I'm glad you chipped in here to expand a bit on the subject TexKD because I have been eyeballing the ML's as well for the better ride over the Cayenne. The most attractive year for me is the 2016 which was the last standard ML class to come with a 350 gas engine, the GLE-350. Then the 17's went to the 3.0 six. I've been aware of the tighter suspension in the base Cayenne and it may not be a deal breaker if it's difference is somewhat marginal as you suggest. No rush. I'll drive both one of these days and don't expect either one to be as cushy as my 1995 Bronco was. Those seats were amazingly comfortable with great support.
No 4T for me again if I can help it at least in a Benz. No need for the torque of a diesel either. But, I might rent one just for the fun of it one day to feel that torque. Got to be up there.

As I said they are both shades of the same thing offering SUV size and comfort and some amount of sport and high quality design, construction, and build.

But the MB shades the comfort side a bit more as you would expect. And the Porsche shades to the sport side a bit.

I jump in the Porsche Cayenne I love it. It feels Porsche. The Panamera does too.

But my wifes ML is nice. And it drives nice. She tested a Range Rover Sport at the time too. She felt it had more top heavy feel. Her Mercedes doesn't have that. I drove it back from E Texas with her and the daughter and a friend of the daughter in some tough weather with high winds and rain a few weeks ago. My wife who is a cool hand was actually a bit on edge. The ML never wavered any and I was very confident in it then and for her in it day to day in Houston area traffic for whatever thats worth.

Where Porsche sees you and gets you to break out the checkbook is in Options. Go up to and S or GTS and it will cost you. You can equip a Base Porsche of just about any model with enough options to double the price and do that quickly. But if you don't require the highest performance of an S or GTS or a Turbo then you can get a darn nice new Base for 20- 50,000$ less.

I tell you something else. As much as I like a new car, IF they had the one I wanted, with what I wanted on it, and the Porsche Approved warranty, and my dealer had sold and knew the car, I would think long about getting it. For one thing the Warranty will be longer than the new ones as you get the balance of the original warranty plus the Porsche Approved Warranty which could be 6 years versus the 4 year new Porsche warranty. And there are lightly used GTS's that are less than a Base. If it was close to a major service and needs brakes and tires and all that then maybe not. But that has to all meet up to a high level to get the Porsche Approved warranty too as you probably know.

We have had good enough service on our MB. It hasn't needed much though. Yet.

But Porsche sales, service, and follow up is outstanding. I hadn't had a new Porsche in a while and I tell you the dealer which is Porsche of North Houston, Porsche North America, and Porsche service was all way better than it was back in the day.

Porsche has a lot of little goodies too - whether it is the magazine, the Porsche Club and its events, the new Porsche Experience centers, the driving clinics for younger drivers, and other events that MB or about any make can't touch if any of that is important to you. I am sure they made a couple of dollars - probably on add on options. HA.

My 0.02 cents.

Oh yeah.

I forgot to say that I had every year of the Big Bronco from 1986 until the final year except one. Most of them were the Eddie Bauer models. I had a closet full of Eddie Bauer luggage that came with them. I used them as my personal and company car. I went to the oil field or to the investment banking meeting or to the burger place or to the nicest restaurants in town most of the time in my Broncos. Man I loved the Broncos and started my son in one too when he was 16.

Not to change the subject, but I had more ladies and more interested in the time of my Broncos than probably any or all of the sports cars .

Yeah. Lots of things are better than back in the day when (as rumor had it) only the rich could afford a "foreign car" because repairs were more costly they were all cheaply made junk and they were more complicated than American made. It's a good time to buy a premium car. Selection has never been better. But, some things will never change.
1. Base price is designed to lure them in. Options are where the real money is made.
2. Base models are still difficult to find on any lot. Heavily optioned cars usually end up being leftovers.
3. New and used will always be a challenge to find exactly what you want.

I am interested in the new Bronco coming out in the next couple years. I doubt it will regain the class of the last XLT's and Eddie Bauers of that 1995-1996 period. But, got to look.

Just for fun I had just looked at the Porsche of North Houston website. They had a about 2 dozen base of Platinum edition Cayennes in stock. Plus the loaded up models too. Im not sure I've seen that in a while. More Macan sales might be leaving a few more Peppers on the lots.

I bought my Panamera from the North Houston dealership. Henry at Momentum though has always gone bove and beyond for service.

I dunno if either my wife or I could do a daily driver diesel- I actualy drove a diesel loaner Cayenne once. No bueno. It's bad enough in my F350 diesel.

Could be worse though. The first time I drove a Panamera loaner it was a hybrid. Freaked me out, didn't know what to do half the time. Freaky especially in Houston traffic.

