2009 Porsche Panamera

[hawkzzter]

The Turbo is really expensive, £20k more than the CLS 63, £15k more than the RS6, the only competitors price-wise are S63 and Quattroporte GTS. Panamera S is around the price of the RS6 and CLS63.

[4wheelsonline]

Porsche Panamera: The fourth line
Porsche is to bring out a four-door GT with V8 and V10-Motor in 2009 under the model name Panamera .
The concept will be presented by autumn at the IAA to the public.
After Cayman for the Boxster Coupé (debut on the IAA in the autumn) now Panamera for the fourth Porsche line.
The Stuttgart sportscar manufacturers protected both names on the same day (15.1.2004) at the German patent office.
At the latest by autumn this year Porsche wants to present its concept for the fourth line.
The most important first in brief:
It's a four-door and four-seated front engine car with rear- and all-wheel drive, V8 and V10-engines with a range from 340 to over 600 PS.
The prices are to be settled between 100.000 and 150.000 €.
Annually 20,000 units are focused.
The assembly in Leipzig is to begin 2009.


Cool.

Another great car made by Porsche. Interesting car.

[oneblack]

I don't like it at all. Front half of the car is ok, but the rear end just looks incredibly ugly to me. In real it's even worse than on the photographs.
Porsche should rather be concentrating on what they're really doing well: Building excellent two-seat sports cars. Not crap like the Cayenne or the Panamera.

[Guibo]

Unlike the CLS (built on E-Class platform) and Audi RS6, it does not appear that the Panamera can enjoy the same economy of scale. A6-platformed vehicles sold over 213,000 units last year...
Additionally, the Panamera has quite a bit of aluminum used in its structure: doors, hood, fenders, tailgate. And the Turbo has AWD and a dual-clutch transmission.
Not all of the reasons are technical. Porsche have traditionally priced their cars slightly above MB/Audi/BMW. I don't know about MB and Audi testing methods, but following a line of camouflaged Panamera mules last year to a posh hotel on the San Francisco waterfront, I would guess their test drivers live quite well.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Unlike the CLS (built on E-Class platform) and Audi RS6, it does not appear that the Panamera can enjoy the same economy of scale. A6-platformed vehicles sold over 213,000 units last year...
Additionally, the Panamera has quite a bit of aluminum used in its structure: doors, hood, fenders, tailgate. And the Turbo has AWD and a dual-clutch transmission.
Not all of the reasons are technical. Porsche have traditionally priced their cars slightly above MB/Audi/BMW. I don't know about MB and Audi testing methods, but following a line of camouflaged Panamera mules last year to a posh hotel on the San Francisco waterfront, I would guess their test drivers live quite well.

It was more likely advertising, rather than testing.
The only Porsche comparable to another product from the other companies you quoted, is the Cayenne, which costs about the same as its contenders.
The only competitor of the Panamera right now seems to be the Quattroporte, and price wise, the Porsche is going to win apparently.
I'd still take the QP over it, no matter the price.

[Guibo]

I doubt they were advertising. The cars all hastily disappeared into a parking garage. You can see more pics here:
Porsche Panamera pictures upclose with detail | Roadfly.com: Car Reviews & Road Tests

If they were advertising, there wouldn't be that much camouflage, which attempts to distort what the car really looks like.

The Cayenne shares underpinnings with the Toureg, so can benefit from economies of scale.

[LeonOfTheDead]

What I meant is I think all the "public" testing Porsche performed with the Panamera was mostly a way to grab attention and advertise the car, so that once the car would have been unveiled, people, no only enthusiasts, would have been already talking about it and so of them, willing to buy it. Otherwise there is no reason to park it in front of an hotel, especially an expensive one, or made so silly and lazy tours in and out of San Francisco and so on.

[wwgkd]

What I meant is I think all the "public" testing Porsche performed with the Panamera was mostly a way to grab attention and advertise the car, so that once the car would have been unveiled, people, no only enthusiasts, would have been already talking about it and so of them, willing to buy it. Otherwise there is no reason to park it in front of an hotel, especially an expensive one, or made so silly and lazy tours in and out of San Francisco and so on.

Gasp! Someone was trolling for attention in san francisco?!

[Guibo]

What I meant is I think all the "public" testing Porsche performed with the Panamera was mostly a way to grab attention and advertise the car, so that once the car would have been unveiled, people, no only enthusiasts, would have been already talking about it and so of them, willing to buy it. Otherwise there is no reason to park it in front of an hotel, especially an expensive one, or made so silly and lazy tours in and out of San Francisco and so on.

