Robert.Walter has been sending me shots from Switzerland, and I’m a bit backlogged in getting to them. But this shot of a Toyota Aygo and a Panamera caught my eye. Why? Well, there’s the obvious contrast. But I’m also finding that with time, the Panamera is becoming easier on the eye; it’s starting to look rather clean and sleek compared with all the flamed, creased and multi-contoured newer cars in its class–and how we all hated on it when it first came out! Everything is relative…which reminds me, I once claimed to be the first person to identify the Panamera’s design inspiration:
The Bristol 405, the only four-door made by that storied brand. Built between 1955 and 1958, it still used the pre-war BMW 328-based 2-liter six (which would be replaced by big Chrysler V8s in the very long line of Bristol coupes that finally reached its end just a few years back). Too bad the 405 didn’t make it into the V8 era–then it really would have been a Panamera precursor in more ways than just design.
boy that Porsche is just…….not good looking at all. I get the whole “its a Porsche thing”, I just can’t imagine buying something that looks like that no matter what badge it has or how good it drives.
its a shame considering how beautiful 928 & 944 were that Porsche insists on only using the 911 design language on every vehicle it makes. It is a total turn off IMHO.
+1
Totally agree. Not to mention buying something that ugly for $80,000.
I can honestly say I find the Panamera just as unattractive today as the first time I ever saw it.
Panameras are all over the west side of LA and every time I see one I am reminded how butt-ugly they are. I think they look worse in the metal than in pictures. I’m not quite sure why, but about 90% of them I see are being driven by women – who generally are having trouble guiding them into a too-small parking space. I guess the car is viewed as a status symbol for around town shopping. From what I’ve read, a more practical and pleasing use of the Panamera is for highway cruising.
The first Infiniti G35 comes closer to looking like a “4-door 911” than the Panameracarrerabeara, IMO.
I agree the Panamera isn’t THAT bad by modern standards – we live in an age of ugly cars. I’ve seen photos of the proposed Panamera Estate and it looks much better.
I had forgotten about the 4-door Bristol. Pity the front doors were so short – spoilt the proportions.
The Bristol looks a whole lot better.
The Panamera appears to be a 911 with a serious weight control problem. The rear of the car is awkward, to say the least; the proportions just don’t work.
This seems to be turning into a Panamera love or hate board. Well, I have to say that I hate it. It’s just such an unnecessary model for Porsche. What was wrong with a sporty sedan or “4 door coupe” like the Mercedes CLS? The shape looks like a squished insect.
I remember reading when it came out that it was designed with tall people in mind. Apparently that’s why it has the roofline it does. That’s fine for some people, but being 5’7”, anything “designed for tall people” is a major turnoff for me.
I still don’t particularly like it, bit I can think of uglier cars (BMW X6, for example).
But the general idea of a four door Porsche doesn’t bother me in principle; Porsche toyed with the idea in the past.
But I do hate what these cars have become, all too obviously.
I don’t think the X6 is Panamera ugly, I think it’s more conceptually stupid than physically ugly. Not that the X6 is attractive(it’s not any worse than any other recent BMW. Not saying much of course), but if one were to drape the Panamera body atop the Cayenne platform it would eclipse the X6 in the puke-o-meter.
It looked ugly in 2010 out and it still looks ugly in 2013. Flamed surfacing, creases and and multi-contours in newer cars certainly aren’t attractive, but what’s even more unattractive and common to all of them is what the Panamera has in spades — A big tall stubby butt
Whoa, whoa, whoa!!!!
The 2014 Porsche Panamera is one of the coolest cars on the road!!!!! I can’t wait to be able to get one!!!!!
There are plenty of Panameras in Vancouver, and they are regularly run to the limit in the twisites buy the Chinese housewives who drive them at top speed in Vancouver’s horrid traffic…
Really, Paul, I kind of warmed up to that picture, but in person the Panamera is a hideous abomination. Seems if you stick a Porsche badge on anything, no matter how ponderous and butt ugly it is, it will sell at absurd prices. The service is a hoot, too! One of clients paid $3200 to have the front and rear brake pads of her Cayenne replaced, which were toast at 20,000 km since the thing is as heavy as a Panther tank and has similar inertia in the drive-train when you try to stop it. The rotors were turned, not replaced for that amount. The pads were $600 an end. The rest was for labour, brake flush (on a two year old car) and 14% shop supplies fee. My buddy paid $7000 to do the clutch on his Boxter.
I can’t wait to get one!
Wow, I’m so out of touch with the latest fashion…US$3,300 for a four-wheel brake job, at 12,500 miles, no less. And 20 years after selling it, friends and family still ask if I’ll own another one, some day.
Here I sit, having recently done the same service (however, not the brake fluid flush…figure another what? $100?) for my Altima – premium pads, rotors turned – at 85,000 miles. A couple of hours in my garage with common, everyday (in other words, inexpensive) tools, a quick run in my beater truck to the auto parts store on my lunch hour, for the a grand total of around US$125.
How I hold my head up at the museum guild and chamber of commerce meetings is beyond me…at least I can afford the fancy shoes, with enough left over for a 401(k) contribution.
Experts claim Porsche needs to sell Panameras and Cayennes to subsidize their less profitable sports cars. It tarnishes the brand. Lack of focus on their core product will eventually kill them.
It becomes a question of when does Porsche just plain drop sports cars to focus on junk like this. They find success through tasteless overpaid status seekers and just become yet another faddy luxury sedan on the wall, abandoning everything that made them special in the first place.
Those “experts” need to shove their MBAs up their asses. Porsche hasn’t been a viable sports car maker for generations by selling a full model lineup outside of sports cars. They’ve lasted this long because they were always overpriced for maximum profit, kept that exclusive snob appeal by way of being overpriced and using a design no one would bother copying. They may be making some bucks with luxo-sedans and SUVs right now but once the rich and senseless wear out this once fabled marque and move on, Porsche will be no more.
I always thought Top Gear should’ve played up the Panamera’s hatchbackness by trying to load an old couch into one, and then leaving it in for the track run!
The Panamera is what all big four-door sedans should look like by now. When the 21st Century was The Future, I expected the 2013 Galaxie, Impala or Fury to look exactly this way.
That’s a 2013 Valiant parked next to it.
Good God, you’d have to eat your knees to get in and out of that Bristol.
When I first saw the Panamera my first thought was a little less exotic but just as unique