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Thursday, March 28, 2024

The 2010 Panamera- Porsche's Second Ever Four-Door Sedan

Courtesy of Travis

When you drive a Porsche- you’re driving what the company is pinning as the purest, most evolved sports car experience available anywhere.  Two seats, four wheels with a steering wheel and gear lever thrown-in, all made to go very, very fast.  The notions of practical were never really in the cards when Dr. Ferdinand Porsche debuted the first car in 1948, but times have obviously changed the Stuttgart-based Porsche AG.  They’re making their budget Boxster/Cayman lineup of roadsters, the classic 911-derived sports cars as well as the Cayenne SUVs.  To the Porschephile purist- hell has already frozen over with the water-cooled engine; but it just got quite a bit colder with the 2010 Porsche Panamera- the all-new, four-door sedan from Porsche. 

Ever since man has twisted the left-handed ignition key of a Porsche- he’s said “they should make one of these in a four-door…” and indeed they have- they were called Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz sports sedans- and while not classically Porsches- they were just about as close to one as you’d get in terms of German street performance, style and build quality.

The 928, 989 & the 500E

The genesis of the first Porsche sedan harks back to the mid-1980’s with the rising popularity of the Porsche 928- then designated as Porsche’s flagship and future successor to the iconic 911.  (You may know it as the Porsche in movie Risky Business.)  Porsche began to re-think the possibilities the powerful V8 front-engine, rear-wheel-drive 928 platform could bring to the market- producing a luxury sports sedan, bettering those from Mercedes-Benz and BMW.  The four-door sports sedan concept was internally known as the Porsche 989. 

The 2010 Panamera

For 2010 the much anticipated, all-new Panamera- a four-seat, four-door sedan debuts from Porsche.  At first impression, the car seems a longer, fatter 997-type 911 with hints of the Cayenne thrown-in, but on closer look- it’s totally different.  The Panamera’s appearance is low, big and wide, with massive alloys pushed to the very corners.  It’s not a traditional “three-box” sedan, but rather a four-door, four-seat sports/fastback design.  Think of it like a really fancy hatchback.  Its name, Panamera, is derived from the famed long-distance, high-endurance Carrera Panamericana race held in Mexico. 

The Panamera features full comfort for four only, with a wide center consol/tunnel going through the cabin- as it would in an exotic sports car.  In typical Porsche fashion- leather with leatherette trim seats are standard, with full, multi-tone sport leather seats as an option.  Full touch-screen, interactive instrumentation is standard, as well as a slew of niceties you’ve come to expect from Porsche.  A unique feature is the hatchback, with the rear-seats down you have a vast rear interior space not too far from that of an SUV.  Perfect for that once a year you need to haul something bulky from Best Buy or Home Depot.

The new Porsche is unsurprisingly fast, with a top-speed bettering 180 mph in Turbo form.  It’s also quick- with a zero-to-sixty around four-seconds, nearer to five seconds with the normally aspired V8.  Regardless of model- the Panamera is outright quick, rivaling or bettering it’s competition- which includes the Maserati Quattroporte, and Mercedes-Benz CLS 6.3 AMG, not to mention newcomers to the ultra-high-performance sports sedan/four-door coupe segment featuring the Aston Martin Rapide and Lamborghini Estoque.  So while the Porsche-traditionalist may mock the idea of a four-door Porsche- it certainly runs in an expanding market segment.

The Panamera is offered in three different trims, much like a Cayenne and 911.  The Panamera S is the standard base model with rear-wheel-drive and a normally aspired 4.8-liter aluminum V8 engine putting out 400 horsepower and about 370 pound-feet of torque.  The Panamera 4S adds all-wheel-drive and a standard seven-speed PDK semi-automatic transmission.  The top-of-the-line Panamera Turbo further adds a twin-turbocharged 500-horse V8 engine.  Base prices range from about $90,000 for the Panamera S, $94,000 for the 4S and $133,000 for the Turbo, but like everything else out of Stuttgart- there are dozens of special options to choose from.  Figure an additional $10,000 to $15,000 over the base even if you add only a few options.

The Panamera is a longtime coming and while I wouldn’t expect it to be discrete of its performance, much like a Mercedes-Benz or BMW would be, its certainly the right car for the driver who must have some form of four-seater practicality all while having to drive a Porsche.  After all, “there is no substitute,” right?

Porsche sales, while down some 30% in these trying times, hopes to improve come the fall when the Panamera should be hitting the order books full swing.  Porsche plans to build some 20,000 Panameras, while, according to Porsche marketing, about 60,000 enthusiasts worldwide have expressed interest.The Panamera adds yet another degree of practicality away from the purity of Porsche- but what can I say?  Times have changed.  Rumor has it, Porsche is also working on a two-door version of the Panamera- in an effort to bring-back the (now classic) Porsche 928.  Further proof- that though times change- some things, come full circle (yes, even at Porsche). 

Maybe the 928 will come in time for a Risky Business re-make, with a then fifty-something, graying, Ray-Ban wearing Tom Cruise as Joel Goodson, stalling-out of the garage?  Then again, lets hope not.

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