21 Feb 06
You'll have spotted the flaw by now. The UK is rightly famous for many things, but an abundance of deserts is not among them. Back home, this Cayenne will be used for towing horse-boxes, at which it will doubtless prove adept but expensive; driving business people down to their weekend retreats, where it might face the hardly insuperable off-road challenge of being parked in a field; and, most ludicrously of all, for the urban school run, where its owner will appear oblivious to the scowling faces of those who consider this a somewhat excessive means of transporting little Laura half a mile twice a day.
But for me, it's simpler even than that. I cannot get out of my head what else could be bought for a lot less money. One of few things I have in common with many of the people who will buy the Cayenne Turbo S is that I'm lucky enough to live a split town and country existence. And yet there are perhaps two occasions each year when a BMW M5 would not be wildly more suited to my needs as a family man as well as my desires as an enthusiast driver, usually when we get a snowfall in the country - weather for which I find a grand's worth of antique Land-Rover amply well adapted.
So while I admire the engineering achievement that is the Cayenne Turbo S, I think I'll skip it, thanks. To be honest, for that money I'd rather use a Mondeo every day - especially as it would mean I could also have a 911 in the garage...
