All generations and engines together · 25,007 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 65k
Split by first-registration year. Cars registered in a changeover year can belong to either generation.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 8,531 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
Cylinder walls wear unevenly on the 4.5-litre V8 fitted to the first Cayenne and Cayenne S, letting oil past the rings. A buyer notices rising oil use between services and a light ticking or rattling from the top of the engine that gets worse when warm. It tends to surface once a car is into six-figure mileage, and by the time it's audible the fix is a rebuild or replacement short block running into five figures, so it's the single biggest reason to have any pre-2011 V8 Cayenne compression or borescope tested before buying. No recall exists, Porsche treats it as a wear issue rather than a defect.
A batch of early second-generation V8 cars had camshaft adjuster bolts that could work loose or shear. When it happens the engine loses power abruptly and the dash lights up with multiple warning lamps; in the worst cases the valvetrain is damaged and the engine needs a rebuild. It's specific to the early production run of the 2011-2012 V8 models, not the V6 or later cars, so ask specifically whether the bolts have been checked or upgraded on any car from that window.
Cars with the optional air suspension (common on S, Turbo and later cars) can develop slow leaks in the air springs, which forces the compressor to run almost constantly to keep the ride height up. That shortens its life and it eventually fails, usually announced by a "chassis system fault" message, a car that sits low overnight, or one corner sagging. Owners on Porsche forums report it across all three generations; a proper fix means chasing down the leaking spring as well as the pump, so a compressor-only swap is often a temporary patch. Steel-spring cars without the option aren't affected.
Second-generation cars can develop a jerk or shudder on take-off, particularly pulling away from a stop or on tight full-lock turns, blamed on transfer case wear. Specialists are split on whether this is a genuine fault or just a wear item that turns up on most cars by 60-80k miles; either way, a full transfer case replacement is an expensive job running into several thousand pounds. Worth budgeting for on any 958 nearing that mileage even if the car drives fine on the test drive.
The engine breather (air/oil separator) hardens with age on the V8 cars and starts passing oil into the intake, giving a puff of blue-white smoke on start-up and a slow oil leak around the back of the engine that's easy to mistake for a general gasket weep. The measured MOT data for this class flags "emissions/leaks" as the standout fault, and this is the folklore version of it, an underlying oil-management problem that shows up as a leak or a smoky start long before it would fail an emissions test outright. The part itself isn't dear, but labour to get at it on a V8 adds up, and if it's been ignored a smoky cold start is a bad sign at a viewing.
First-generation Cayennes have a reputation for odd electrical faults: random warning lights, window and central locking modules playing up, and water finding its way into wiring looms via blocked drain channels in the sills. None of it is a single named part failing consistently, more a pattern of niggles that owners and specialists both flag, so it hasn't been pinned down to one fix or acknowledged by Porsche as a defect. Treat any car with unexplained lights on the dash as needing a proper diagnostic check before buying, not just a reset.
Built from the two sections above.
Same segment (Family & large SUVs), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.