in front of a TV, but it is hard to forget the first time I caught a view of the magnificent skyline as the bus rounded the approach to the Lincoln tunnel on the Jersey side. The towers rising to a crescendo clustered around the timeless Empire State Building and, at the time, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre still stood, modern and elegant with the other skyscrapers new and old rising around them as guardians.

Road Trip: NYC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

The architecture and the food are the two things that keep drawing me back to visit New York, and we had a date at one of New York’s many steakhouses. More on that later.

Anyhow, your reasons may be different, but New York is a destination everyone should try to visit, for a walk and gawk through Times Square or up Fifth Ave, a carriage ride through Central Park, skating at Rockefeller Center, an afternoon at one of the great museums (the Met, MOMA, Guggenheim, Museum of Natural History and its amazing glass-curtain-wrapped planetarium, the Whitney, or even something smaller like the Frick Collection), catching a show on Broadway or something a little more upscale at the Lincoln Centre. And these are just a few of the most obvious tourist attractions, with an untold number of hidden gems and neighbourhoods to explore, both historical, modern, cultural and subversive, New York City truly has something for everyone.

Road Trip: Victoria, BC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

However, if you drive there, be prepared to pay ridiculous sums for parking, or to waste half your time hunting for somewhat affordable street parking. Me, I left the Cayenne safe in the bowels of an underground garage and used cabs whenever our destination was outside our walking range.

BM:

Victoria is just a short day-trip for me, as a Vancouver resident, but it sits at Mile Zero of the Trans-Canada Highway, and thus might just be one of the two ultimate Canadian destinations (the other being St. Johns in Newfoundland). Whether it’s a short hop or the long haul, you’d be hard-pressed to pick something better suited for the drive than the Porsche Cayenne.

Now let’s get one thing out of the way straight off. Yes, the Cayenne isn’t a fan favourite of the Porsche purist community. Worse, this one’s brown and scribbled on the flanks in that classic Porsche looping script is the word “diesel”. Shock! Outrage! I drove past a guy in a 964 cabriolet and he got so mad his toupee raised off his head, spun around 180 degrees and then burst into flames.

Thing is, while the idea of an SUV bearing the same badges as the thoroughbred racing machines of the past might be construed as a slap in the face to Porsche’s competition heritage, the fact is, Stuttgart builds a pretty convincing machine. Plus, now the Panamera’s out there, most 911 fans have found a new target to vent their rage on and sort of forgotten about how much we’re all supposed to hate the Cayenne.

This diesel-powered model has Porsche precedence as well, seeing as it has essentially the same engine as the Touareg TDI – it’s not unlike the similarly VW-powered 924. Talk about your unfair comparisons though, this 240-hp, 400 lb-ft of torque oil-burner is no poor-man’s Porsche-powerer (and, as in the 924, the motor is really more Audi than VW anyway).

On the contrary, the diesel is actually not the miser’s choice in the Cayenne range. Chasing social status? That’ll be the V6 model for you. Like the growl of a V8 and have a company gas card? Cayenne S or GTS will fit just fine. Slightly deranged or have an issue with obeying Newtonian physics? Turbo or Turbo S, you loon.

Road Trip: Victoria, BC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

For the smart money, there’s now this powerful-yet-efficient diesel. Or, for more money and a bit more thrust, there’s the slightly nerdy Hybrid model – two of which pulled up behind our car in the ferry lineup, both identically white.

JY:

Road Trip: NYC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

Not the miser of the range, eh? I’d debate that. The 2013 Cayenne Diesel promises 10.8 L/100 km in city driving and 6.7 L/100 km on the highway according to Canada’s Energuide, while the S Hybrid does no better than 10.4 in the city and 8.4 on the highway. The base V6 Cayenne’s isn’t even in the same league, its fuel consumption at least 12 on the highway and over 20 in the city, though it varies between automatic and manual transmissions. The US EPA regimen produces estimates of 12.4/8.1 city/highway for the Diesel, and 11.8/9.8 for the S Hybrid. Because of that big highway advantage, the EPA combined figure tips towards the Diesel, 10.2 considerably better than the Hybrid’s 11.2.

