The 2017 Porsche Panamera Turbo Is the Ultimate $150,000 Luxury Sedan

this is a 2017 Porsche Panamera Turbo and it's a full-size luxury sedan just like a mercedes-benz s-class or an Audi a8 or a Lexus LS or a cadillac CT xt whatever but there's one big difference between this car and all of those namely it isn't boring now I love the s-class and the LS but let's be honest there the cars you buy when you're old and you've worked your whole life and you feel like you've earned a nice big long car with wood everywhere and seats as comfortable as the $11,000 couch in your home with plastic on it so it's not destroyed by your perfectly manicured dog the size of a solo cup and that's fine but what if you want a big car that makes a statement but it's also sporty and exciting and thrilling rather than comfortable and relaxing sure there's the Audi s8 and the Mercedes s63 AMG but those are basically the cars I mentioned before just with larger engines the Panamera Turbo is the complete package and today I've borrowed this 2017 Panamera Turbo from Porsche of Warrington here in the Philadelphia suburbs to show you exactly what I mean I'll start with this the Panamera Turbo has a twin turbocharged v8 with 550 horsepower and 567 pound-feet of torque that's amazing but then again so is the Panamera Turbo S price tag this car starts at a hundred and forty eight thousand dollars before options and options are plentiful so today I'm going to show you around this thing and I'm gonna show you all of its unusual quirks and cool features that that kind of money buys you and then I'm gonna take it out on the road and see how this car drives and then I'm gonna give it a dug score and maybe by the end you'll agree this is the ultimate luxury sedan if you don't want one of those big boring comfortable ones now I'm gonna start back here with maybe the most important feature of the 2017 Panamera and that's the fact that it's been completely redesigned compared to the old one it has the same basic profile but it's been sharpened and modernized in a lot of ways which is good because there are a lot of complaints about the old Panamera especially in the rear-end design and I have to say this one looks a lot better to sharper taillights the entire things are smaller less bulbous less that's rounded and weird the new Panamera next to the old Panamera does look substantially better and substantially more modern and there's no easier place to see that than around back in the area with the hatchback the hatchback you might be wondering yes that's right even though the Panamera is referred to by everyone as a luxury sedan this is a hatchback pop open the back and it opens just like a hatchback this will surprise some people out there it's like Porsche has sneaked a stealth hatchback into the luxury sedan market and yes that means if you're in the back seat you can access the rear cargo area because there's no trunk back here it's a tailgate and it's open just like in a hatchback and unlike in every other luxury sedan and since Marty on the outside moving up to the front and the headlights one of my favorite features of the new Porsche model range are these daytime running lights they have they're not the regular LED light strip instead they're four LED dots these the daytime running lights when the headlights aren't on and they give Porsches a very distinctive signature look compared to other cars now when you want to turn on the headlights the headlights almost look even cooler when they're on and when they're in daytime running light mode you have one giant headlight in the middle surrounded by three smaller beams of light is backup it's like a hidden light strikeforce and no you can't turn on the headlights by just snapping your fingers but maybe even cooler are the Panamera's tail lights now the headlights are on right now so that turns on the tail lights and you have your typical red on this side and on the other side but the other cool thing is with this dim red light bar running across the back of the whole car now light bars are controversial some people love them some people hate them but I think it looks really good in this car I also love the fact that when you put on the turn signal in a Panamera the turn signal lights up on the outside of the lights in the corner of the car but it also lights up on the tailgate and when you open the tailgate it continues to blink as if it's gonna signal to the sky that you're making a left turn and then we must talk about the spoiler which is rather unusual now a lot of cars have spoilers that go up at a certain speed so that when the cars stop that has this flush look when the car is moving fast it can provide downforce if you're on the track or something like that and this car has that and you could also raise or lower the spoiler inside I'm going to show you that in a minute but the interesting thing about the spoiler and the Panamera Turbo is it doesn't just go up it goes up and folds out so the center part goes up and then the two panels on top of the spoiler fold out to make the spoiler as wide as possible when you retract it those panels go right back on top and then the thing slides back into the tailgate it's quite interesting now a lot has been made about this spoiler on the internet but it's worth noting the old Panamera had the exact same spoiler design if you got the GTS or the turbo nonetheless there it is pretty interesting next up I swim I climb inside the first time to talk about the Panamera's doors now one of the things that annoys me most about cars is that you can't really open the door and just leave it at the level where you want it when you open a door in a modern card sort of swings a little bit further or it retracts a little bit more because there's these little balls inside the door that determine only a few places where the door can open its really annoying especially if you're trying to open your door in a tight space it can hit whatever you're trying to avoid anyway the Panamera Turbo you don't have to worry about that you can open the door through exactly a position where you want and it'll stay and the cool thing about that is if you're opening the door on an incline it won't come back and try to hit you like most car doors will it stays exactly where you place it every door should be like this and yet very few of them are now I'm inside the car and I'm going to move on to the center air vent if you didn't think air vents could be interesting pay attention to this now the center air vent when the car is off is in its closed State and you'll notice there's no button or no lever to open it or adjust it that's because the center air vent in this car is controlled electronically in the touchscreen if you want the center air vent open you go into touchscreen and you open it