Porsche Says “Because We Can” With The 2008 Cayenne GTS

You’ve probably heard of the Porsche Cayenne.  It’s the vehicle that supposedly saved Porsche from sure doom, appealing to the upper-crust crowd who feel they need a certain combination of sports car, SUV and alcoholism.  It’s also the vehicle that shares its underpinnings with the common people’s SUV, the Touareg.  Well, Porsche thought that further differentiation was needed, and that weeding of the poseurs from the super-poseurs was also necessary.  They’ve gone ahead and introduced a 5000-lb, 11.3-mpg getting manual-transmissioned SUV.  

That’s right, you read that correctly.  Porsche thinks that the same people who buy the Cayenne for reasons of practicality and posing are also hiding the spirit of a thoroughbred car enthusiast, and that they can no longer live chained to assimilation and mundanity by an automatic transmission.  Can you imagine the 40-year old Beverly Hills moms dropping off their children to private school, and then revving away, power shifting, throwing their head back and laughing with glee at the sheer joy of driving?    

Vehicles like this take the love-it or hate-it thing to another level.  There will be people like the Autoweek guys who find it useless and bewildering, and then, somewhere, will be those who think it is expedited from God himself.  What do you guys think?

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