Folks,
I'm the proud owner of a new to me 2012 Turbo S with 33K miles.
Original MSRP was a staggering 199K$. The car is black on black with CF trim, stealthy combo.
I drove it home across 3 states on Saturday and had a blast !
This is the third active Porsche to my stable and based on prior experience I have following questions :
- While this obviously a fast car, I does not feel in the same league as my modded 911 Turbo. Adding a flash and turbos/intercoolers to the latter changed the car. What are the quick wins with a Turbo S ? Do mind, I do not want to change the fine characteristics (or acceptable mileage) since this wil be my commuter to the office.
- The sport exhaust is kind of tame. Any quick fixes for that ?

Thanks ! Attached some pics

 

For tame exhaust, I think you can replace the secondary cats with pipes. There are vendors who make sets that will ensure CEL does not come on. Contemplated similar. Have sport exhaust too. Sounds ok but I expected more growl for this price, especially comparing to Maserati GranTurismo with its Ferrari engine sound (that sounds just pure awesome - look it up if you get a chance).

 

here is a sample...

 

Yup, nice. I just moved back to the US from Tokyo where I had a Panamera in my street which made a similar sound. It seems to be possible....

 

 

Thank you Paul, those are some really good pointers.
This week I've been swapping between my 2 turbos for my daily commute and it's really a world of difference. The 911 feels like a go cart on steroids while the Panamera feels like a 5,000lbs couch with rockets strapped to it. You may be right that it is deceptively fast. Needs a kick though to pull around all that weight. I really wonder why people get so excited about those GTS's, can't imagine going back to a normally aspirated car anymore.
My wife is currently out of town, but i will ask het to drive it around once she's back so i can assess the exhaust note from the curb. Hope you are right, that would be the best of both worlds.

 

What kind of power is your 996 putting down? I have a 996 as well running around 600 HP! I’ve been considering buying a Panamera just like yours. I think the PDK really makes it deceptively fast. If I get a Panamera I’m doing exhaust and tune for sure! My previous daily was a Cayenne Turbo S with Techart exhaust and tune and it sounded incredible! I’m on the fence right now between a new charger hellcat or a used Panny Turbo S! Tough decisions I have to make! Lol!

 

I haven't dynoed it but would guess somewhere between 550 and 600.
If given a choice between a Hellcat and Pana I personally would choose the latter any day. These are 200K$ cars you can now pick up for around 60K, often garage queens. As Paul points out above, the trick seems to be in flooring it to get it going. This is really tough for me since I have track raced motorcycles since 2000 and I have issues putting my confidence in electronics. Similarly, I always feather my throttle on my 996TT so I can control the boost when all of a sudden it comes up. Different way of driving for sure....

 

My Cayenne was the same way! If you want it to go fast put it to the floor hard! Big difference between rolling into it smoothly! Yeah I’m leaning toward a Panamera but those Hellcats look obnoxiously fun!

 

man I miss the track, sold my last track bike (Aprilia RS250 Cup Bike) 8 years ago

Get my two wheel fix on a GasGas Trials bike these days

 

I think between the Hellcat/Demon and the Panamera its a very odd comparison. That said I was in a similar place a couple years ago. Its odd, because they really aren't cars that are comparable in any way, but as a car enthusiast, who changes cars a lot, I'd like the experience of a manual 750hp muscle car too! I ended up in a 2014 Jeep SRT and an Audi RS7 prior to the Panamera Turbo S, and all three times considered a hellcat.

Key questions:
1) How often do you plan to drive it?
2) Do you plan to race and increase hp with modifications.
3) Do you live somewhere with lots of rain, ice and snow?
4) Is it you're only car?

After driving AWD performance cars, its really really hard to go back to high horsepower RWD platforms. I had 2 Trans AMs, a corvette, an SRT Magnum, and a 392 SRT 300. Finally I had a 201 CTSV coupe for 3 years. I went years driving these cars through Nebraska/Iowa winters. Eventually I got smart, and spent the money for Blizzaks. Real snow tires, not all-season is a whole other world and actually do quite well for these cars; however, you are still stuck trying to put down the power with such high HP/TQ RWD cars. AWD solves both problems.