FYI be careful with the air shocks on the GL. I dunno if it was because it was the first go around, or the fact my wife used it as a pick up but her '08 GL 450 needed the front air shocks replaced at 60K and the rears at 79K IIRC $1800 a pair. When the steering rack developed a leak (? $2400 for the part alone?) we traded it in and I bought her the GTS in '13.

Out of curiosity did they ever get tires that don't sound like inner tubes when you hit a bump.....boink.....

PS What is it they say about the Cayman.....what the old 911 drove like....no wonder you wanted the 6.....my other son wanted a Cayman, but when we went to drive one he got the Boxster instead.

We made a hop to look at Porsche's outside of Lancaster yesterday the Wife gave the thumbs down on the Cayenne. Big thumbs up on the 911's. We had a good talk and agreed that low miles and only one or two owners are more important than model year. At this point 997's are quite tempting. I like the turbo body look and headlight shape on the '06-'12 so much more than 996 like before. Great thread.

quote:

Originally posted by TexKD:
Just for fun I had just looked at the Porsche of North Houston website. They had a about 2 dozen base of Platinum edition Cayennes in stock. Plus the loaded up models too. Im not sure I've seen that in a while. More Macan sales might be leaving a few more Peppers on the lots.

Your "foreign car" reference made my giggle.

Being of the mindset that no good Rock 'n Roll came after December 31, 1979, I knew you meant "e u r o p e a n" car .

Japanese cars weren't foreign. They were Japanese.........

Or one of them foreign jobs. A friend had a luxury Toyota from the mid 60's that was decent around 1972 or so. I don't recall the model but it had a grab rope on the back of the front seat. Super clean, quiet and very solid. But, most we saw back then were rusty and ran on just most of the cylinders if at all as I recall. The worst was my Brother's 1963 Renault Dauphine. That was a POS squared. I can still hear it popping and putting along on 2 cylinders. Called it the 'hot potato'. Color was off silver with a hint of pink. Got him 'there' most of the time though.

An' it ain't Por-shuh. It's a friggen Porsh. Uh oh. Someone is about to let the gate open.............

MB has different alignment specs for NA than other areas. Most specifically the camber and caster on the rear are not notated on the official spec sheet. The only real adjustment that can be made is toe. That's the official spew. Factually with shims and some "modifications" to the suspension the adjustments are there, but MB won't allow dealers to say that to owners. I'm not a dealer guy--just a Merc enthusiast who turns his own wrenches.

The Mercs with the suspension that drops over 30mph are especially worse at this issue.

It's a very prevalent thing that we will never convince Stuttgart is relevant. Their minds are made up. For better or worse.

Like you said, a heavy pig car pretending to be a sport sedan. Something has to give. Some tires do better than others but in the 20" world they all will have suck a** life.

I agree that MB customer service is not what it used to be. It's really too bad, but in all reality to them, 11 cars in 26 years is nothing to corporate. There are thousands of clients in Merclandia who buys multiples yearly. If you're on the list for a fleet of G-Wagens and a SLR AMG GT or three then they might start to notice, but don't expect them to the first year you do it. lol

Got this response elsewhere.........I guess you just can't take the "Deutschland über alles in der Welt" out of the Cherman enchineeer. I thought they finally softened up and we finally got over the cold middle dash vents of yesteryear..........

I saw a super low miles Bronco bring $22K on Ebay a few years ao. Thought they were nuts. Then it popped up a month or so later, offered at $32,500...give or take a grand. Pure class. I got mine with 15K miles, then put about 100K miles on it. Repairs were fairly cheap. Went through 2 starters, plastic auto hub inserts and the smog tube developed a pin hole in the back as I towed the '66 Mustang racer up a long mountain hill at 1500 rpms (5.8). Should have dropped a gear. Neat truck. I miss the comfort of those cushy cloth seats.
So, how was the feel of those leather Bauer seats? Mercedes-Benz leather seats in a non-S never were very cushy in my experience.

quote:

Originally posted by TexKD:
Oh yeah.

I forgot to say that I had every year of the Big Bronco from 1986 until the final year except one. Most of them were the Eddie Bauer models. I had a closet full of Eddie Bauer luggage that came with them. I used them as my personal and company car. I went to the oil field or to the investment banking meeting or to the burger place or to the nicest restaurants in town most of the time in my Broncos. Man I loved the Broncos and started my son in one too when he was 16.

Not to change the subject, but I had more ladies and more interested in the time of my Broncos than probably any or all of the sports cars .

