If you’re in the market for a luxury sedan, your first thought will be to pop down to the usual suspects — Audi, Benz, and BMW — and pick out their largest, finest four-door. Those are the obvious choices. But there’s another luxury German sedan that should be on your list: the very under-the-radar Porsche Panamera. We’ve driven it, and it’s a wonderful — albeit unusual — luxury sedan.
The original Panamera, first introduced in 2009, was a groundbreaking new model for the sports car brand. It was Porsche’s first sedan, and it enjoyed small but loyal following among drivers who prized performance and not just comfort in their big sedans.
A decade later, however, along came Porsche’s first all-electric car, the Taycan sedan, and most people forgot about the gas-burning Panamera. The Taycan was, is, spectacularly good, probably the best-handling EV there is. It’s also quiet, nicely appointed, and effortlessly rapid, which are all things you’d want in a big luxury sedan. The all-new Panamera is trying to win back some fans here.
In short, everything, although you might not guess from looking at it.
The exterior design isn’t all that different. It’s still a large car, at over five-metres long and nearly two metres wide. And it’s still a hatchback, which makes loading big suitcases a breeze. But, under the metal skin are where the big changes are.
The all-new, third-generation Panamera is more of a chameleon than its predecessor. While the outgoing model was about as sharp and precise as big sedans can get, it ultimately sacrificed some everyday comfort and practicality to get there. It would be tempting to say the new model swings the pendulum away from performance and back to comfort, but that’s not quite true. Instead Porsche’s engineers have tried to do the hard thing and broaden the breadth of the Panamera’s ability: more performance and more comfort.
Screens. There are lots and lots of screens. That’s either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on where you fall on the whole too-many-screens-in-cars debate. New for the third-generation model is an optional screen for front-seat passengers. We’re seeing this more and more in luxury cars, but the added utility always seems a bit dubious. It is a flashy bit of tech though.
Apart from all the new screens there’s a lot of shiny black trim, at least in our Panamera 4 test car. When it’s clean, it looks very slick.
The lineup ranges from 348 horsepower in the basic Panamera up to 670 hp in the Turbo E-Hybrid, which will do 0-100 km/h in 3.2 seconds. Our Panamera 4 tester sits near the bottom of the range, with all-wheel drive and a turbocharged V6 engine outputting 348 ponies and 369 lb-ft of torque. Obviously, it’s not going to be winning any drag races with a 0-100 km/h time of 5.0 seconds. (If you want to win drag races, look to the Taycan.) Instead, this car is more of an everyday cruiser: a frugal commuter for your typical C-Suite exec.
Not to be anticlimactic here, but it feels like a Panamera. It’s got that lovely, precise and connected-feeling Porsche steering. There’s a rightness to all the controls: not too heavy, not too light. You sit nice and low in the cabin, hunkered behind that tall dashboard. There’s acres of room in here for front seat passengers, although space in the rear is tighter — albeit better than before — as you’d expect given the sloping roofline.
The V6 in our test car is the one your head will tell you to get. It’s quick enough, but doesn’t deliver the overwhelming power you want from a Porsche. Your heart will tell you to step up to the V8.
As far as broadening the Panamera’s ability, the engineers have done it. The ride on the standard air suspension is certainly more compliant than before over rough city streets, but it doesn’t wallow in the corners either. It’ll carve around a highway on-ramp just as eagerly as before.
Well, to put it bluntly, it’s the price. The 2024 Porsche Panamera starts at around $130,000 in Canada. Our Panamera 4 tester was up around $150,000. Porsche being Porsche, the option list is an absolute buffet of delights and you’ll want to load up there, which’ll add another $8,000 or $30,000 to the price.
The Panamera Turbo E Hybrid is $251,000. For context, a full-fat Mercedes-AMG E 63 with its gargling V8 is around $140,000. The upcoming BMW M5 plug-in hybrid should be in the same ballpark. You could argue the Panamera is more of a competitor for the S-Class or 7 Series, but, with its small-ish rear seats and performance focus, we might disagree. The all-electric Porsche Taycan, which starts at $150,000 is also as tempting an alternative as ever. None of those choices, however, are quite as idiosyncratic or original as the new Panamera. If the all-new Panamera tickles your fancy, we highly recommend it, so long as you’re willing to dive head-first into that pricey options list.
The post SHARP Drives: The New 2024 Porsche Panamera 4, a Different Kind of Luxury Sedan appeared first on Sharp Magazine.