With over 800 km in one warm sunny day on the drive through New York State, mostly on the highway at speeds regularly (well) above 100 km/h, the Diesel showed 7.6 L/100 km upon arrival at our destination. The return route yielded a slightly less spectacular 8.4 over a similar distance, and after another weekend of city driving, the trip computer showed 9.8 L/100 km.

While for the most part we avoided the New York State Thruway (and not just because of its horrifying spelling), we stayed on the first stretch of it as far as the Waterloo exit, and attended to the serious business of outlet mall shopping. Some may scoff at these generic big-box money pits (as they explore their unique destinations off the beaten path drinking craft beers – okay I’m just jealous about the craft beer part you’ll read later), but my wife and I never pass up the chance to restock our wardrobe of generic-yuppie slacks, dress shirts and blouses.

From the Waterloo Premium Outlets, you are perfectly positioned to cut across a handful of lesser highways and venture down through the Finger Lakes region, a beautiful scenic route that we’ve travelled before, as has anyone who’s headed down to catch the NASCAR road race at Watkins Glen. We cut across the 20 and enjoyed a surprise vista when driving through Skaneateles, then returned back to our regularly scheduled programming of Interstate Highways, the 81, 80, and 95 so that we could enter by way of the George Washington Bridge. On our return route, we followed portions of the Southern Tier Expressway alternately labelled the 17 and 86 – if you like high-speed curves, you’ll enjoy this route. The Cayenne Diesel ate it up, the ride selector switch flicked down to road mode.

Road Trip: Victoria, BC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

BM:

While the Hybrid nominally has a base price that’s fifteen thousand dollars more expensive than the Diesel, Porsches are all about the options. My ludicrously well-equipped test vehicle was knocking on the door of a hundred grand – nearly a third of the car’s price in extra add-ons!

Even so, as we rolled slowly into the belly of the aptly named Spirit of British Columbia, you can’t help feeling that there’s excellent value here. The Cayenne’s somewhat bulbous exterior might not appeal to many, but the interior is unquestionably high-brow, a Lear-Jet’s cockpit with comfortable, well-bolstered seats, especially here with 18-way seats and a full leather interior.

Classy, but not as capacious as you might expect: with the running stroller and folding cot stowed, some Tetris-level packing was required even though this was just a slightly extended weekend trip. If we’d another child, or a third adult passenger, the Cayenne simply wouldn’t have had the needed space; the Porsche’s less sporting cousin Q7 would perhaps work better here.

JY:

Wow, that’s a lot of options! My plain white Diesel was positively basic compared to Brendan’s Brown Beauty. The only option of any significance was the $8,170 Premium Package that adds Navi Plus, front and rear parking assistance (beeping and diagrams based on radar proximity, a camera costs extra), Power Steering Plus, and 14-way power seats w/ memory that were comfortable for the entire day. The Prmium Package also includes all items from the Convenience Pacakge: Bi-Xenon Headlamps with Porsche Dynamic Light System (extra lights that turn on when cornering – not to be confused with systems that move the actual main headlight projectors), power tilt/slide moonroof, auto-dimming exterior and interior mirrors, driver seat memory package, PCM with navigation.

Seeing as it was just us two adults, the Cayenne’s cargo hold was more than enough for the shopping we had done on top of the luggage we had packed for the trip. We had no problem packing, even with the portable crib, stroller, rocking chair and other gear we dropped off along with our daughter and son for their stay at Grandma’s. What’s a running stroller, anyway?

2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

But yes, the interior was pretty sleek, although even after thousands of kilometres, I never became a fan of the multitude of buttons on the console and centre stack, and how tedious it is if you want to change the temperature by several degrees – I find even touchscreens are quicker than that switch’s response time.

