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Long story short, I am a long-time Porsche guy, but haven't owned one in a few years. I also traditionally have been a two-car guy - with one car being a weekend/fun car (E93 M3) and the other a utility car (SQ5 - I have two growing kids that are keeping us busy ferrying them around). While having the choice of driving two cars is a nice problem to have, I always felt that it was a compromise, for example with the top down, the M3 had little trunk space, so going to my son's baseball game on weekends was a no-go with that car.
As such, I decided to consolidate and try to find a jack-of-all trades car. I didn't want an SUV (my wife drives a big one) and I set my sights on sporty sedans. I narrowed my list to the RS7, M6 Grand Coupe and the Panamera GTS. After doing my diligence, I eliminated the Audi and BMW and thus started looking for the GTS with the options I wanted.
When I started looking at the pre-owned market, I found that I could get Turbos for virtually the same price as the GTS. I then went and test drove both cars back to back and I found that I wanted the set-up of the GTS with the engine of the Turbo. It turns out that this combination is very hard to find - a lot of Turbos are ordered without the Sport package and some of the other options that make the GTS such a nice driver's car.
Nonetheless, I was able to find the car at a dealer ~800 miles away from me and I road-tripped this week to complete my trade. My car has a long list of options, most notably Premium and Sports packages, PCCBs and Burmester. For the full list of options, see video below @ 2:25. I believe this to be the car I purchased - the options are exactly the same and my car came to my dealer from PCNA. Even if it is isn't the exact car, the options (and sticker) are the same.
Since I drove the car home for 800 miles, I had a great opportunity to spend a lot of highway time in the car. In short, the car is a monster! Some more detailed notes/impressions (in no specific order):
1. I averaged 24.9 MPG on a trip that was 99% highway.
2. ACC is an awesome option. I used it about 75% of the time and it makes long highway drives a lot easier. This is an option that I would definitely order again.
3. I'm frustrated that I cannot use Blueotooth audio from my iPhone when I have an iPod plugged into the USB port. This is just plain-old silly.
4. I could not tell if the Thermally Insulated Glass option was worth it. It was sunny the whole trip home and whenever I returned to my car, it was definitely warm on the inside (I would think just as warm as a normal car would be). The car was very quiet though on the highway. I'm not sure if this was the glass or just normal insulation.
5. The Carmine Red color is beautiful - it really pops on this car
6. Bluetooth/iPod issues aside, the Burmester stereo is very good. Is it the best I've had? I don't think so. I think that the B&O system in my F10 5-series was better. I especially liked that the F10 had an equalizer, which the Panamera does not. I haven't determined which, if any, of the Burmester sound effects I prefer.
7. The car still smells new (it had a build date of 6/13). The new Porsche smell is intoxicating!
8. The pedal responses on the default/comfort setting is a little tame, esp compared to the GTS. For highway driving, it was fine, but everywhere else, I needed the Sport setting
9. The Sport Design steering wheel is a very important option if you want to shift yourself from the steering wheel - during test drives of other cars, I couldn't get used to the back and forth rockers on the multi-function steering wheel.
10. The 18-way seats were very comfortable. I have also been in other cars where I wasn't able to feel the seat ventilation. I definitely felt it in this car.
11. I was originally concerned that I wouldn't be able to store as much stuff in my car as I did in the SUV. I was wrong - I found a place for all of my in-car necessities.
12. During highway driving, the sports exhaust is fairly quiet - I really couldn't tell the difference between having the button on or off. In slower speeds off the highway, it is a completely different story - I like the gurgles coming from the exhaust (sounds exactly like it was in the video above)
13. I was able to try launch control while test driving the car when I first arrived at the dealership. All I can say is WOW! Who needs Six Flags when you have launch control!
14. The car has both Lane Departure Warning and Lane Change Assist. They are both nice options that I would order again. However, I don't think either were must-haves. I found the visibility in the car just fine for lane changes. the back-up camera is very useful though.
