Porsche Cayenne Price and Pictures

Around the turn of the millennium, legions of Porsche aficionados were outraged. It had become known that Porsche’s then chief executive, Wendelin Wiedeking, was planning to add a four-wheel-drive SUV, the Cayenne, to the range of this most iconic sports carmaker. The main planks of Wiedeking’s argument in favour of the project were that the Cayenne would create a new market sector for Porsche, and a major revenue stream to counter the volatility of the sports car market.

His argument held. The Cayenne went on to be the most successful vehicle Porsche has ever produced. Some 280,000 have been sold since 2003, when the first came off the production line at a purpose-built factory near Leipzig – with 14,000 rumbling around in the UK alone.

Now it is time for Cayenne Mark 2. Even though Porsche enthusiasts consider the first Cayenne to be rather ugly, its successor has a lot to live up to. Indeed, the memory of my first test session in the original Cayenne Turbo, on the racing circuit Porsche built alongside the Leipzig factory, is indelible. From the driving seat, the car felt uncomfortably high off the ground, even for an SUV. It also had well over 400 horsepower, went like the wind and – I told the grinning chief test driver sitting beside me – without question this two-tonne tub of lard was going to roll over in the first high-speed corner.

It didn’t. Instead, it broke traction well before lifting a wheel. Thereafter the trick to driving it quickly became obvious: just throw it sideways. It was like defying the laws of physics.

But not only does the Cayenne Mark 2 better the original on every count, it also takes Porsche into new territory with its very first hybrid. In terms of looks, it is still the case that only its mother might truly love it, but its redesigned exterior has acquired an altogether sleeker, less porcine appearance.