Thursday, April 28, 2011

According to Volkswagen AG CEO Martin Winterkorn himself, there's a new baby Cayenne in the works. In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, Winterkorn said Porsche "will get a new SUV, a smaller brother to the Cayenne which might be named Cajun."

I guess the name is appropriate if Porsche insists on spicing up its lineup with controversial vehicles. Should this be the case, can we expect the Panamera coupe to be called the Tabasco? Or perhaps the Texas Pete? Name game in the comments below.

As for the ragin' Cajun, why would Porsche bother building it at all? For the same reason that it's said to be building a new entry-level VW-based roadster: to piss off purists and elitists alike.

Well, actually, it's because Porsche is now controlled by VW, and the people's car manufacturer can and will do anything to help attain its lofty sales goals of 150,000 Porsche models sold (in the "medium" term).

A new Porsche cute ute will do just that, and will also help spread out some of the Q5's development costs. If this little sports car SUV does make it to production, it'll probably just be a smaller version of the Cayenne (which shares its platform with the latest Touareg). If true, that's a shame.

...deep breath...

It's a shame because a small 5-door SUV is exactly what's expected, and Porsche doesn't seem crazy enough to put out more than one version (double-dog dare to you, Porsche).

If Stuttgart's fastest were to go a little zany, though, could we recommend a three-door SUV variant (with an emphasis on the sport) to tackle the Range Rover Evoque? Clearly Land Rover is willing to commit to a unique new segment, so why not Porsche?

By Phil Alex

Source: Autoweek

*Opening Photo: Sketch of current generation Cayenne SUV


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