Porsche Panamera is First Produced

The 2010 Porsche Panamera ranks 2 out of 7 Super Luxury Cars. This ranking is based on our analysis of 14 published reviews and test drives of the Porsche Panamera, and our analysis of reliability and safety data.

Perhaps the world’s most uncompromising sedan, the all-new Porsche Panamera combines breathtaking performance with indulgent accommodations for four adults. Some Porsche purists may detest the car’s unusual appearance, and few can afford it (a look at the pricing list for options would make Warren Buffet gasp), but the automotive press agrees that the car is simply an epic achievement.

The Porsche Panamera can coddle four adults in opulent surroundings at 170 mph, and holds its own with some six-figure sports cars on a winding mountain road. It can carry as much cargo as some full-size SUVs, but in turbocharged form, goes from zero-to-sixty faster than a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. It offers four sumptuous seats, a stereo system that’s among the best offered anywhere, and available four-zone climate control, and 500 horsepower.

Auto writers have attempted to compare it to specially-tuned sport sedans like the BMW M5, exotic cars like the Maserati Quattroporte, and super-luxury cruisers like the BMW 7-Series – but every comparison falls flat.

Yet, the very idea of the car upsets some lifelong Porsche fanatics. They call it blasphemous.

Porsche is world-famous, after all, four small, light, two-door, rear-engine sports cars like the 911. The iconic Porsche has a sparse interior, with little to distract from its mission of raw performance.

The Panamera, on the other hand is a full-size luxury sedan. It weighs nearly 4,000 pounds, has four doors, and carries its big V8 engine up front. Its interior is sumptuous, with every modern technological amenity and acres of smooth, soft leather.

It’s also unusual looking. With a long hood and bulbous rear hatch, it looks a little like a stretched 911.

Those traits have caused a split in cri...

Introduction
It's not every year we get an all-new Porsche model, let alone a four-door that literally breaks the mold for cars bearing that iconic red, black and gold crest. Porsche toyed with the idea of a four-door 911 for years, but the prospect of a more practical, everyday version of the world's most iconic sports car never materialized. The 2010 Porsche Panamera isn't a four-door 911 -- the engine's in the front, for one thing -- but the 911's spirit is alive and kicking in this remarkable luxury sedan that's just as happy carving up a winding back road as it is cruising down the interstate.

The Panamera is built on a new platform and has a wheelbase that's a bit longer than traditional midsizers like the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class but shorter than those of larger sedans like the 7 Series and S-Class. At 76 inches wide, the Panamera's got more girth than all of them, but its 55.8-inch height makes it the Tom Cruise of the cast.

This is one undeniably sleek and sporty automobile. Yet that low stance doesn't mean passengers are treated to a claustrophobic cabin unfriendly to those blessed with height or grand coiffures. On the contrary, the front compartment is eminently accommodating, and the two-person backseat has head- and legroom to spare. Moreover, those rear bucket seats can be optioned with eight-way power adjustability, heating, cooling and, believe it or not, a refrigerated box.

If mentioning power backseats and a refrigerator in the second paragraph of a Porsche review seems silly, remember that these are the types of things that make the Panamera a legitimate contender in the premium luxury sedan segment. Happily, the Panamera has the traditional Porsche bases covered as well.

Under the hood, the Panamera employs a couple scintillating engines derived from the Cayenne collection, starting with a 400-horsepower 4.8-liter V8 in base models and upgrading to a 500-hp version in the Panamera Turbo. You might be concerned that four ...

The Porsche Panamera (Type number 970) is a four-door, four-seat luxury saloon/sedan, which was launched in 2009. It is front-engined with rear-wheel drive, with a four-wheel drive version also available.

The Porsche Panamera production model was unveiled at the 13th Auto Shanghai International Automobile Show in Shanghai, China on April 2009.

Engines are first assembled in Stuttgart, and the car's body is built and painted at the Volkswagen Group facility in Hannover. The final assembly of the vehicle takes place in Leipzig, Germany, alongside the Cayenne.

The Panamera is generally considered to be the long-awaited fruit of Porsche's 989 concept from the late 1980s; some argue that it also presents itself as a successor to the two-door 928, but there may be plans to develop a new 928 as well.

The Porsche Panamera is marketed as a direct competitor to automobiles such as the Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG, Aston Martin Rapide, and Maserati Quattroporte.[citation needed] The Panamera may also be considered as a less expensive alternative to vehicles such as the Bentley Continental Flying Spur and the Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG.

Production began in April 2009, one month after its debut in the Shanghai Motor Show in China. Porsche will keep production rate at around 20,000 cars per year.

The Panamera's name is derived, like the Porsche Carrera line, from the Carrera Panamericana race. Earlier prototypes and concepts of the four-door saloons, such as the 1991 Porsche 989 prototype, the four-door 911 based prototype, and C88 concept (a supermini sedan built in Germany and sold for China), never went into production.