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It’s not artful, but it is practical.
Of course, “practical” and “Porsche” are rather a juxtaposed incongruity.
It kinda looks like a Saab from that angle.
It looks like a Volvo C30 that spent too much time in the microwave, and was grafted with evil anime-robot-bug eyes.
I think a true wagon (or 4-door-shooting-brake) config would have helped the overall design, in addition to adding interior space. That glassy fastback and tail look pretty weird together. Straight off the Chrysler Crossfire.
This isn’t the first time the Germans have pilfered design cues from Tatra.
It kinda looks like a Saab from that angle.
I was thinking more of a late-model Citroen, but yes.
A Porsche that looks like a Citroen. Urgh.
All Porsches are ugly in my mind. It’s part of the brand definition.
I was thinking more of a late-model Citroen, but yes.
A Porsche that looks like a Citroen. Urgh.
We don’t get Citroens in America… :-(
Pretty much a stretch 928. What a concept.
Maybe they will sell 30 of them each year.
This is a damn shame.
NickR: My sentiments precisely.
Does anybody know if it is rear engined?
Robert, it’s front-engined, with a V8. Hence the 928 revival hopes…
Looks like the love(hate?)child of a Cayenne and Cayman.
Ewww…..
Well of course it’s ugly… it has four doors.
Nick R and Robert – Talk about obscure automotive references!! I had no idea ttac commenters were such an agust and distinguished group.
I love that the Tatra T603 had a rear mounted air cooled V-8. Now that would be an interesting car to drive.
Not great, but once half of the taillights are uncovered, the fake rear window is gone, the fake side window line is removed… it’ll look a bit better. But like everyone, I would have preferred to have seen a “shooting brake” style vehicle.
WTF? Did they do this mess because the 928 didn’t end up being a successful replacement for the 911. It’s like they tried to force the 911 styling onto something it wasn’t meant to do, stretching it to this ugly mess. I can’t believe they are going to charge 6 figures for this thing, it’s not innovative design unless you consider extra ugly innovative. I was really looking forward to this project from the very very early sketches, talk about screwing that up. Are those parts bin lights in the rear covered with tape or are they really that big and bug-like.
Damn. Porsche is the only company that could unseat the 3 Series from the top of the heap. Audi can’t, VW is too unfocused. MB can’t, the C class is just the stepping stone to the “real” Mercedes cars, like the small detroit cars of yore. The Japanese can’t, they build a great product but don’t “get it” autobahn style. Only Porsche can unseat the 3-er, but instead they take on the Maserati Quattroporte and the VW Phaeton.
Why, oh Why ? I’d buy a Porsche sedan (3 sized) in a heartbeat. This, on the other hand is design by Tatra, as another posted stated.
jmo, TTAC loves Tatras: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/bodacious-tatras/
Note the fake rear window outline on the Panamera; the real one is lower.
How long till someone stretches the 911 even further…
I mean, all the way to limo length?
Can’t be any uglier than this.
Cayenne was to many the beginning of the end of the Porsche brand (well, the most recent end, previous ends of 924, 944, 968, 928 notwithstanding). But then, the Cayenne wasn’t. Or isn’t, just yet.
However, Porsche has outdone themselves by designing the world’s ugliest sedan. And soon to follow, the world’s ugliest limosine.
I predict a stinging TTAC editorial in the near future. If not a brand new Death Watch. If not for the brand, at least for this car. Phaeton (ish).
It looks like Porsche designers couldn’t decide on 1 particular theme, so they threw a bunch together and hoped for the best. Those tail lights look like something off a 3 or 4 year old Hyundai.
Every Ford and VW product has a more focused design than this.
The only thing I see here is a truncated picture of an obviously disgused car covered in extra trim pieces to hide it true shape, LOOK CLOSELY!
You guys act like you have never seen a picture of a disgused test vehicle before!
“I love that the Tatra T603 had a rear mounted air cooled V-8. Now that would be an interesting car to drive.”
From Paul Niedermeyer’s article linked above:
“After the Nazis took control of the Tatra factory, they kept the V8 streamliner in production. Thanks to its ability to cruise effortlessly at up to 90mph (with only 75hp), the 97 became the favorite car of high-ranking Nazi officers. It was dubbed the “Autobahnmobil.”
More ominously, the 97 was also dubbed “the Czech secret weapon” after many of these high-speed demons died at the hands of the wickedly-abrupt “terminal” oversteer of the tail-heavy V8. Hitler reputedly banned his top Luftwaffen officers from 97 seat time to forestall the recurring carnage.”
I loved the 928. I thought it was one of the most beautiful cars ever. Unfortunately, if Porsche revived it today, it would look like an AMC Pacer on Steroids.
To paraphraze an anonymous italian designer, when he first saw the Triumph TR7 at a stand. He stood on one side, and looked absolutely flabbergasted. Then he walked around to the other side and said: “Oh my god, they have done it to the other side as well!”
