Test Drive: PORSCHE Panamera S - 2009

The Panamera isn't Porsche's first attempt at straying away from the 911-range with a totally atypical model. It might not even be one of its most disastrous. On the contrary, considering the market today. For example, starting from the 1970s, Porsche has tried to either draw attention from or complement the 911 with cars like the 914, 924/944, 928, Boxster/Cayman and of course, the Cayenne. So far, the most atypical of them all, the Cayenne, has actually proved to also be the best-seller of the bunch.

The Panamera isn't Porsche's first attempt at making a fast and luxurious grand tourer either, since the ill-fated 928 took the cake for that one. Coincidentally, the 928 also had four bucket seats and a V8 engine disposed in the front, while the GTS version was smoking fast as well.

You'll probably laugh, but the Panamera doesn't win the prize for the first Porsche sedan either. Back in 1988, when Aston Martin's current CEO Urlich Bez was at the helm of Porsche engineering, a strange idea popped into his head. It may have sounded something like: “How about ve make a four-door 911, ja? A car mit 911 looks, 911 performance und four seats, vhat do you say guys?”

Apparently everybody said yes, and remember, this was in a time when the 928 grand tourer was having a blast in sales worldwide. A prototype called “989” was built. Sadly, just in a matter of a couple of years the 928 sales plummeted, Porsche entered some financial doo doo and Mr Bez left the company, so the project for a four-door 911 was scrapped. Coincidentally (or not), Ulrich Bez has now brought the Aston Martin Rapide straight into Panamera territory.

Twenty-something years later, the four-door 911/luxurious grand touring sedan was revived from the dead and the Panamera was born. Some like it, some don't, but the real questions revolve more around its handling, performance and comfort than its looks. We say this because at least 50% of the international motoring press has already lambasted the car's styling.

We managed to borrow a Panamera S with PDK and rear-wheel drive for us to test and give our opinion about. To see if we were impressed in either a good or a bad way, you might as well read on and find out. Is this a four-wheeled masterpiece or a rotten apple in the Porsche orchard?

Technically, designing a foor-door version of a Porsche 911 shouldn't be all that hard, especially when we're talking about a “foor-door coupe” à la Mercedes-Benz CLS or Aston Martin Rapide, right? Wrong. Given that Porsche didn't just want a longer version of the 911 but a regular gran tourer with more than two doors. That, they got.

Sir May B. Bach's Opinion

Heh... what can I say? They've finally done it. Porsche has finally built a car for someone like... ahem... me. Luxurious, stupid-fast, spacious, etcetera... ahem... etcetera. But wait! Something's wrong here... They also hired a designer with a pretentious but unusual crush on the Galapagos... ahem... turtles. And they made him draw the best Porsche GT in years!
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Whatever critics could be made about the Panamera's exterior, every one of them should be silenced when talking about its interior. Some of us could actually classify it as a work of art, and remember we're not talking about a fully decked-out Panamera Turbo here, but about a lower-trimmed Panamera S.

3D Interior Panorama

>> Click to view the interior panorama

Driving such a large behemoth on a congested city's streets can obviously become a pain pretty fast. It's not about the length of the car, which at 4970 mm (185.7 inches) is a bit lower than that of an S-Klasse for example, but about the width. The Panamera is almost two meters (about 79 inches) wide, making it pretty hard to squeeze between other cars in busy traffic. The poor visibility “thanks” to the rather small windows and rear windshield doesn't help either.

Lou Cheeka's Opinion

Dayumn! This is probably the flattest Porsche Cayenne I've ever seen! Who did the roof-choppin', West Coast Customs? It looks like a hot-rod made out of a Cayenne, fo shizzle! I gotta say I'm actually impressed by the way it looks. Wide, low and angry, just like any hot-rod should.
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After our short stroll through the city we tested the Panamera S on its true turf: the open road. This is where the magic happens with a car like this. The 4.8-liter V8 using as much of its 400 horsepower as possible, the seven-speed double-clutch PDK transmission in sport (or manual) mode and a clear, police-free road. What more could you want? And to think that all this is now available for up to four whole passengers, unlike a maximum of two and a couple of midgets in a 911.

Mary's Opinion

A lady never reveals her true age, don't you agree? Also, a gentleman should never guess it in public, especially if she's around the big 3 0. Leaving that aside, do I look a day over 23 years old to you? I though so. Then why, of all the Porsches that exist in the world, did you made me drive one that simply screams: I'm an old frigid business woman with too much testosterone to actually keep a man near me?
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Beside the Cayenne, the Panamera is probably the most comfortable Porsche in the history of... Porsches to ever roam the streets. We're not only talking about the suspension setup alone but about the whole package. Even though as we mentioned before our test car wasn't equipped with the optional adaptive air suspension, all Panameras come with electronically-controlled dampers (PASM) in standard.

In other words, the driver can choose between three separate damping modes, depending on his mood and, of course, driving style. Although “Sport”, “Normal” and “Comfort” modes are available, the system continuously monitors the road conditions and automatically switches to the right mode if necessary. The cute thing about it is that it switches back to the one the driver has chosen as soon as the road conditions and driving style allow it.

For example, if you switch it to “Comfort” but after a while you start driving like you're on a fast lap on the Nurburgring the system will automatically switch to “Sport” mode. The opposite thing will happen if you're in “Sport” mode and the road transforms from smooth silk to a paved nightmare for your kidneys. Fancy stuff!

