Someone Spent $47K Making This $30K Porsche Pickup Legal To Drive

A 2011 Porsche Cayenne was turned into a unique custom pickup.
Its is fitted with a V6 turbodiesel and rides on all-terrain tires.
The wild conversion is available to purchase in New Zealand.

Some builds answer a question. This one answers a question nobody at Zuffenhausen ever thought to ask. The Cayenne was Porsche’s first SUV, the model that sent the brand’s sales climbing to heights it had never seen. One second-gen owner looked at all that and decided what the thing really needed was a cargo bed. The result is now up for sale in New Zealand.

The starting point of the project was a 2011 Cayenne S with the 3.0-liter V6 turbodiesel engine under the hood. It is, on paper, the right engine for the job: 240 hp (179 kW / 243 PS) and 550 Nm (406 lb-ft) of torque, all four wheels driven through an eight-speed automatic. A workhorse powertrain in a body that no longer pretends to be a Porsche.

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The conversion meant cutting away the rear of the roof and binning the back doors. What was a five-door SUV is now a two-door pickup truck with an extended cab configuration. The bed is short, which is what happens when you keep the donor’s 2,895 mm (114 inch) wheelbase and 4,846 mm (190.8 inch) length and try to find room for a load floor at the back.

Rear Glass And A Tailgate That Works

Someone Spent $47K Making This $30K Porsche Pickup Legal To Drive — Photos Christchurch European

The tailgate has been reworked to actually function as one, and there is a new bulkhead with rear glass, most likely lifted from a pickup. Beyond that, the sheet metal is all Cayenne, with no aftermarket addenda bolted on to announce the conversion.

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Another cool touch is the all-terrain tires wrapped around the factory alloy wheels. Those will certainly help with traction on slippery surfaces, in combination with the Porsche Traction Management (PTM) electronically controlled all-wheel-drive system.

The interior is quite familiar, with black leather upholstery, heated seats, dual-zone climate control, and the stock navigation head unit. Furthermore, the right-hand-drive setup makes it suitable for the roads of New Zealand. The listing doesn’t include photos behind the front seats, so we don’t know if it has a bench or extra space for storage.

Photos Christchurch European

Whatever else it is, this Cayenne has earned its keep. The odometer reads 204,000 km (126,759 miles). The conversion is offered for sale by New Zealand dealer Christchurch European for NZ$49,996, roughly US$29,800 at current rates.

According to the listing, the owner spent over NZ$80,000 (US$47,700) to certify the vehicle in the country, meaning it is fully street legal. Even so, paying close to $30k for a chopped 15-year-old Cayenne with over 120k miles won’t be everyone’s favorite cup of tea.

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Oddly, it isn’t even the wildest Cayenne to surface lately. A four-door soft-top convertible built from the first-generation SUV with faux wood panels crossed the block in California earlier this week and brought home around $11,000.