Spyshot photographers of the world: Look for another target. Today, Porsche released the definitive official pictures of their 4-door sportssedan Panamera. (Thank you, Automobilwoche.) The first Porsche with a decent rear bench (ignoring the Cayenne for a while) will be physically present in spring, and shall go on sale throughout the world by the end of Summer 2009. It will be hard to overlook: 16 feet 4 inches long, and six foot four wide, the Panamera will be nearly 2 feet longer than 911, even the S-Class is 2 inches slimmer around the waist. For motors, there will be six and eight bangers, ranging from 300 to 500 horses. No true Porsche driver would touch an automatic. The engine of the Panamara is mated to six gears, operated by a stick. Dual clutch with 7 gears optional. The power goes to the rear wheels, all wheels drive optional. A green-sheened hybrid is “in the works.” Something Porsche may want to hide: The body of the Panamera is welded in VeeDub’s truck plant in Hannover, final assembly takes place in Porsche’s plant in Leipzig. More official details as they become available.
If this was a Saab, it’d be ok.
But it’s not a Saab.
It is actually not a bad picture. Everything I’ve seen before has been hideous. The question is: where do you find a dentist who can drive manual in US?
Still, Maserati exudes more sex appeal and I suspect for less.
Hey, Porsche – some of us need minivans, too, you know. Just think of all the sales you’re missing.
Based on all the pictures I’d seen so far, I thought it was ugly. Now, I think it… still kinda ugly. Certainly not the worst looking car on the road, but it is the worst 4-door coupe.
Better than the Cayenne, though. I’ve always hated that thing.
The front-end looks good, the rest…not so much. I really wonder why there’s such a distinct lack of taste in Zuffenhausen.
The 911 rear-end doesn’t work on a sedan…it’s not that hard to figure out.
Yet another car that looks like it could star in Cars 2. I wish it would stop smiling at me.
Beware: This is by far the best angle of this monster. It looks much worse from every other angle, but the way this angle obscures the horrid rear end makes the car look decent
So, if one were to own this I guess the trick is to NOT let your friends walk around it. Let them see it from the front 3/4 angle, at 20 ft, and usher them away. The side view (your previous post) is just terrible. It looks like someone tried to make an ersatz limo out of a 911.
How about a Porsche version of the Chrysler minivan? Or a personal watercraft? What the hell.
@ thetopdog
Ok, I was actually KIND of liking the car from the photo, but your comment made me go to the photo page (on company time…). Wow. You were dead-on. What an ugly beast. Overweight and poorly proportioned. Ferdinand must be spinning in his grave – but then again, he did have experience designing tanks.
As the first generation Audi TT seemed like a reasonable image of what the Karmann Ghia would have become (stretch the imagination just a bit), the Panamera seems like an update to the Citroen DS, and who in the Hell asked for that?
http://www.porsche.com/microsite/panamera/usa.aspx
@NickR
There’s a small company in Germany that makes actual Ruf/Porsche 650hp flat-six powered minivans our of Volkswagen T3/T4/T5s. They even convert the FWD T4/T5 to rear-engine AWD. Without making them look differently.
http://www.claer-automobile.de/startseiten/t-4-main.htm
I sincerely hope this is a turkey, forcing Porsche to re-evaluate their market sell-out antics, or at least return to the damn drawing board while keeping Chris Bangle’s retarded cousin away from the crayons. But it probably won’t be, the Cayenne has proven how ridiculous the car market can actually be. And how much buying power the upper-middle-class-cosmetically-enhanced-ageing-soccer-mom segment has.
Adding yellow calipers, some flashy LED headlights or changing the shape of the exhaust doesn’t make a new design.
Thus you should start thinking about which newly designed Porsche of the last 40 years could be considered beautiful?!
Yeah I know the 928 has its fans. But come on…
I wonder if there will be a faux-Landau cloth roof version.
Hey Porsche, any plans for a pickup? Like this one: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3180/2664140455_8783af9004.jpg?v=0
Look, if this thing is fast and handles like a charm what is the problem? The way I see it, it is just another choice in the Porsche portfolio that is serving needs that no other current Porsche can forefill.
The people that can NOT understand the Panamerica are those that are putting toooooooo much personal stock in the Porsche brand image as though by owning a Porsche people will somehow take them more seriously. Sorry guys it is just a car!
Considering the performance or lack of, of every Porsche costing less than $80,000 grand today it is imperative that Porsche continue to open up new markets. Performance and hertiage will NOT sell Porsches once everyone knows that lowly Chevys and Nissans are more than just competitive.
whatdoiknow1 :
Look, if this thing is fast and handles like a charm what is the problem?
That it looks like a caricature.
The 911 owed its looks to nothing but itself – function before form – and it still works. Porsche, in my mind, stood for functional design executed in a minimalist yet elegant way. Not just in road cars, but also other products designed by Porsche.
The Panamera seems to have lost the plot somewhere around the A-pillar. I am sure it will perform well, but I wish they had done a more subtle job of making it “look like a Porsch-uh”.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I happen to like the way the Panamerica looks. It would serve no purpose for Porsche to build a sedan that looks like an Audi, BMW, or MB. The Panamerica looks like a Porsche, and I admire the fact that Porsche had the balls to make it a hatchback and not a run of the mile trunk sedan.
While I only have pictures to go on now I get the impression that the Panamerica is a complex design that will only be able to truly be appreciated in person.
A good case in point is the Cayman. Viewed from certain angles in pictures it has what appears to be a rather ungainly shape, the front looks way too long. In person the Cayman has one of the most balanced shapes of any car today. It is beautiful in a classic way but also looks fresh and unique were the AM Vantage (also a beautiful car) looks like it has come out of that same “sportcar” thought box that 99% of all front engined sportscars come from.
its essentially a Cayenne – same running gear, same underneath – just been lowered and had the top chopped.
lame.