Bigwave

Carrara nice rendering. As for the top staying canvas I prefer a painted or better yet but not likely a carbon fiber top. The canvas always gets crease marks and rub burns if you use them a lot. I have 73k on a 06S Cab and the car looks new if you don't look at the top. Top looks every bit of its 6 years.

Alan Smithee

I was convinced a while back (when the patent drawings surfaced years ago) that it would be a hard top, but now I'm not so sure...that rear window looks relatively finished, yet it is small and strangely shaped for a folding hard top.

Alan Smithee

I can't remember where I read a recent interview with a Porsche executive, but he implied that it would be directly competing with the Bentley Continental GT, also a VW product. Based on price, the Porsche would seem to come in a bit lower. However, it may be too close in terms of performance and market demographic.

That said, Porsche has some very lofty sales goals, so it would seem like a no-brainer to offer a new model on the existing platform.

draxa

I was in my local dealer last week (clutch-switch needed adjusting) chatting to the guy who sold me my cars; he told me Cayennes - so ugly they make me want to giggle in terror - were galloping out of the shop despite the economy.

Like aforementioned Cayenne, the Panamera is a terrific car if you close your eyes until you are actually behind the wheel. My impression of the very sexy 2-door Panamera, therefore, would be that it would gobble up BMW6 and MercCLS buyers in the same way that Cayennes are gorging on X5 and RRovers.

(Not that I'd buy one, though.)

dasams

ok - Lets agree you are not familiar with the concept of 'form follows function'. dave

Carrara

That's true. When the new Cayenne came out (this is a few months afterwards), I went to one dealer to go see one, and they were all sold out. Then I went to another dealer, and there was only one Cayenne. Now thinking about it, I went to a dealer two weeks ago to see a GT2 RS, and there wasn't one Cayenne there.