As far as the seating goes, the Panamera is close to perfection. There is no way that a longer trip will tire its passengers no matter the road conditions. Our colleagues from Inside Line even managed to put one of their videographers to sleep (not in the veterinary sense) while cruising at over 150 mph on the Autobahn. If that doesn't mean comfortable to you, we don't know what does.

As far as the technical bits are concerned, and as you probably might expect, the Panamera S doesn't sit half bad. Under the long and curved hood sits a naturally-aspirated V8 with a capacity of 4.8 liters. With 400 horsepower and 500 Newton Meters (368.8 lb ft) of torque available on tap from 3500 all the way to 5000 rpm, the engine is almost never short of breath, even when it has to pull (push?) something that weighs close to two tonnes.

Another impressive piece of engineering that we never got tired of was the seven-speed PDK (which comes from the unpronounceable Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe) double-clutch transmission. Everything from the gaming-like shift times to the way it chooses the perfect gear depending on the driving circumstance is simply amazing.

To give it some bad remarks though, the PDK we experienced in the Porsche Cayman S test drive was a bit more “fierce” than this one, probably due to different programming of the ECU. For example, in the Panamera S the only gear the car will start in is second, unless the “Sport” mode is activated.

Considering that a pedal-to-the-metal start in “Sport” mode will keep the anti skidding system on the go for a good three or four seconds despite the dryness of the driving surface, the “second gear” start in normal mode might not be such a bad idea. Plus, the Panamera S sends all its power to the rear wheels so the anti-skid system is much busier than in the 4 S or the Turbo, both of which had all-wheel drive.

The electronically controlled suspension is another nice feat on a car as this, especially since it's available in standard trim.

Arriving at the gadgets department, no car costing a bit more than 100,000 euros should fail at delivering, should it? Well, as you might have probably thought already, the Porsche Panamera we got to test didn't disappoint at this chapter. We already talked you through the marvelous PDK twin-clutch transmission with seven speeds, but we must say it probably remains our favorite gadget in this car. The engine provided its own reasons for liking also, but we can't help but be amazed every time we experience an automatic gearbox as great as this.

Though our test car was far from being fully-decked with features it provided quite a nice array of gadgets. For example, it wasn't fitted with the four-zone automatic climate control system, but the dual-zone it had was more than effective and its features were equally available to both the driver and the passenger sitting in the front. The Bose audio system was not quite in the optional Burmester territory, but still far better than your average hi-fi in-car audio system.

Moreover, the cruise control system – albeit with a lever looking like it had been transplanted from a cheap econobox – was another nice addition, along with the High Intensity Discharge headlights with a light sensor. Speaking of which, apart form the rain sensor our car also had sensors monitoring both the road condition and the driving style, continuously changing the way the dampers work.

The heated front seats did a nice job complementing the air conditioning unit, but a ventilation feature à la the Porsche Cayman S we tested before was missing (still on the options list though). The only real gripe we had in the car's gadgets department was a pretty weird one actually. Believe it or not, the Panamera S we tested was lacking a wiper for the rear windshield. Don't fret though, that feature is also available on the options list.

Apart from being such a large and heavy – therefore less prone to exit more traumatized from a frontal car crash – the Porsche Panamera comes with quite an impressive array of safety features in standard. Of course, it will probably never be tested at EuroNCAP or other crash testing organization, so we can only estimate how good (or bad) it would handle in a crash.

First of all, no less than eight standard airbags were scattered around the interior. Two frontal dual-stage airbags, two knee airbags (world's first), two side airbags for protecting the thorax and pelvic regions and last but not least two head-protecting curtain airbags which go from the front to the rear of the interior.

Second of all, the active safety features present are probably enough to keep the Panamera out of most accident situations, so that the passive safety features shouldn't even deploy. Apart from the anti-lock braking system, there's the Porsche Stability Management (PSM), which includes an automatic brake differential (ABD), anti-slip regulation (ASR) and engine drag torque control (MSR).

Still, don't feel safe? Well, there's not much else we can tell you besides the fact that the Panamera also has a rollover sensor like only some premium SUVs do. Pedestrians shouldn't fear this car at lower speeds either. Why is that? Well, the Panamera is also equipped with a pyrotechnically-assisted system that raises the rear portion of the engine hood in the event of a crash, which can help to reduce the risk of injury to any unfortunate individual to be run over by the car...

Unlike what we were expecting, the Panamera S is more than just a four-door version of the 911. It uses its own platform, the engine sits in the front and it's not a Boxer but a V8. On top of that, the comfort features, interior space and level of performance make it a pretty fierce competitor for the Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG, the Maserati Quattroporte or the Aston Martin Rapide. This is a true four-door grand tourer even in its lower-spec V8 and rear-wheel drive guise.

The fact that it's not exactly in the same league as the aforementioned competitors when it comes to styling might be a problem for some potential customers. We didn't exactly find it butt-ugly, but it sure can't stand a chance against the elegance of a CLS or a Rapide. Apparently the engineers in charge of the Panamera project were paid much, MUCH more than the stylists.

The ugly bit about the Panamera S we tested was probably the oddity of the options list. We mean, our test car had a seven-speed double-clutch transmission with an integrated start-stop system, cruise control, electronically-controlled suspension and other gizmos like that, but it didn't came equipped with a rear windshield wiper. Considering the car is actually a hatchback and the fact that not even the Panamera Turbo comes with that option in standard, this seems to be a bit weird.