By the end of the trip, though, I was a huge fan of the navigation system, which allowed my wife to punch in addresses on the fly while I drove. Some systems will only allow you voice command operation when moving, which I find more frustrating and distracting then yelling at my wife to spell the address correctly. It also offered us alternate routes and recalculated new routes on the fly when we wanted to take a chance on a short cut. It even displays a small portion of the map in the gauge cluster as well as the navigation prompts, zooming in on the inersections as you approach, and the warnings and directions it gives seem to be well-timed and accurate – I almost never felt stranded at quasi-intersections or bombarded with repeated instructions at non-intersections. I think most people would agree that finding your way to an address in NYC is slightly more challenging than parking your car on a ferry.

BM:

Okay, it may not be complicated and require your fancy navigation aids, but taking a BC Ferry is something every visitor to the province should do, and not just fans of long lines and door dings. I have seen more pods of Orcas aboard my numerous ferry trips than any whale-watching tour could brag of. During the summer months, BC Ferries usually has a wildlife guide aboard to point out eagles, seals, gulls and other critters. When negotiating the narrow Active Pass, you’re almost guaranteed to see a pack of sea lions lolling around doing nothing, not unlike the assembled members of the provincial Legislature.

Road Trip: Victoria, BC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

Ferry newbies should head for the dining area within seconds of embarking – the lineup forms quicker than the queue for a new iPhone launch. Seasoned travellers have already eaten, or packed a lunch, and I personally prefer peering out the portholes on the car deck at the scenery slipping by. For around a hundred bucks for two adults and a car, taking the ferry isn’t cheap, unless you view it as a sort of mini-cruise.

Road Trip: Victoria, BC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

Once the vessel pulls into port at Swartz Bay (don’t say “Schwartz” or the Islanders will know you for a tourist), the tendency is for traffic to move down the Patricia Bay highway in a bunching mass like the world’s most annoying slinky. Traffic lights on a highway? Oh yes, it’s just as sluggish as you’d expect. If you happen to be at the front of the boat, don’t get over-exuberant with the throttle either: Victoria’s highway patrol are among the most speed-trap-happy cops in Canada (I once spotted one officer hiding in a tree). With a fairly low speed limit – most of the way it’s 80 km/h – they will catch you.

Besides, you’ll only get frustrated by a slow-moving left-lane hog. Everyone in Vancouver drives like they’re having an aneurysm; everyone in Victoria drives like they’ve had a stroke.

JY:

After traversing New York State, we arrived after nightfall, passing under the brightly lit steel arches and superstructure of the GW Bridge, and took a roundabout scenic drive through the Bronx, past the new Yankee Stadium and through Queens and Brooklyn, where we had a chance to see the Manhattan skyline and enter Manhattan by way of the Brooklyn Bridge – the only remaining free point of access to Manhattan and an architectural marvel in itself.

This tour of New York City’s Boroughs, missing only Staten Island, accounted for over half of the driving that I did in The City while I was there. But in that short circuit, the Cayenne was challenged more that it was in the other 1,500 km that we put on the odometer. From the chaos of the bridge tolls where that visibility helps you spot a short lane for cash customers, the surge of toque you need to jump in front of and the quick brakes to dodge other fast-moving traffic crossing any lanes and any markings if they spot an open toll lane, to steady steering keeping you on track and centred in the super-narrow lanes of the city’s expressways, quick turn-in for the sudden lane changes necessary to follow the navigation system’s prompts, and finally some downtown brick-paved streets that resembled an off-road test course more than a paved road, the Cayenne never missed a step – okay actually it was a bit firm and rough for that truly brutal brick road. A 911 it’s not, but as a city car it is exceedingly capable.