They did not park in front of the hotel. They immediately went into the garage. They weren't there to do lazy tours in and out of SF. There are all kinds of great driving roads in the area on which they can test various suspension settings. Not to mention two racetracks nearby (Laguna Seca and Infineon Raceway). This is far more plausible than flying a convoy of camouflaged mules over to the States and then hurrying them to into a dark sequestered garage, then covering them up, for the purpose of advertisement.
Not only enthusiasts...most people who saw these on the road probably didn't even know what they were looking at. No Porsche badges or crests on these cars. Only Georgia plates. If Porsche flew these cars all they over to SF for the purpose of "advertising", they sure did a lousy job. Notice how there's no crowd around any of the cars.

[LeonOfTheDead]

They did not park in front of the hotel. They immediately went into the garage. They weren't there to do lazy tours in and out of SF. There are all kinds of great driving roads in the area on which they can test various suspension settings. Not to mention two racetracks nearby (Laguna Seca and Infineon Raceway). This is far more plausible than flying a convoy of camouflaged mules over to the States and then hurrying them to into a dark sequestered garage, then covering them up, for the purpose of advertisement.
Not only enthusiasts...most people who saw these on the road probably didn't even know what they were looking at. No Porsche badges or crests on these cars. Only Georgia plates. If Porsche flew these cars all they over to SF for the purpose of "advertising", they sure did a lousy job. Notice how there's no crowd around any of the cars.

Ok, how many other cars have been so much "spotted" all over the world in the 3 years before their unveilings?
No one. And I don't think this means the Panamera is the best car of them all just because it got more testing. It got more "visible" testing.
The 7 Series was spotted way less time, and most of all, only the last years in a sensible number of occasions.
whatever.

[clutch-monkey]

Another great car made by Porsche. Interesting car.

i take issue with the bolded statement
no doubt it's technically brilliant
it looks like a squashed cayenne for christ's sake

[Wouter Melissen]

Ok, how many other cars have been so much "spotted" all over the world in the 3 years before their unveilings?
No one. And I don't think this means the Panamera is the best car of them all just because it got more testing. It got more "visible" testing.
The 7 Series was spotted way less time, and most of all, only the last years in a sensible number of occasions.
whatever.

I think this is also a matter of interest from the media. Porsche's very first four-door car is prone to attract much more attention. When a company like BMW tests new cars they use the existing models for test-mules, Porsche did not have that option.

[LeonOfTheDead]

I think this is also a matter of interest from the media. Porsche's very first four-door car is prone to attract much more attention. When a company like BMW tests new cars they use the existing models for test-mules, Porsche did not have that option.

For the same reason, I'd say the showed it so much just to help us getting used to it. They could have used something from VAG after all, even Mercedes-Benz used a Viper-ish camouflage for the SLS when the two companies were already separated.
A lot of those shots were took by people on the streets, not only pro photographers, which on the other hand could have been more interested in this rather than in the usual car from the usual company.
I awlays had the feeling these sightings weren't "genuine", surely not all of them, and not everytime with at least 3 mules on parade.
Perhaps they were really testing the car all these times, but I think they also played with us "adevertising" the car and raising this product to out attention even before it's unveiling.
I think this for all those shots taken into "secret" or "interdicted" areas wer cameras aren't supposedly allowed, but then you don't hear of a single person being fired or whatever. I'm refering to all the shots from Ferrari's test track, for example, or just as an extreme the official "spy" shots from Mercedes about the SLS.

The whole argument if spy shots stinks, in my opinion. Knowing a car will be tested at the Nurburgring, because it's a sportscar or just because they have a facility there, why bothering going in the middle of nowhere in an icy land, with snow all over, to take 2 shots from quite a distance of a car? You were really there looking for a car? Possibly yes, because perhaps that's another area were there are a few facilities of car makers, but considering how many shots like those came out, I'd say that's not the right way to invest capitals for a spy photographer career or agency.

Cars have to be tested. It's a fact. Cars can be spotted during testing, it's obvious. Let's combine the two things and use them in our favour (for lack of better words).

[slotsitges]

In my opinion, the ugliest Porsche I've ever seen.

[DesmoRob]

Unlike the CLS (built on E-Class platform) and Audi RS6, it does not appear that the Panamera can enjoy the same economy of scale. A6-platformed vehicles sold over 213,000 units last year...
Additionally, the Panamera has quite a bit of aluminum used in its structure: doors, hood, fenders, tailgate. And the Turbo has AWD and a dual-clutch transmission.
Not all of the reasons are technical. Porsche have traditionally priced their cars slightly above MB/Audi/BMW. I don't know about MB and Audi testing methods, but following a line of camouflaged Panamera mules last year to a posh hotel on the San Francisco waterfront, I would guess their test drivers live quite well.

Yes, but it comes at a price. The son of a very close family friend of ours is/was an engineer and test driver for Porsche, and he wrecked his back doing it. It starts to take a toll on your body after a while.