Porsche
have brought in the second generation Panamera, increasing the blow from an
uppercut to a knockout.
You
know those bags which feel like magic? The ones which swallow everything you
have to put in, and still feel like a small handbag when you have to take it
around? That’s what this is. It’s over five metres long, nearly two metres wide
and weighs a smudge under two tonnes, before I get into it, that is; and it
behaves like any good sports car would on the move. It doesn’t feel as large,
the steering is perfectly weighted and it can corner just as well. Of course, factor
in that you have two more seats and two more doors and you begin to realize how
good a car it really is!
On throttle,
there’s effortless strength beneath you with all that torque at your disposal,
and it’s so smooth you’d have no clue it’s a diesel
It’s
been around for a while now, the Panamera, and even though purists spoke of heresy
and condemned the four-door, it stayed. Many had conflicting views on its
appearance too, but when the engine got to work and the cylinders spoke, the
critics were silenced. Yes, it’s a Porsche. Yes, it has four doors and four
seats, and it commands a price tag which, strangely enough, almost seems to
justify itself, with many manufacturers offering standard luxury sedans, if we
could have the liberty to call them that, with price tags much higher than what
the Panamera demands. So what’s the big deal then? What’s really new?
Sport-luxury
theme is just as evident on the inside with black, beige and metal around
For
starters, the second-gen model gains about two inches length-wise, while the proportions
remain the same elsewhere. Stand beside it in the parking lot and it goes on
and on, like one of those reports which says ‘page 1 of 2’; you keep walking alongside,
continuing to take more in. The design has changed ever subtly: the headlamp
clusters are smoother and now feature bi-xenon headlamps as standard, with
adaptive full LED headlamps – the ones you see here – offered as an option, complete
with the dipped and main beam units encircled by LED daytime running lights.
The central lower air dam also features revised slats. At the rear, meanwhile,
the tail-lamp cluster is completely redesigned, with two long strips of red
adorned by a new turn indicator strip below. The reverse light too, is small,
but rather powerful.
Even when
cornering at eye-watering speeds, you can always tell what time it is
Step
inside, and the most obvious change is the all-new steering wheel. The three-spoke
unit is devoid of any distractions and buttons, and lets you grip it as you
like it and focus on the job of directing the whole driving scene, without having
to worry about your favourite track being skipped by an accidental nudge on an
audio-control button. Another change is the addition of paddle-shifters behind
the steering wheel, handing control of the eight ratios over to you. A slight bother,
since I have to pick on something, is the horn. In India, it is one of the most
used features on any journey, short or long, and in the Panamera, I found
myself having to relocate my entire palm to toot my own horn. That aside, the
cabin experience is sublime.
