Four-door Porsche: capable, albeit costly
Tried the new Panamera for a few days and I have to say that it drives brilliantly, corners with real panache - it wouldn't be a Porsche otherwise - and hoovers up the horizon like few cars can.
With room and comfort for four and lots of it, it's a fine car, but so it should be for $260,000 to $350,000 - depending on engine and drivetrain.
Porsche had the opportunity to start a new styling direction with this car, but they failed to take advantage of it and slavishly attached 911 design cues to the car with obvious visual compromises.
I could probably live with that, but at the price, I'd probably buy a Porsche Cayenne diesel AND a Boxster "S" instead and have change for a decent holiday.
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Come on Dave, how about writing about cars that are not insanely beyond the budget of 99.9% of your readers?
You get to drive a car worth up to $350k, and all you can write is 3.5 paragraphs?!
Tell us what it was like!! Or did you leave it in the garage the whole time?
oh dear, what is this blog about? Sorry, but when you offer only one new topic per month it should actually have a reason to exist, not be a rehash of a prior car report you fired off in five minutes before rushing home for dinner.
Dave - I like this car. I don't mind the 911 look at all. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder but this is one sexy looking four door sports saloon. OK, four door sports saloon is a bit of an oxymoron but if you're going to have one at least make if nice to look at and this does it for me. I'd also rather drive this over a Cayenne because it is smaller and does not carry the connotations of a fat over the top earth destroying SUV. Sadly I can not afford one and will never get to drive it.
What an overpriced ugly piece of crap. Not even as fast as a Ford G6E Turbo and $200,000 more. Only people with more money than sense would buy this.
Christian- Got any specs on the G6E? The turbo model of the Panarmera does a claimed 300k's. How fast is the Ford? You are trying to compare cars from a totally different segment of the market. Even the S model does 280ks. How fast is the Ford again? It is expensive but just about all Porsche's are. I have owned a few pre '74 911's and they may not be everyones cup of tea, but when you get up close, just like the Panamera, you can't help but be impressed by their engineering. The fact that most people could identify this car without badges as it drove down the street is exactly what they wanted. It is a 'Luxury Grand Turismo', not a Falcon with a turbo bolted to it. Don't buy a Panamera if you if you prefer a Ford. Porsche's aren't for everybody but for a brand new car, they did an OK job first up. To call it crap and insult the owners. Stick to Ford and Woodstocks.
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omg it looks like the front end of a porsche and the arse end of a merc.. at least from this angle.. I'm not sure I can take a porsche with four doors seriously..