First Drive: Porsche Panamera

Photo property of Porsche Cars North America

It is amazing to see the number of people who do not realize that there is a four door saloon in the Porsche line up. The Panamera has been on the market for almost three years now since its release in 2009 at a 2010 model. They are starting to pop up more as many are seeing them as a replacement for your cookie-cutter executive saloon. The car, however, does not fall entirely under the executive saloon category as it does not seat five (although you do see options these days for refrigerators and center consoles to eliminate the fifth seat in this segment). There are those that say the Panamera is just a four door 911. It's not, it is a car all of its own DNA.

You will hear those aware of the Panamera claim that this is not a real Porsche. They say this on the grounds of examining other current model Porsche's which (besides the Cayenne SUV) is full of two door, rear engined, manual cars. These people think that the Panamera is another Porsche too far and a major detour of company values. People have generally ignored front engined Porsche's over time. The largely unnoticed 928 along with the 924 and 944 are among those front engined Porsche's with underrated potential. These were great cars unrealized.


The Panamera is a genuine big, fast, comfortable gran turismo car capable of obtaining over 120mph without breaking a sweat. Activate the sport button, modify the suspension and take off the traction control and it is amazing how simple it is to drive this car even without computer assists. The large, roomy interior makes you feel at home in an extremely well-constructed environment. It does take a few minutes to acquaint yourself with the layout and controls of the cockpit. The speedometer can easily blend in with the other gauges although there is a nice digital read out. It is also great that you can pull up a mini version of the GPS map as well as other technical data at the scroll of a wheel. Its 15.7 cu. feet of trunk space is very good for the design of the vehicle and with the seats folded you now have 44.6 cu. feet to work with. You can easily fit a family of four and some overnight bags for a weekend trip. The one downside to this trunk is it leads to an awkwardly proportioned rear that you either love or hate.

Performance wise, this car will amaze you. Even the stock 3.6 liter engine (which I tested) putting out an even 300bhp and 295 lb.-ft of torque at 6500rpm is more then enough for this car and acceleration is 0-60 in about 6.5 seconds. The transmission behind all models of the Panamera is a 7-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (dual clutch) box. This lead to one of the few faults I found with the Panamera. With seven gears, you find that the transmission is constantly re-thinking that gear it should be in. I found that each gear change not in sport mode was a little harsh when going between 0-30% throttle. With the sport button engaged, you find quicker, less noticeable gear changes and slightly quicker acceleration. The gearbox otherwise is great and smooth but you find that the more gears you add the more the car wants to rethink itself. This gearbox is incredibly better than the current eight speed from BMW and I much rather have this in my car.

The design of the car is an interesting aspect. I feel the front with the LED lighting strip and the sleekness of the design give the car an agressive but refined look. As I mentioned before, the rear is a like it or hate it situation. On a global scale, this car will be popular in Europe (which it is) because they like hatchback designs. I feel Porsche was trying to maintain the silhouette of a 911 that was stretched but the hatch design does provide a nice amount of trunk space as I touched on earlier.

On the interior, it will take some time to learn your way around the car. To start, the placement of the ignition (on the left side of the wheel) is out of place for typical US cars and the number of buttons, dials and screens could give even an MIT engineer a panic attack. Once you learn the locations of everything, it is almost a second home. Unlike your typical sport button, on the Panamera you actually have a noticeable difference as the suspension becomes firmer and you have quicker, less noticeable shifts. If you are like me and like to avoid electronic interference, there is a traction control off button next to sport button and you also have a spring button to adjust the firmness combined with a height adjustment. In addition you have dual climate control (with an option for four zones if you opt for the rear control panel). The navigation touchscreen combined with the dash screen is simple and relatively easy to use while ensuring that you do not have to take your eyes off the road and gauges to check the map.

The Panamera is a great car to drive and was really enjoyable to explore and educate myself on. I look forward to the rumored Pajun concept of a smaller Panamera as the size of this car is just a bit big for my taste.

Stay tuned for an executive car comparison in the near future. Also thanks to my Aunt and Uncle for providing their Panamera to sample.