Road Trip: NYC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

If people in Victoria drive like they’ve had a stroke, people in New York City drive like they’re hopped up on speed while having a manic episode. Despite that, there is a certain order to the chaos; in fact, it is almost predictable in how primitive it is. There is a lot of posturing and aggression, but once you establish position, it usually ends there, even with seemingly reckless taxi drivers, who may not give a rat’s ass about their vehicles, but they probably don’t want to be stuck trading insurance info with a lawyer (I swear, half the people driving in New York are lawyers). But don’t be stupid, if someone is clearly crazier than you, back off. Though not on this trip, I have witnessed an attempt to change lanes blocked, followed by an exchange of bumper cars, followed by a fistfight in broad daylight at the red light where both cars pulled up.

Plus, as aggressive as I wanted to be, I still had to keep Porsche’s snow white, almost-new $75K SUV in pristine state for its eventual return. If you don’t have the stomach for that kind of driving, there are subways and taxis and trains. I have no idea what it would be like to simply drive cautiously and conservatively in New York. That would be like the Twilight Zone to me.

Road Trip: Victoria, BC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

BM:

Because you’re smart, you’re going to avoid all this island traffic snarling by getting off the main road immediately, taking the first right you can and heading for the winding roads of the Saanich peninsula. Stop off if you’d like, for a noon-time nosh at the Roost (a sort of mix between restaurant and garden store), and check out the enormous pumpkins there if you do so. The Saanich peninsula might well be a destination in and of itself – several wineries, a cider-maker and even a distiller are based here, as well as any number of farms selling locally grown produce.

You’re on island-time now, so slow your roll and wind down towards Victoria with ocean vistas glittering off to your right. It’s worth noting here that this part of the island receives approximately one-third the amount of rain as the traditionally wet mainland. Partially that’s due to the more southerly position, partly it’s due to the breezes that send weather patterns scudding across the water to be bottled up for weeks over a gloomy Vancouver.

Victoria proper might be fixed in your mind from a grade-school field trip the Legislature, or perhaps from a romantic weekend getaway spent walking the inner harbour and shouting sweet nothings at each other over the din of a landing float-plane. It’s not without its charms, and the city’s core is underrated as a great place to get food. Get a slightly different take on the de rigueur fish n’ chips over at Red Fish Blue Fish. This converted transport container will have lengthy lines in the summer, with hungry folks lined up for the delicious “fish tacones” – battered cod or halibut sliced in have and served in a warm soft-shell cone with watercress, coleslaw and aioli.

Road Trip: NYC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

JY:

Our Cayenne Diesel safely parked in its underground parking, I enjoyed the spectacle of the New York Auto Show over the next couple days, but then it was time to explore. This trip was also my first chance to witness in person how much progress had been made on the new One World Trade Center, the primary building that will dominate the skyline and the other buildings in the complex. While impressive, it doesn’t quite match the elegance and splendour of those simple paired towers of the former World Trade Centre.

However, my accommodations, courtesy of Porsche, were at The Standard – High Line, another modern architectural marvel. This hotel is a concrete, steel and glass construct that straddles the The High Line, a New York City Park built on a stretch of elevated rail line abandoned long past. Paul, too, took the time to visit this park on his Road Trip to NYC, also for the auto show, but he showed his wisdom by staying an extra weekend and exploring more of the city than I did this time around.

BM:

For our trip, the first stop was one of the major social draws of this pub-centric city: a cask event. Victoria has something like a dozen breweries operating within the municipal area, and a common thing for their brewmasters to do is concoct a special one-off recipe and then tap the cask at a local pub. The result is a hob-nobbing of hop-heads – folks from all walks of life who are interested in the burgeoning craft-brewing scene and as beer is a sort of liquid social lubricant, there are always interesting conversations to be had.

