Porsche has released a nice shot of the front clip of its new Panamera uber-sedan. It’s good news and it’s bad news. The good news: it looks like the rest of the Porsche lineup. The bad news: can’t Porsche come up with a new design? They have the 911, which works, and then graft that face onto everything else they make. At one point, the front of the Boxster was considered so similar to the 911 that Porsche worried 911 buyers would go to other brands rather than risk being confused with a lowly Boxster driver (even if the Boxster’s mid engine and proper weight distribution make it the superior driver’s car). So while Porsche experimented with some great designs from an aesthetic standpoint as well as their aptitude for being great behind the wheel (924, 944, 968, 928), the $150,000 Panamera seems to rely on the old faithful maxim for Porsche: everything must look like the 911. Cool yes, but also painfully unimaginative.
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Unimaginative? Would be curious to know what you would see as a better design direction that doesn’t undercut Porsche’s branding. My beef with the Panamerica is that its design execution is decidedly awkward from the B-pillar back. And why such a big, conventional car that does not allow much component interchangeability with the 911? If Porsche isn’t careful it is going to undercut its economies of scale — which will matter more in a recession.
I saw a spy shot of the rear of this thing on another site. I hope it looks a lot better in production. I have high hopes for this car. A Porsche that can haul the wife and some kids sounds pretty good. I know the 911 has seats but they are more for decoration than utility.
Not only do all Porsche’s models look the same, but the 911 itself has looked the same since it’s inception. And the 911 design isn’t even that good-looking to begin with
Aston Martin can get away with making all its cars look the same since the basic Aston Martin design is so beautiful. Porsche shouldn’t be able to get away with this but since it’s got brand cachet, and the cars are drive extremely well, Porsche gets a pass
A Porsche that can haul the wife and some kids sounds pretty good.
No it doesn’t. Porsche’s are meant to be sports cars, which almost by definition are completely selfish and impracticable vehicles. A Sunday blast through the twisties or racetrack with a couple of child seats in the back and the wife complaining about her manicure next to you is just not my idea of a Porsche.
It’s all in the execution. I find it interesting that the Panamera design is inferior to the almost twenty years old and sadly stillborn Porsche 989 concept:
http://usuarios.lycos.es/cporschecat/images/porsches/projectes/989_snf.jpg
Key members in that project was Harm Lagaay and Ulrich Bez, the latter head of Aston Martin nowadays. Ant there’s a lot of The Aston Martin Rapide in that rear haunch of the 989. And there’s a lot of the 911 in the rear haunch of the Aston Martin V8. The 911 was the benchmark for the V8 project.
Then, Porsche did have the tech, but not the money. Now they have the tech, the money, but lost their mojo somewhere in between. How come the Panamera looks so tremendously ugly and out of place, when the 989 is as beautiful as can be? Is it the Audi-sourced V8? The Volkswagen Touareg underpinnings? Where did all that mass come from? How could it go so wrong?
I have a sneaking suspicion that the big ol’ ass we’re seeing in all the spy shots is some kind of a trick that Porsche is pulling, and the actual car will be more well proportioned.
Yeah, I would hope so too. But that design seems more finalized than the Volt vaporware will ever be. And the Panamera pics I have seen have been more or less the same looking for the last three years…
highrpm :
September 15th, 2008 at 10:45 am
I saw a spy shot of the rear of this thing on another site. I hope it looks a lot better in production. I have high hopes for this car. A Porsche that can haul the wife and some kids sounds pretty good. I know the 911 has seats but they are more for decoration than utility.
There’s a Cayenne at your local Porsche dealer with your name on it.
I’ll have a Rapide thank you.