The 2010 Porsche Roxster will be slotted below the current Cayenne (pictured) in size and price.

Consumer Guide’s Impressions of the 2010 Porsche Roxster

Update 05.09.2011

What was once called the Porsche Roxster will most likely be called the Cajun. Click here for more information on the 2014 Porsche Cajun.

Look out, world: The Cayenne is getting a kid brother. With Audi Q5 bones and Porsche-style muscle, the new compact SUV promises more big profits--and more controversy.

What We Know About the 2010 Porsche Roxster

Porsche keeps denying it, but photographers keep spying it: a baby brother for the Cayenne. First reported over a year ago by Germany’s Autobild magazine and lately spied testing dressed in Cayenne clothes, the new 5-passenger premium-compact SUV is expected to surface as the 2010 Porsche Roxster. Exact timing is unclear, but the Roxster will likely bow several months after another precedent-setting Porsche, the 2010 Panamera sports-luxury sedan. That will expand Porsche’s model count to five, including the rear-engine 911 and the mid-engine Boxster/Cayman sports cars. Incidentally, the name really is Roxster as far as anyone knows now.

Purists howled at the Cayenne’s launch some six years ago, seeing a big SUV as an abject betrayal of Porsche’s more-with-less sports-car tradition. Not so, said company officials. After all, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche designed trucks long before his namesake sports car was built. And the company knew what it was doing. Almost immediately, the Cayenne became not only the top-selling Porsche but by far the biggest money-earner in company history. As a result, Porsche is now one of the world’s healthiest automakers despite its relatively modest size--so healthy, in fact, that it’s now in the process of taking over Europe’s largest car company, Volkswagen AG. Sort of like Jonah swallowing the whale.

Porsche relies on VW for components and production help with the Cayenne as well as the new Panamera. To insure that continues, Porsche is taking a majority stake in VW to eliminate the possibility of a merger or buyout involving some other company. The closer tie-up is also historically apt, as these companies have always been linked both by products--Dr. Porsche designed the original VW Beetle--and by family, as VW chairman Ferdinand Piech and Porsche chairman Wolfgang Porsche are both grandsons of the celebrated patriarch. There’s one more reason Porsche covets VW: access to platforms and technologies for more new future Porsches, including a compact SUV.

Not surprisingly, the 2010 Porsche Roxster will be another joint venture with VW and its upscale Audi brand, much as the Cayenne shares DNA with the Audi Q7 and VW Touareg SUVs. Sources believe the Roxster will be essentially the upcoming Audi Q5 with sportier coupe-like styling (think BMW X6), at least one Porsche-sourced engine, and higher prices. By the way, Audi says the Q5 goes on sale in North America in the first quarter of 2009 as a 2009 model. It’s already been launched in Europe.

The 2010 Porsche Roxster should mirror the Q5 in general dimensions and features. Both have standard all-wheel drive, but Porsche might well modify the Audi system or devise a different setup to provide Porsche-like on-road handling--and to help justify a stiffer price. The same reasons might also prompt a trick suspension, possibly with height-adjustable air springs, something not available on the Q5. Off-road capability remains to be seen, but the Roxster might well match the Cayenne as a “rox” climber and perhaps better the Q5.

It certainly stands to be faster than the Audi. Instead of a mandatory 270-horsepower 3.2-liter V6, the Roxster is rumored for a larger V6 and an optional V8. Sources say the former will be the 3.6-liter engine that provides 290 horsepower in the base Cayenne, though we think it might be detuned a bit as a PR gesture to soaring gas prices and the great global carbon debate. Those factors make us doubt reports of an available 500-horsepower Porsche-built twin-turbo V8 lifted from the top-dog Cayenne Turbo. We’d guess Porsche will choose to guard its image and go no further than the non-turbo 385-horsepower 4.8-liter V8 from the Cayenne S--which should be more than enough for this smaller, lighter SUV. A 6-speed automatic transmission with manual-shift capability should be standard with the V8 and optional with the V6 in lieu of a 6-speed manual, but we don’t rule out Porsche’s upcoming new “PDK” 7-speed automated-manual gearbox as a substitute for one or both.