The ugliness might be an advantage. Makes it a car show car.
It needs some chrome.
Man, this thing is hideous. The Aston Rapide is gorgeous in comparison.
Or at least not as ugly.
Just what the market doesn’t need right now, another over the top V-8 sedan, and ugly at that.
Ewww. It looks like the worst of the Boxster back there.
I would have thought it would make more stylistic sense to use 911-style taillights, that are a defined clear cut shape.
The German engineers obviously have way too much time on their hands.
Say what you will about Porsche styling, but Porsche is a gearhead’s brand with the passion and heart of engineers as opposed to accounting or marketing. Performance and efficiency take priority over style. A bit nerdy to Americans, but very logically stylish from the Swabian point of view. And if Porsche history is any guide, the Panamera will be an extremely well executed design that is fast, reliable, and painfully expensive.
WhatdoIknow1…
Is correct, according to my recent cruise through the internet. Youtube, spyphoto sites, other auto webites are all in agreement…
This version of the Panamera is purposely derivative of the 911 in order to keep the press, public and competition guessing.
Porschephiles are 100% in agreement (according to their well-placed “sources”) that this hideous obomination is indeed nothing more than a mule.
The real deal will be groin-stirringly gorgeous.
Let’s hope.
So TTAC, quit scaring us with fuglies.
Unless, of course, the experts are wrong. And so is the car. In which case, RF’s right.
No matter what a Porche is still a Porche – superb machinery with a real kick!
Being an avid fan of 1980’s Saab, I take offense in the comparison. This thing is so ugly it makes the Pacer look like a design deserving a place at the MOMA.
Three things stick out as awful:
The wheels, black painted wheels just look cheap and ugly. Like uncovered steel wheels.
The tailights have some kind of weird panel across them, looks like it’s going to fall off. Plus the angles on them don’t fit with the rest of the car.
And what’s up with those antennae on the back?
I’ll wait on final judgment until I look at some more pictures showing what the rest of the car looks like.
This is going to be a smashing success, the public clearly loves ugly Porches (Cayenne).
For all the crap Porschephiles give the Cayenne, it did give Porsche enough profits to put the Carrera GT into limited production, so it has that going for it.
This is not some mule covered with 911 panels; this is very thinly disguised final design. I have outlined the actual cut lines for the car in green in this link:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3030/2851944818_d44b281d9b_o.jpg
-The rear hatch goes down all the way to the top of the license plate.
-There is a sticker covering the rear window to make it look like it goes down lower than it actually does.
-The side windows on the rear doors actually curve around.
-There is an American Ford Focus style heat vent behind the front wheel (unlike the one on the Focus this vent may actually connect to the engine compartment, but it is still ugly, and most likely of no performance value).
-The rear door touches the rear wheel well (a design feature I personally hate).
-The only thing that is not clear in this picture is how the leading edge of the tail light will look (it’s the only thing that Porsche disguised well) – oh yeah, and the front of the car, but no front end could be good enough looking to make up for this (literally) ass ugly rear end.
If this is the kind of crap Porsche needs to spit out to keep the (gorgeous, perfectly balanced) Caymans coming then so be it.
“-The side windows on the rear doors actually curve around. “
I’m not absolutely sure on this. That is what everybody wants, but almost all of the pictures have shown an almost vertical shutline on the rear door, making the car looking downright fugly. I hope you are right, for the sake of common decency, but sorry to say, that is not what I think the real car will end up with. I hope I’m wrong. And so is everybody else…
Ingvar
The white dotted crap goes straight down, but if you zoom in on the picture above or click on my link you can see that the actual window line does curve. It’s still ugly.
Kinda looks like a Chrysler Crossfire, with four doors and, ironically unlike the Crossfire, no whale-tail spoiler.
Idiotic. Unless it is a perfectly orchestrated misdirection campaign, idiotic. Stupid, arrogant, moribund. Panamera deathwatch anyone? Not quite the Aztec of four-door hatchback sportscars, but pungent nonetheless.
I clicked through to the autospies link and this car was photographed on Santa Monica Boulevard. Not some small town in Death Valley.
Parking this thinly veiled final design pre-production car on Santa Monica Boulevard qualifies as nothing more than guerrilla marketing; we’re all suckers for caring.
That rear end hatch reminds me of an XKE or an MGB-GT.
I’ve never been too warm about Porsche’s style considering they hardly changed it much since what, 1963? As a sedan I don’t mind it, i’m pretty sure the die hards out there are crying foul though. I’d truly like to see Porsche try something edgier and not be afraid to design away from the original shape.
Why are they producing this car?
#1 Nobody has seen this thing in the flesh
#2 The popular consensus on the Cayenne was equally harsh but it sold and made Porsche a ton of money. This will sell well too.
#3 I want one