but here's the crazy thing if you want the center air vent moved left or right you move it in the touchscreen and then the vent follows you as you move it if you want to move up or down same deal move it in the touchscreen and the vent goes after where you're moving it so you're moving this electronic screen and this mechanical vent is following behind it is one of the most bizarre modern features I've seen in a new car but I have to admit I think it's pretty cool so this climate control that is pretty crazy but I'm getting ahead of myself we'll get back to the center controls in a minute I'm gonna start over on the driver's side and that little sticker to the left of the steering wheel next to the air vent you'll see this sticker and a lot of portions you might be wondering what exactly is it well this car will do something like 180 miles an hour but this particular car because it's being sold in the north is equipped with all season tires and the tires are only rated for a hundred and fifty miles an hour now most European automakers get around this by just electronically limiting their cars to the top speed of the tires they put on them but Porsche doesn't do electronic limiting so instead their limit is a little decal over on the left you're not supposed to go above the speed written on the decal in this case it's 150 so the don't you like tronic limit to keep you from dying instead there's a little decal oh and by the way Porsche makes sure on the decal to print that it is made in Germany so you don't think there's some Chinese knockoff decal in your Panamera and next up when you get in this car you turn on you'll notice that it has five gauges in the gauge cluster but it's deceptive because four of the five are not gauges their screens over on the left you can adjust the screens and it displays all sorts of information and over on the right it's even cooler not only can you adjust the screens and get various levels of information but one of the adjustments is for the navigation system and when it appears it takes away two of the fake gauges and it just sticks in the map right there so you don't have to look all the way over the middle if you're trying to see where you're going you have the navigation system on it's a pretty cool idea the gauge in the middle is of course a traditional gauge the traditional tachometer just like all the other Porsches another interesting quirk about this car over by the steering wheel when you get inside there's no push button to start it like there is in every other luxury car now you can still keep the key in your pocket you don't have to insert it anywhere but instead of pushing a button you turn a little lever to the left of the steering wheel in order to turn the car on you don't push a button I have no idea why this is but it's the Porsche way now you may be wondering why that little lever to turn on the car is over on the left once because Porsche has always put their ignition on the left not on the rioter in the middle like most other cars and the reason for that is because it mimics old racecars all the race cars used to have their ignition in the middle or on the right but they found that it was faster if you would turn on the ignition with your left hand and put on this seatbelt with your right hand in one motion it could give you a little advantage at the start of the race and Porsche has been doing that in their road cars ever since next up we got to talk about the gear lever which is very different from the gear lever in most automatic transmission cars now in order to switch between gears you push a little button in the front of the gear lever like a trigger and then you can kind of pull it in between reverse and neutral and drive that is kind of cool if you want manual mode and move it over to the side when you're in Drive and you have manual mode and it's situated the proper way you want to downshift you push it up you want to up strict you push it down very few automakers do that but they all should now the most interesting thing about the gear lever if you're in Drive you've arrived at your destination you want to put the car in park just press the little P at the base of the shift lever and it goes into park that's pretty straightforward but here's the cool part if you're in manual mode and you want to put the car in park press the little P and then the gear lever slides back over and goes into park like it's being moved by some unseen Porsche gear lever ghost also interesting in the middle of the interior there are two cupholders as there should be as there are in most cars but the interesting part is that one is larger than the other so you can have one big drink and one normal size drink next up we move on to my favorite controls in this car starting with the climate controls now to change the temperature on the amount of air you're getting it's not just some cheap plastic switch or dial instead it's this gorgeous silver switch one for temperature and one for amount of air on both sides of the car you move it up or down it feels just so nice even to adjust the climate control but the climate control switch is pale in comparison to the dial in the middle of the center console that adjusts the stereo volume take a look at this thing it just feels so nice so upscale it's so wonderful to touch yes you can adjust the stereo volume on the steering wheel but why would you when you can touch this lovely dial in the middle and since I'm talking about the controls in the center of this car here's another cool thing about them when you turn the car off they're not there these aren't traditional buttons instead it's one big electronic panel and so when you turn the car off it's all just black only when you turn it on do the buttons reappear so that you can touch them and I say buttons because they're not actually capacitive touch like in a lot of cars where you just tap them and they're supposed to do what you want instead in this you have to push them down now the drawback is it takes a little more effort to actually push them if you want something to happen but the benefit is you actually do get feedback when you touch these things so that you know that you've touched them unlike in the cars where it's just a screen where you're not really sure is it doing it is it just lagging should I press it again I prefer this now one of the most interesting buttons in the middle here is the one that says individual press it and the little individual light comes on that is for the individual drive mode you can choose between sport and normal or you can make your own special drive mode catered to your own special whims next up keeping with that individual theme I'm gonna move away from the technology for a second and move on to the Sun Visor and the Sun Visor opens like you'd expect