So many temptations out there. Check out this low-miles SL550. What do you all think?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2007-M...%26sd%3D142380464103

quote:

Originally posted by custombolt:
We made a hop to look at Porsche's outside of Lancaster yesterday the Wife gave the thumbs down on the Cayenne. Big thumbs up on the 911's. We had a good talk and agreed that low miles and only one or two owners are more important than model year. At this point 997's are quite tempting. I like the turbo body look and headlight shape on the '06-'12 so much more than 996 like before. Great thread.

quote:

Originally posted by TexKD:
Just for fun I had just looked at the Porsche of North Houston website. They had a about 2 dozen base of Platinum edition Cayennes in stock. Plus the loaded up models too. Im not sure I've seen that in a while. More Macan sales might be leaving a few more Peppers on the lots.

I havent been back by the thread in a bit.

But yeah I like the 997s and most especially the 997.2. The looks and the feel are there.

But the new 991 is a keeper too. And lots of them get back to the dealer with low miles and not a lot of use. And those can be had with the Porsche CPO warranty which is even better than the original 50K warranty in my book. Yeah the 991 is a bit bigger overall - but that car can both make a trip or make a race track run. In the S configuration it really is a world class sports car. Porsche options in a new car can be a budget buster. But it kind of falls away some in the CPO cars.

But for me personally I had wanted the Cayman S or GTS with the 6 and Im glad I got it as it suits me mmmmm yeah.

As a matter of fact Im going looking at some Cayennes for my wife this week. Just for fun.

And also, in my wife's MB diesel I doubt anyone would know it is a diesel if you didn't tell them. It is as quiet as it can be. Its a solid SUV too as I drove it twice in some rough weather and it never wavered an inch. With its great ride, solid construction and safety, and weight and all wheel drive its a darn hard car to replace. Even with a Porsche.

I'm a life long fan of MB AWD's. We just walked my little GLK through 8 inches of dry fluffy sand at South Bowers beach with all-season Michelins in southern Delaware this past weekend.

As an aside, I missed a deal on a sweet low miles 2007 SL55 AMG with under 30K miles. Somebody traded it in at McLaren of Philly. Since the color wasn't number one on my list, I decided to think it over while at the beach for 4 days and when I got back it was already sold. Should have stayed home or better yet went to Philly. Happy Wife, happy life I guess.

I had an '05 pewter SL 55 - a rocket ship. Still accelerating strong when the limiter kicks in at 155. It replaced an S 55- the only car I've ever regretted trading. Loved those supercharged V8s.

Went to trade it in on a DB9. Until I pressed the "Start" button on a Vanquish.........there is nothing in the car world that can ever replicate the deep growl of a Brit V12. Nothing.

The Vanquish had an exhaust bypass between 2000-3500 rpm or so to diminish the sound for cabin comfort. Fuck that shit- I had them bypass the bypass.

Sounds like a 12 cylinder Aston Martin would be a blast to drive. I'm not sure my boys are large enough to push 150 on the street. I never even topped 120 on the street! At 115 the lines didn't look like dots, it was all one line!
I'm ready to step up from the mundane. The SL550 is doable at 382 horsepower. So, I still wouldn't pass on a sweet one. But, considering that an equally low mileage same year SL55 can be had for only about 6-7$$ more, why not? 510 hp is much better.
I only ever drove one supercharged car, a [sticker on the window] new 1991 Bonneville SST. Although just a 3800 V-6, I remember being very impressed with the twin screw charger design. There was absolutely no lag, no hum, no whine. Very smooth.

Porsche -Stuttgart deeply hurt themselves beginning
in 1999 with the IMS-Intermediate shaft syndrome problem. It afflicted Spyders and the occasional
911.

The Porsche reputation was blackened beacause of liability issues and very poor customer relations.

BMW management would really balk at that type
of reverse good-will decision making. Many long-time Porsche owners washed their hands of the marque in the USA.

I had a 1956- 356 convertible for years, along with a 3.8 liter original 1964 E-Type Jaguar.
roadster.

Last effort was a fast AC Cobra with a hot stroked 351 and Holley fueled Toploader. Disc brakes all around with independent suspension.

Miss the good old days. Now-a garage full of black German BMW ancient cycles. Including a mint 1951 R 51/3. Looking for an R-68.................

I miss some of the good old days too. Don't miss wrenching much. Heart issues put an end to drag racing the '66 Fastback Musky about 10-12 years ago. I would get dizzy and feel like I was about to pass out. Energy levels wavered for years. Got stomach sickness when I laid on concrete. Figured out the heart issue since then and just early last year, the Doctor told me my ticker is now at 100% output. But, now I'm a lazy ol' Benz driver with a one car garage who likes custom rifles. Got a well educated Austrian mechanic less than a mile from my home that loves Benzes as much as I do.