Porsche Cayenne

The Cayenne is Porsche's first non-sportscar, a mid-sized, luxury car-based SUV about the size of the BMW X5. Built in Germany and developed together with the Volkswagen Touareg, it comes with a choice of two Porsche V8 engines. It's made predominantly for on-road use rather than trailblazing, although low-range gearing and advanced electronics promise some off-road capability. A starting price of about $56,000 for the 340-hp S model grows to almost $90,000 with the powerful, 450-hp V8 of the Turbo. Like the Land Rover Range Rover, the Turbo has an automatically adjustable ride height, which is optional on the S model.