and there's a little mirror inside it with LED lighting so you'll have an unobstructed view if you want to look at yourself but the cool thing about the Sun Visor is it also has a little clip for papers or whatever you need to store up there of course there's a little clip and a Sun Visor that's because the Panamera is German and the Germans are always thinking of every practical solution for everything next I'm moving back to technology I got it spend a minute on the center touch screen now the new center touch screen and the new Panamera is excellent its massive and it is incredibly responsive to your touch it's one of the better screens I've seen in any modern car now the center touch screen in this car of course has all of the typical center touchscreen features like climate control the stereo the navigation system but there are a few things in this one worth highlighting for example on the satellite radio screen it has one of the coolest things instead of having to switch between different channels with the tuner and you go 41 42 43 you can type in the channel that you want so if you're on channel number one you want to go fifty-seven just type in 57 and you're there of course you can also set presets like a normal infotainment system now another cool thing about it is the spoiler now you use the screen to raise and lower the spoiler just like in the 918 spyder but the cool thing about this car is that when the spoiler is raised in back it's raised on the screen and when the spoiler is down in back it's down on the screen and maybe the coolest thing is when it's in between going up and down it does exactly on the screen what it's doing outside the car so you can see your spoiler going up or down and just by looking at the screen that's the perfect touch for the kind of people who love driving around with their spoiler up so everybody stares at them because now they can also see what their car looks like with the spoiler up next I'm moving on to the climate controls I already covered that Center climate vent now you turn it on and off and how you move it around but the rest of the climate screen is also pretty cool I say that because you can direct the air and where to go like you can in any normal car but in this one it doesn't just try on a little light telling you where the air is coming out it shows you where the air is coming out there's a little air coming out of the middle or if you put it on the feet there's a little air coming out of below the dashboard two other interesting things in the infotainment system number one the owner's manual is contained in the infotainment system it's actually pretty useful in here because there's an index and you can look stuff up a lot easier than if it were a paper book also interesting in the center touchscreen something I absolutely love you can move around where the sound is aimed at and it's not just like in your normal car where you can move it to front or back or right or left side and this thing it's like a little scope and you can put it exactly where you want it only you want the rear passenger side passenger to have the sound coming right on his knee well you can do that in this car of course the center touchscreen also controls an enormous amount of other car features virtually anything you can imagine from the lighting to the wipers to the seats anything configurable you can control in there including the direction of the seat heating in other words when you turn on your heated seat do you want more of it on your back on your butt on your legs you can control that in there and my car you just press the heated seat button and it comes on and it chooses where to put the heat one other interesting thing up here is that the clock doesn't keep the time when you turn off the car turn off lock it walk away in both hands go back up to 12 but when you approach the car when you unlock it they stamp her back to the correct time like toys in Toy Story trying to go back to being toys before the kid comes into the room as you can see I had to be very quick when I filmed this clip in order to catch this in action this is something that I suspect 99.9% of Panama owners don't know happens but now you know that next up this card gives you the opportunity to open the rear tailgate from the interior it's a button right here on the door that's not all that uncommon just push up the tailgate pops open what is uncommon is you could also close it from the in turn must carve because they're worried that there might be something stuck there that you can't see they won't let you do that but in this one you can but there is a catch you can't just push the button and it closes you have to hold the button down so if you stop want to get down it just closes halfway it's kind of an interesting phenomenon to observe especially if you're sitting the driver seat you're wondering why the tailgate hasn't closed because you already pressed the button next time moving into the back of the Panamera which is surprisingly spacious when the Panama first came out the directive was that a tall person had to be able to sit back here without any Headroom issues and I'm a pretty tall person and I can sit back here without any Headroom issues it's really no problem there are a couple of interesting things you in the back one of them is the cupholders the under this little lid and you look at me will notice they are basically the shallowest cupholders in existence I wouldn't put any drink in there and spill all over the leather in this car but push this little button and the cupholders suddenly become deeper so you can fit drinks in them that is pretty ingenious then again it's the Germans two other interesting things back here number one in fact there is one of those really cool silver switches like they have up front for the climate control on the stereo volume in this case it's to close and open the rear sunshade on the rear sunroof the Sun if itself doesn't open only the front one does another interesting thing the back the seats fold down this really is a hatchback I swear you can fold down the seats then you have this giant cargo area like in a wagon or a hatchback where you could put more stuff than a traditional sedan so those are all the interesting quarks and the cool features of the 2017 Panamera Turbo which are surprisingly plentiful for a Porsche now it's time to get this thing out on the road and see how it drives and remember to click the link below to go to autotrader.com slash oversteer for more of my thoughts on the Panamera Turbo and for a list of luxury sedans currently listed for sale on auto trader that are basically sports cars all right driving the Panamera Turbo this should be an exciting event here the thing about this car is oh wow it's really really fast that's the thing about