Since I want an all-in-one car, its hard for that car to be a super high HP RWD only car. I don't want a summer and winter car, and I don't want a car that has to sit in a garage half of the year. If I'm forking over such a large % of my income, and frankly I overspend what I should relative to my yearly income because I love cars, I want the driving experience every day. I can be having, or have had, the worst day at work, a crappy workout, or maybe my back is bothering me, and stepping into a nice car puts a smile on my face every time. There is something special about a Porsche, that despite not always being the fastest benchmark in every test, that other car makes simply do not have. Its a fact. Having owned one a short while, I can already feel it. I won second place in a car show, just simply for showing up and washing it , in less than a month of ownership! The Porsche Panamera especially in Turbo S, but really in all configurations, is a less common, more unique car than any hellcat. Some people hate how the Panamera looks, but frankly I've never had anything but positive comments, I only read negative things in magazine and youtube reviews.....

I'm not taking away anything from the current HP wars and muscle cars going on right now. I LOVE it. The hellcat, the demon, the widebody hellcat, and now some other kind of demon/hellcat hybrid coming out soon, is the epitome of muscle cars straight from the factory. If you want to race at a drag strip, do burn outs, hear a crazy good exhaust note, break the tires loose at 80 mph, and beat up on Bovarian super sedans, its certainly one of the best, if not the best cars to use! If you want to mod to crazy hp levels, and not break the bank, when the car breaks, its the choice to go to. Tons of potential there.

But...I don't always want that in your face, tire burning, road scraping, rough riding, loud driving experience on the way to work. I also like quiet and refinement when I take a 500 mile trip. I like having the 26 gallon tank in the Panny which means I can go a looooooong way before stopping for gas. Sometimes on the way to a meeting, I want the car quiet for a phone call. Sometimes I want a car that can sit at 80MPH at 1200RPM, just smoothly purring along, just knowing that with the flick of a couple buttons, I have a Nurburgring tearing monster available, with the bonus that I have no fear of going sideways drifting into a ditch.

If I had more space at home, and an unlimited budget, I'd have a Trackhawk for bad weather sitting on aggressive all-seasons or winter tires, and a 2 seater sports car, like an F-type R, 911, R8, or GTR. I don't have that option so I need something that can do both. Similarly I don't want to drive a crappy 1/2 pickup all winter with my baby in the garage. Sometimes I NEED to drive the nice car. What's the point of having that dream car, if its just sitting in a damn garage for 5-6 months per year? Well that's where I'm at. The hellcat can't quite fit all of those experiences into 1. It does a couple things perfectly, but falls way short on some of the others. 90% of the time I'm not driving like an animal, which means everything the Hellcat does best, is used the least. 90% of the time I'm wanting spirited driving, with comfort, quiet refinement, planted suspension, and the ability to use its assets on the crappy roads we drive on everyday, as well as the ability to drive through the worse weather without anxiety. The Panamera Turbo S, like other AWD performance sedans is able to do that much better than any RWD car.

What specifically the Panamera does better than say the Audi RS7, is provide a much more balanced overall driving experience. The RS7 is/was a super fun fantastic car. I really didn't have any real complaints about it other than maybe the in town mpg lol! Its a thirsty ***** in town! The power is crazy. The transmission is fantastic. Its great looking, and has a comfortable nice interior. What the RS7 does lack is the ability to really use all of that power, in that it always sort of feels on the verge of loosing control. The faster you go, and the faster you corner, drive on rough roads, and merge into traffic in spirited driving situations, the more you feel as if you're holding the car back because it just can't quite contain the monster.
There is obviously a fun factor with that, and with the crazy popping loud sport exhaust, it lets everyone else know too!

What the Panamera Turbo S instantly told me, what it was more planted, balanced, and utilized its power better. I would have no problem driving an RS7 again, but I also really wanted to drive a 970 for a while, and had been watching those prices as well through the purchase of the Jeep and the Audi. I just didn't find the right one. I ended up getting a great deal on the Audi RS7, and only lost $2000 in a year between what I paid and the trade in....so it was the right time on the right Panamera Turbo S. As you know with Porsche, there are so many damn options it becomes a long search to find THE car with everything you want as well. I wanted carbon, carbon wheel, Burmester, ACC, and all the S trim suspension stuff that is all extra on the base turbo. You just have to have all those active handling features, its what truly separates the Panamera from other sedans. I found one, under 40k miles with full service records, all recalls performed, in near mint condition inside and out.

With the PTTS You basically take everything that is the Audi, make it more of a sports car, make it quieter and more refined on the inside, match it to a perfectly tuned suspension. I'm not knocking the RS7, its probably a couple hairs faster on a drag strip and butt dyno; however, it much easier to drive the Porsche more aggressive shall we say and not feel like the car is getting loose under you. The RS7 might be quicker, the PTTS is going to be faster, go longer, drive tighter, and drive more planted all the while being more comfortable doing so. There we a couple of reviews that stated the RS7 was quieter on the inside and that's hogwash. Its not loud by any means, but there is at least 2x the wind noise, and the car is not as tight feeling over rough roads which transfers more sloppy feel and sound into the cabin. The RS7 has more exhaust drone, and tire road noise just through the roar of the wheel wells. The Porsche is slightly stiffer in is softest setting so small bumps might be a bit louder, but overall the PTTS is much more of a cocoon on the inside, if you care about such a thing.

