Car of the Year Awards 2025: Sports SUV of the Year
If you’d really like to be driving a sports car but can’t compromise on practicality, a sports SUV is just the ticket. The best are fun to drive, with scintillating pace and agile handling...
Porsche Cayenne Coupé S
At a glance, the £99,700 on- the-road price of the Porsche Cayenne Coupé S doesn’t look like a conspicuous bargain. That all changes, though, if you think of it as three cars in one.
Your first 33-odd grand is the most mouth-watering, because this is the chunk that buys you a sports car. Yes, you could buy a Mazda MX-5 for that, but that tiny two-seater wouldn’t see which way the Cayenne went; 0-62mph takes just 4.7sec, thanks to a 468bhp 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine. And don’t think the MX-5 would quickly catch up in the twisties, either.
Somehow, the 2.2-tonne Cayenne can bend the laws of physics. With a lower centre of gravity than the boxier regular Cayenne SUV, the Coupé S is astonishingly agile, with massive grip from the tyres, impeccable traction (thanks to its four-wheel drive system) and very little body lean – especially with the optional adaptive air suspension and active anti-roll bars fitted. And although those options add almost £5000 to the price, £38k is still pretty good for a sports car, especially one with an unforgettable V8 exhaust note.
The next 33 grand gets you a luxury cruiser – a better bet for long trips than a sports car. And in the Cayenne, the miles just slip past. You sit up high – as high as you would in an Audi Q7 – for an imperious view of the road ahead, surrounded by first-class materials and with an excellent 12.3in infotainment screen at your disposal.
That big V8 fades to a quiet background hum, and only a bit of tyre roar reminds you that you’re clipping along. Yes, less sporty SUVs have cushier rides, but the Cayenne makes light work of undulating country roads, and you’ll never find yourself wincing over urban potholes.
Because you’d never be able to tackle an Ikea run in a sports car, the final third of your £99,700 buys a family holdall. Fold the rear seatbacks down and, while they don’t drop completely level with the boot floor, flatpack furniture will go in without a struggle. Or, with the rear seats in use, a family of four can travel together in comfort, even if those in the back are six feet tall, leaving a creditable 592 litres of boot space.
With the keenly priced and once-entertaining Ford Puma ST now watered down to a disappointing degree, the Cayenne has this category sewn up this year, and you don’t need to go beyond the S version to get everything you’d want out of a sports SUV. It’s so fast and agile that it makes the Lamborghini Urus look a bit irrelevant, and while it’s twice the price of a Volkswagen T-Roc R, the Cayenne is also twice the car.
And by being three cars in one, it even does its bit to reduce congestion where you live...
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