The Cayenne is a good example of success in over-engineering: it offers both the (somewhat) added storage utility of a mid-sized SUV, with the pleasant, roomy interior and higher driving position, combined with an astonishing sports-car like driving dynamic (especially in the S, Turbo, and Turbo S models), and, with proper options, phenomenal off-road capability (just watch the publicity video of a Cayenne Turbo S tearing up the sand dunes outside Dubai).
Point: it’s a genuine technological marvel of automotive engineering. That it happens to wear the famed Porsche crest and thus doubles as a “status symbol” is neither coincidence, marketing hyperbole, nor social status delusion: its quality is precisely because it is a Porsche, and thus, its “status” is well deserved.
That people may acquire this car because of their need for status symbol does not in any way diminish its value as an amazing vehicle.
Why Do People Like The Porsche Cayenne? - Forbes