I was invited to a preview of the Panamera Turbo at the Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta.

OVERALL TAKEAWAYS

1) Absolutely Gorgeous Car. Best looking sedan on the market by a long margin. My guess is both the 2018 E63 and the 2019 M5/M6 will look totally pedestrian next to this thing. The proportions and stance are excellent. The lines and shape is really stunning. The styling seems to draw more from the Porsche E-mission than the old Panamera - which is high praise.

2) The interior is really fantastic. Screen placement, buttons, controls, and the way everything is illuminated is ultra-modern. It really feels like a step into the future of automotive interiors. The detailing is also superb. If you look at the doors you will see an inlaid silver pattern which continues the line of the door handle to make it look like one shape. The way the cup holder opens and closes is very nice. There are lots of nice small storage spaces. The leather is also exceptional.

3) The digital displays seem like they must be OLED. The blacks are jet black, which make the digital gauges look very real and super bright. It's not like the S-Class displays - these displays are exceptionally sharp, bright and high contrast.

4)Technology gap to BMW is almost closed. I don't see many tech gaps vs BMW - surround view, concierge button, telematics, Apps, Apple CarPlay, large nav screen, Google Earth. This car has it all - well everything except HUD. Also I received a hint that the Panamera may receive a HUD in the not too distant future (probably more than I should say).

5) They are considering a bench seat. Porsche understands that some people need 3 real seats, and they are experimenting with a bench seat. Sounds like early development stage and they need to get it right before releasing so I don't know when, or if this will only be for the shooting brake, but I got the impression bench seat is a matter of when not if.

6) The car will have a very short-run as a 2017 and then a 2018 will launch quicker than you might expect.

7) Porsche seems more customer centric than ever. I had a long chat with the product manager and was particularly impressed with how they seemed to act on product design feedback from customers. I go to a lot of these launch events, and the Porsche guys seemed much more attuned to customer needs/wants than BMW or Mercedes.

OVERALL: They knocked the ball out of the park with this one. Can't wait to see what they do with the next 911.

PICTURES











My Porsche outside the Porsche Experience Center

 

Nice photos and nice turbo S! Interior illumination, feature access and material quality is important - at least to me. I like the mute button on the steering wheel. Still not a fan of that center console. The verdict is out until I can view a car in person.