Thank you so much for this wonderful, informative and competent report.kisskiss
The Panamera is without any doubt the sportiest four-door car with AWD on the market.

I agree with you in all your findings as far as I can judge it. I had several Panamera Turbo at different times as a test car, each for 1-3 days.

Unfortunately, the Panamera has a downside as described by you also. Therefore I couldn’t decide to order a Panamera yet, but I have to explain this.

First of all, the Panamera is very distinctive and not suitable at least for my business. This of course is primarily a matter of personal opinion.

The fuel consumption is comparable much to high at least compared to the competitors.

The directness of the steering at high speeds requires a lot of attention, like you described.

The sound unfortunately isn’t as good as one might wish for, even without insulated glass.

The PDK isn’t perfect under all circumstances. I noticed even with my 997 Turbo S the slow response time in manual mode and even worse some hard kicks in certain situations.

The turbo lag is definitely noticeable and runs through the entire V8 engine range. Other car manufacturers (BMW V8 biturbo AMG V8 biturbo) solved this much better, their engines are recognizable more modern which is also reflected in reduced consumption. 

Last but not least there are a number of equipment issues which are so typical Porsche like.
Example is the steering wheel. If you want to have the steering wheel with function keys, you only get  the PDK buttons but no paddles. Why? That can’t be explained.
The handling of the navigation system and the small naviscreen is outdated, at least for me. A head up display isn’t available, although this of course is also a question of personal needs.

Not to mention a number of other electronic gadgets which are especially BMW- standard.

All in all, the Panamera is clearly showing his age and the upcoming facelift is not just a matter of optics, also a technical revision would be desirable at some points.

What remains is a sensational chassis, excellent traction and also the pure data ​​for speeding are unbeatable for a four-door sedan.

Of course on this point it must be allowed to think about the "normal" needs on a 4-door car. From my personal perspective, I need a powerful business car for everydays use, a typical DD.

This said it seems to be less relevant that the Panamera drives in tight bends with higher speeds than a M5. If you aren’t always in „race modus“ while driving your  daily business you will feel comfortable with a „slow M5“ as well.

Really useful on the other hand would be the RTTI (Real Time Traffic Info) from BMW, which for anyone who travels a lot, can be extremely valuable. Can you order this or something similar for Porsche? No, of course not. This isn’t currently available.

Finally:
the Panamera will cost 70.000, - € more than a fully-equipped BMW M5, without really to excel him in all aspects. Under the line, these are my ONLY PERSONAL reasons why I can’t decide to order a Panamera Turbo (S) yet. Of course each has its own requirements.
Overall the Panamera is a great car with a incredible handiness, this remains without any doubt. Those who own a Panamera have a lot of reasons to be very satisfied.

And especially your Panamera Turbo S is one of the best sportsedans in the world with a very exclusive appearance. I’m totally convinced you’ll have a lot of fun with it. wink

 


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Kind regards, Conny 

Porsche 997.2 Turbo S  *  BMW X5 M