Road Trip: Victoria, BC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel – Government House. Click image to enlarge

Not for yours truly of course – I’m driving. Leaving the pub we head into the little neighbourhood of Cook St. Village, which has its own welcoming watering hole once the Cayenne is safely stowed. There are any number of small hidden neighbourhoods like this scattered throughout Victoria: heading east you could find the beautifully manicured grounds of Government House, the residence of the Lieutenant Governor. Further towards the ocean is the tiny neighbourhood of Oak Bay, which cranks up Victoria’s already apparent British Colonial air another few notches, with tree-lined streets and quiet affluence.

It’s worth coming here for the annual auto show as well. Victoria’s mild climate and lack of emissions testing makes it a haven for classic cars. Combined with a moneyed population that’s finally able to buy the car they always wanted in their youth, any local car show has rare finds coming out of the woodwork.

JY:

However, even with limited time after the business of the show, it was enough for us to explore the immediate neighbourhood around the High Line: the Meatpacking District. Although popular for its nightlife and club scene, it’s home to some high-end designer boutiques and some interesting restaurants, but we gravitated towards the Chelsea Market, a string of restaurants, bakeries and eclectic food shops in a building converted from its origins as an industrial bakery (the National Biscuit Company – this is where Oreos used to be made!) that covered most of an entire city block. Currently, the upper floors are leased to tech companies, while Google has taken up residence across the street. Anyhow, there is some amazing food to be eaten (we had a quick chicken parm sandwich), or take the time to watch several boutique bakeries mixing up their creations behind glass walls, and admire the vintage industrial feel and unique wares, most of them focused on the culinary arts.

Road Trip: NYC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

However, we actually saved our bakery purchase for a local West Village favourite: Magnolia Bakery, specializing in cupcakes but also making a variety of other cakes, cookies, pies and baked goods. Anyhow, tucked in at the corner of 11^th and Bleecker, it’s famous for its variety of cupcakes (the options changed daily) and stupendously long lineups. Luckily, we were there on a weekday afternoon, so the lineup barely wrapped twice around the inside of the store, which is approximately the size of a shoebox, and we were out of there in just a few minutes with red velvet, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. Yup, they are delicious as you might imagine.

BM:

Road Trip: Victoria, BC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

Come the morning, after a quick stop to get coffee and fancy doughnuts from the local roaster [Those look DELICIOUS! –Ed.], we’re headed out of town already, towards the tiny community of Sooke. My wife organizes an annual trail run here in the spreading acres of a large seaside provincial park, and I and the Cayenne will be pressed into support duties.

As the slow-moving Victoria traffic thins, the roads become sweeping and curving, and the speedy locals are clearly familiar with them. Not that the Cayenne has any trouble keeping up. For such a large, heavy vehicle, it’s reasonably planted, and the gobs of torque positively fling the truck out of the corners – we drop off my wife at the beginning of her fourteen-kilometre trail run, and hurtle off towards the mid-point to set up the aid station.

Most people won’t use one-tenth of the Cayenne’s off-road capabilities, such as they are, but the highly technical coastal trail doesn’t actually pass that close to any paved surface. So, lock up the differentials and put the air-suspension to high…

Road Trip: Victoria, BC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

Again, diesel torque rules the day, effortlessly chugging along and crawling up atop our Lion King outcrop of a parking spot. The road to the cottage won’t stand a chance, though the previous generation Cayenne was probably a little more capable with its heavier-duty chassis.

I spend the afternoon running back and forth, ferrying orange slices and water jugs to the necessary refuelling points and being none-too-easy on the throttle. Several sweaty hours later – not for me, obviously, I’ve got the air-conditioning on and am eating doughnuts – it’s time to collect the runners and head back into town.

JY:

After disposing of our cupcakes, we got ready for our big dinner date and cabbed it across to the Union Square area. If any of you want a steak in a traditional, clubby atmosphere, the Strip House at 12^th and University has served me the best steak of my life in the past (it was my bachelor party dinner), and it did it again this trip – anyone with suggestions that might top this feel free to exchange notes in the Forum Comments. Okay, actually it was my wife that ordered the filet mignon special that surpassed even that first visit (a rib eye on the bone special) and a two-person porterhouse enjoyed the night before at another steakhouse (The Old Homestead). The seafood tower appetizer is also a delectable spectacle.