this car of course I'm now sitting in a stoplight and it feels like the perfect luxury car I can't hear a thing road engine anything like that none of the other car is moving it's just perfectly silent it's so quick I don't even know what you do if you have one of these where do you go the materials feel great just looking around this car everything is just really well built well done it's typical portrait I mean everything is really really high-end high class nothing rattles shake squeaks like it shouldn't the car is just really and you know everything is bolted down this might be $150,000 car but if you start touching stuff and poke and stuff it also kind of feels like it is it's just so quick it's so quick it's hard not to just wanna also of course it feels very stable very planted on the ground that's the Porsche signature the German car signature but it just it feels so good I feel like I could throw this around corners a lot faster than a lot of other luxury sedans now one of the things I've always kind of disliked about the Panamera is its size and that's still the case if you live in a big city or something you're not gonna want this car this car is wider than my Range Rover longer than my Range Rover it's so big that it's it's just not that maneuverable or usable in tight spaces so like Manhattan and Philadelphia where I live Chicago places like that you don't want to be involved at this you wish that they made sort of a smaller one visibility seems to have improved it isn't quite as questionable as it was in the past it doesn't feel 911 nimble around corners yeah you don't feel the weight as much as you feel the physical size and a 911 it feels like the whole car is just like right there and you're kind of controlling the whole thing almost like you're a kid controlling it with like a matchbox from above in this car it sort of feels like you turn and there's there's a lot of other car around you turning it doesn't feel heavy but it feels big and this car is one of those few cars where you can actually sort of feel the distinction between the two because it's nimble I mean I can go around the corners much faster than I should it's just that I'm acutely aware that there's a lot of car around me you know what that said one of the things I've learned I've spent a lot of time in Panamera's and one of things I've learned is that you can get accustomed to it you can get used to the size and then not feel like it's really all that big and you can start to feel comfortable more comfortable throwing it around corners like a sports car but the steering is great it's lighter than a 911 there's no doubt about that it's still glued to the road at cetera you're never gonna get that heavy steering feel in a sports car in a sedan now I'm on a rough road and it's definitely a little harsher over these bumps there's no doubt compared to a s-class or something like that but this is the trail I mean it's really a question of what you want do you want you know a performance car in the corners are you do have the kind of commute where you can zip through some curves or you just want to sit there and waft a lot of buyers choose to loft and at this price point I understand that people who are buying this car are 70 years old sick when you can afford a hundred thousand dollar car and so they'd often don't want to in the end I think this car is exactly what I would expect if Porsche work to do a luxury sedan it's faster more exciting more fun more possible than a normal luxury sedan but it's also you know a little bit harsher and stuff like that like a 911 is harsher than a eClass it's well engineered but it's more of a performance car than a Mercedes or a BMW if that's what you want this is the car and it's worth the money and I wouldn't fault someone for buying an s-class over this I understand this is a little bit more frenetic but for those of us who still want a little performance with our luxury this is pretty good choice so that's the 2017 Porsche Panamera Turbo it combines a lot of the benefits of a luxury sedan with a lot of the things that car enthusiasts love about sports cars and now it's a lot more attractive than it used to be it's the ultimate luxury sedan or hatchback with the ultimate luxury sedan price tag and now it's time to give it a dug score starting with the weekend categories and styling the new Panamera is far better looking than the outgoing model yes but it's still not exactly beautiful it earns a 6 out of 10 acceleration is strong as portrait says it does 0 to 60 in 3.6 seconds earning in an 8 out of 10 handling is good especially if for a large sedan but it's not quite sports car good and it gets a 6 out of 10 as for cool factor it's certainly cool but most of us see Panamera is pretty commonly now so it doesn't have the head-turning factor it did a few years ago and it gets a 6 out of 10 as for importance the Panamera isn't an ultra rare sports car and even in turbo trim it's not ultra unique or museum worthy giving it a 5 out of 10 and a total weekend score of 31 out of 50 that's an average weekend score but it's respectable number for a sedan or hatchback under the daily categories starting with features the Panamera Turbo is totally loaded with stuff but it's still missing some obvious ones there's no self-driving feature like in mini rivals and it's completely beyond me why Porsche still doesn't offer a 360-degree top-down parking camera that knocks it down from the nine it deserves to an 8 out of 10 comfort is good but not in the level of the very best pillow-soft luxury cars which is probably by design and it earns a 7 out of 10 quality is tremendously high porsche reliability is notoriously strong and interior materials are truly excellent giving this car a 9 out of 10 falling short of a perfect score just because potential repairs will be pricey down the line practicality is impressive given the Panamera's hatchback status it has up to 52 cubic feet of cargo space which is amazing and worthy of an 8 out of 10 but only four seats and poor fuel economy knocked that number down to a seven out of ten finally there's value and I know it's hard to say 150 thousand dollar luxury sedan is a good value but when it's a luxury sedan and a hatchback and a sports car you're not gonna convince me that number should be less than a seven out of ten add it up and the total daily score is thirty eight out of 50 tieing the Panamera for first place and I suspect a slightly more affordable Panamera model like the 4s would be squarely in first add it all up and the total dug score is 69 out of 100 which is near the top and it deserves it the Panamera Turbo can really do it all click below for a Google Doc with the dug scores through the prior video [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 2,157,184