Look for the 2010 Porsche Roxster to offer all the safety features and convenience gizmos associated with top-market brands. Standard equipment will certainly include large four-wheel antilock disc brakes, perhaps with available high-tech carbon-ceramic rotors; antiskid system and traction control with rollover mitigation; front, rear, and curtain side airbags; and 18- and/or 19-inch wheels. Other no-cost features, based on our reading of announced Q5 equipment, should include bi-xenon headlamps, keyless entry and engine starting, tri-zone climate control, a split rear bench seat with fore and aft adjustment and reclining backrests, and a power liftgate. A navigation system with rearview camera will likely be among the options, if not standard. Ditto a high-power sound system, front and rear obstacle detection, 20-inch wheels, and doubtless more.

In all, the 2010 Porsche Roxster looks like a timely move for a market fast swinging to smaller SUVs. That will probably make it another cash cow for Porsche, who can put the earnings to good use for taking over VW. The Roxster will certainly be good for Porsche’s image, a rejoinder to all those who feel the Cayenne is over-the-top, even for an SUV. The kid brother may even be less controversial among dedicated Porschephiles. So, another crafty idea from an outfit that’s never been short on brains. It makes you wonder what they’ll think up next.

The 2010 Porsche Roxster will likely offer a choice of V6 or V8 power. Shown here is its big brother, the 2008 Cayenne.

We’ve already detailed the most likely features, but the Roxster may have a surprise innovation or two, if only because Porsche wants its first compact SUV to stand clearly apart from the parent Audi Q5. Porsche gets knocked a lot these days for its seeming indifference to fuel economy, emissions, and other issues at odds with its devotion to high performance. But even though it caters to a small, wealthy audience, Porsche itself isn’t insensitive to matters of public policy. It can’t afford to be. Indeed, there’s already talk that the Roxster will “go green” somewhere down the road with an available diesel V6 and/or a gas/electric hybrid drive like that being developed for Cayenne. We’ll be very interested to see what materializes.

Buying Advice for the 2010 Porsche Roxster

Like Cayenne, the Roxster will be carefully planned to exude “Porscheness,” so it should appeal to those who appreciate that flavor and can afford to indulge. Everyone else will have plenty of alternatives to consider. Besides Roxster-parent Audi Q5, the premium-compact SUV class already counts the Acura RDX, BMW X3, Infiniti EX, and Land Rover LR2. The Mercedes-Benz GLK and Volvo XC60 weigh in soon, followed by the Cadillac BRX and probable entries from Lexus and Lincoln. That’s a lot of choices, but Consumer Guide can help you decide which one is right for you, whether here online or in the pages of our Car and Truck Test buyer's guides. As with other Porsches, Roxster production should be pegged so that demand always exceeds supply, thus maximizing transaction prices and dealer profit. Discounts? Incentives? On a Porsche? In your dreams.

2010 Porsche Roxster Release Date: There’s no official word yet, but the timing of both the Q5 and Porsche’s Panamera sedan suggest Roxster would go on sale in the fourth quarter of 2009.

2010 Porsche Roxster First Test Drive: Assuming the above proves out, media previews should be scheduled by fall of ’09.

2010 Porsche Roxster Prices: With likely modest supply and the dollar still weakening against the euro, the Roxster is bound to be one of the pricier premium-compact SUVs. Just how pricey is hard to say now, as Porsche faces the same rising raw-materials costs as any other automaker. But knowing it’s intended to comfortably undercut Cayenne, we’d look for the base V6 Roxster to open at $38,000-$39,000 and the V8 version to start at about $48,000.

For more inside information on hundreds of new cars of today and tomorrow, check out:

• C­onsumer Guide New Car Reviews and Prices: Road test results, photos, specifications, and prices for hundreds of new cars, trucks, minivans, and SUVs from the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide.
• Porsche: Read Consumer Guide's full reports, including ratings, prices, specifications, and fuel economy.
• Premium Compact SUVs: The 2010 Porsche Roxster will compete in the premium compact SUV class. Here's Consumer Guide's roundup of all the premium compact SUVs on sale today.
• 2008 Consumer Guide Best Buy and Recommended Award Winners:
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