Road Trip: NYC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

After finishing our servings of delectable meat and wine (I know too little about wine to judge their wine list, but the Malbec I had was great), we decided to walk it off, strolling up Broadway and Park Avenue (I feel like I’m in a Monopoly game right now – I call the car!) enjoying an unseasonably warm night and picking out a souvenir for our daughter on the way. We managed to walk the 30 blocks north to Grand Central Station (at Park Ave and 42^nd St), then hopped a cab across mid-town to Times Square to take in the lights and spectacle of all the advertising competing for gawkers attention.

The next morning it was pack and go time, taking in breakfast at Chelsea Marketplace again, collecting the Cayenne Hybrid from the valet and taking the straight shot up the Henry Hudson Parkway/West Side Highway on the way out, again over the GW Bridge. Leaving the city is free. Although tempted to stop in at the Intrepid, a retired (sorry, decommissioned) aircraft carrier now serving as a sea, air and space museum, primarily of military aircraft – growing up on G.I. Joe toys and model airplanes, this has enormous appeal. However, we were already looking at a midnight arrival in Brampton, so passed on that one last diversion and set course for Brampton. Oh yeah, and we had to stop at another outlet mall… Hey, the trunk of the Cayenne wasn’t full yet.

Road Trip: NYC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

So on the return trip, we stuck to mostly major routes and tested the limits of the recurring speed traps all along the route, my phone connected through the USB dock and playing wakeful music while my wife tried to sleep as little as possible. After the sun set, the Cayenne’s spectacular lighting system came into play, blazing a swath of intense illumination at the road and shoulders ahead, piercing even into the treed areas at roadside, where an incredible array of wildlife is hidden. Around turns, an extra set of lights adds further coverage, though I found this system less effective than those that swivel the projectors themselves, bringing the full power of the headlights to bear on the curve.

And then, after tweaking our route on the fly using the navigation system, finding a shortcut that shaved 15 minutes off our arrival time (woohoo!) we were home, tired, but not sore, satisfied from our little adventure, but eager to see and tuck in our children. Next trip, we’re taking the whole family. I’ll let Brendan have the final word.

Road Trip: Victoria, BC – 2013 Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Click image to enlarge

The balance of the weekend is spent in lazily strolling beneath blossoming cherry trees, and that’s about the end of the story for the Porsche. Still, there’s one more happy surprise after packing up and heading out, after the return ferry trip and the honking, fast-moving Vancouver traffic, after pulling into the driveway somewhat sun-dazzled and worn-out.

That comes on the Monday, when I refill the Cayenne’s tank at a grubby local fuelling station and discover it’s burned just over half a tank of diesel (an 80 L tank according to the specs). That works out to 7.5 L/100 km consumption overall. What is this, a Nissan Micra?

Of course, it’s hard to call it the smart money’s choice with a pricetag starting at $65K. But diesel power also equals resale and longevity, and as there’s almost no drawback in terms of driving dynamics, it’s the best Cayenne of the bunch.
Pricing: Jonathan’s white Cayenne Diesel
Base Price (Diesel): $64,500
Options: $8,920 (Premium Package – $8,170; Trailer hitch – $750; additional key painted – $355)
Freight: $1,115
A/C Tax: $100
Price as tested: $74,990

Pricing: Brendan’s brown Cayenne Diesel
Base Price (Diesel): $64,500
Options: $31670 (full-leather interior – $4170; 19” Alloys – $2680; 18-way adaptive seats – $2520; air-suspension – 4550; PCM with Navi – $4200; Bi-Xenon lights – $2130; BOSE audio – $1930; Satellite Radio – $1280; front and rear park assist – $1250)
Freight: $1,115
A/C Tax: $100
Price as tested: $97,385