Anyway, you can't go wrong with Porsche. You certainly have to pay a premium for it, but the total experience is simply not offered by other makes in the same way.

 

I like your logic Paul

 

Yves, Guys, where do you find these garage queens?? Im aware they can be quite expensive to repair out of CPO. Yves the one you found had no issues?

 

I searched for 2 years to find the right Panamera. I don't think its worth getting a CPO honestly. The dealer really isn't obligated to do anything for CPO, and I've heard more horror stories of supposed CPO cars that turn out to not really be factory CPO. For sure, 100% contact Porsche and make sure its actually registered as such. The car should go through and actual process, and make sure there was never a tune etc, and get it in writing. I know of two people who bought CPO Audi. In one case, Audi USA didn't have and record of the CPO process, then denied the claim. In another instance, an Audi went in for CPO warranty repair, and the VIN was flagged for a tune which meant the car couldn't be CPO'd in the first place, and the claim denied. I bought a certified SRT car, that needed the oil changed 3 days after I bought it. I was furious. If they didn't even change the damn oil, what else on that 123 point inspection did they skip. CPO should have all new fluids, all service maintenance records updated, and without those records they should perform ALL services to prove they have been done on schedule!!!!!!

Anyway, I've had ok luck with reputable aftermarket warranty companies. Many of these like Safe-Guard and Fidelity are the very same company that back factor CPO programs. You want to get the exclusionary plans only which means they don't list what is covered, they list what isn't and anything NOT on that list IS covered. Major important difference there in coverage especially when it comes to negotiating what really went wrong with your car. I suggest just forking over the $3000-4000 for the warranty, half the time I use it up with one repair, the other half of the time I sell the car and get half of what I paid prorated back into my pocket. I just like it for the peace of mind.

You really have to search for well taken car of cars, and be prepared to walk away. If the paint is sub par, most likely the owner didn't take care of the car in other ways..... You want a Porsche that has had all required maintenance and has records of all of it. If you don't I would ask the dealer to provide those updates. Brake service, spark plugs whatever it is. Negotiate paying for some of it and not paying for others, but I would make sure it is done. I'd question the purchase of a $200,000 car that had 3 or 4 owners and no maintenance records. I wasn't settled on a 1 owner car, but even with the good deal I found, I paid a little more for a super clean 1 owner car, that had service records. This also will help your resale value later. I also wanted a car that wasn't starting off with a bunch of imperfections that would drive me nuts. The downside of this is, every new ding, was on your watch!

Its always a crap shoot. Porsche is on the higher end of reliability, but when things go wrong they are very expensive to fix. On the plus side, typical maintenance is actually cheaper than most other premium brands, and the intervals longer. Certainly you don't want to blow up the PDK or the motor, but from what I can tell its exceedingly rare, even with tuned cars. I actually want a warranty, and purchased one for the annoying things, like say the Burmester speakers blow, the air ride systems goes nuts, simple things that will totally screw up the dynamics of the car, could become difficult and costly to track down, and have a tendency to fail a lot more that motors and transmissions.

I had the hardrive of the radio in my CTSV coupe blow up. They could even source a part for it, and it would be $1200 when they got a part in. The entire infotainment system as well as the climate control were completely dead. All the lights in the center console were out and I was dead in the water. After a couple weeks I tried buying refurbished parts, and the dealer couldn't figure out how to program it without it being new.....sure....then I sent another rebuilt drive to another source who said this one would work.....and another dealer couldn't program that one either. So after about 6 weeks, I said screw it and traded the car. That is some annoying **** to deal with on a $50,000 car, no radio and no AC in the dead of summer. Other than a supercharger recall, the car was bulletproof for 3 years. Sometimes **** happens.

I would say don't be house poor and Porsche poor at the same time. I have a cheap house, and an expensive car - just the way I like it.

 

Got my 2014 4S from a real Porsche dealer (Porsche of West Broward) with CPO at 25k miles 1 year ago. Btw they were a pleasure to deal with. They put new pads and tires on it as part of the CPO. So far its been everything they say about Porsche. I drove a GTS and that V8 is the real deal. Guess my progression is to the Turbo so Im looking.