Rating: 4.8427358 out of 5

Keywords: porsche panamera, panamera turbo, panamera, porsche, porsche sedan, porsche panamera turbo, porsche turbo, luxury sedan, sport sedan, doug demuro, demuro

Id: Wlk5OB9tYs0

Length: 22min 55sec (1375 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 24 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/3MATX]

Have to correct you Doug. The reason that Porsche puts the key on the left is so that you can turn the car on while putting it in gear. The seatbelt was an afterthought for early racers. In fact the last year that Le Mans allowed the traditional run up start there was a driver who in protest walked calmly over to his car, got in, put his safety belt on, and then went on to win the race. That same year there was a fatality in the opening lap from a car that crashed and didn't have the safety belt fastened.

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/features/opinion/tim-pollard/le-mans-24-hour-race-2010-the-car-live-blog/

[u/hybridfantIII]

I wonder if Doug reviewed the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo (whew), will that long-named car break the DougScore?

[u/meathole]

Watching the spoiler open and close automatically while he's driving it is really cool. Also makes me wonder how reliable that mechanism is going to be if it's constantly opening and closing depending on your speed.

[u/EricRodriguezJ]

I've never really liked the Panamera, but I gotta give it to Porsche for making it look slighly less like a whale on wheels.

[u/rogersmj]

"You sort of wish they made a smaller one."

Well damn, Doug, now I wish for yet another car that doesn't exist...a 3-series sized Porsche.

I do kind of wonder why they don't make one. They could probably build something that could keep the Porsche brand high-brow by competing only with, say, the 340i M-Sport and M3 classes. I want a Porsche, but I can't have a two-door (kids), can't afford a Panamera, and don't want an SUV. If they made a baby Panamera I would be all over that.

[u/SANDEMAN]

Isn't that technically a liftback instead of a hatchback?

[u/MogwaiInjustice]

Finally a luxury sedan hatch performance car... like a RS7?

[u/Trevski]

So it got beat in the weekend categories by the Bentayga? Surprising.

[u/sol-ip-sis-tik]

Well, duh. They're pretty amazing. The sedan version of the Turbo S, in a sense.