15. I am still amazed at how much space the back seats have and how comfortable they are.
16. The PCCBs seem to provide lots of stopping power and I like how grabby they are. However, the normal brakes may be just as good as I don't have a good point of reference for this car.
In all, I am very happy with this purchase. I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but I will be sure to a 6-month checkpoint. Here are some exterior pics of the car:
It takes a while to decide which Burmester setting works best for you.
In my car, I seem to be able to Bluetooth from my phone when I have an iPod connected.
The PCCB are very cool if you don't plan to track your car. The rotors don't last long on the track...I've heard range of 6 to 8 track days. In normal on street use they last forever. Which is good because it's about $13k per axle to replace rotors and pads.
I've had the sport design wheel on previous cars and initially wished my panamera had it, but have changed my mind. The Panny just isn't a car I manually shift, so I've come to appreciate the added features of the multifunction wheel.
I was able to find the car at a dealer ~800 miles away from me and I road-tripped this week to complete my trade.
Lots of interesting things in your post.
I've considered doing a long-distance car purchase before, but was always a bit uncertain about the mechanics. For example, there's the issue of really wanting to see the car, particularly if it's used, though a CPO and relatively recent car helps in that regard.
It's good to hear actual real-world gas mileage.
I wish I'd ordered Adaptive Cruise Control on my car. I wasn't too clear on exactly how it worked until well after the car was built.
I've had the same experience you've had vis-a-vis normal driving mode vs. Sport or Sport+. I thought that was just the e-Hybrid though, since gas mileage is something Porsche emphasizes with that model, and hence I'm assuming that Porsche optimizes that mode for fuel efficiency, at the expense of fun. The EPA always tests the default mode, not Sport, so maybe there's something similar going on with the Turbo, surprising as that is.
Sport or Sport+ gives the kind of experience I expect from a 400+ HP car. e-Power doesn't, it feels distinctly sluggish. The throttle response is unremarkable, and the shifts way too early.
You'd think manual shifting would be a solution to the latter. I really thought I'd be using manual mode, automatic transmission or not, but I found that unworkable in the e-Hybrid. 1st unwinds way too fast, and the delay from a shift request is too long. I don't know if it's any different with a PDK.
The car stores an amazing amount of stuff with the seats down. I don't ever want to own a SUV, but I've picked up some very big items, and some very long items, and have yet had to resort to strapping down the rear hatch, as used to be common in my previous car. My wife often says "we need to use your car" because of the storage space.
It's a different story if you have rear seat passengers. The trunk is big enough for 2 people's stuff on a road trip if the seats are up, but very cramped for 4. It does work out fine for 3, since you can fold one seat down (or just put their luggage in the other seat).
I can't really see the point of Lane Departure, but I do really like Lane Change Assist. I'm not sure it's absolutely "must have," but I have not found the rear visibility good. At least once I've been surprised on the right in highway driving, and had LCA give me the extra warning that I need to check again. Visibility's better on the left. Ironically, LCA is also more effective on the left, because the light is in my peripheral vision.
I have the surround camera. The reverse camera is a big help in maneuvering a car that's really much longer than I find comfortable. I'm used to sports coupes. I've been in some very tight parking garages in New York and Boston, and it took all the tension out of doing a series of back-and-forths to get out of a spot.
Gus - I owned the Cayenne hybrid when it first came out and I hated the throttle response until I put it in Sports mode. It was only then that I found the throttle response and associated pick-up acceptable for a Porsche. However, keeping the car in Sport sort of defeated the purpose of the hybrid, so I didn't keep the car that long.
I compare our 'Comfort' mode with what VW should have done with their diesels - instead their cars all defaulted to sport mode, which did wonders for performance, but not so much for emissions or mpg.
However, keeping the car in Sport sort of defeated the purpose of the hybrid, so I didn't keep the car that long.
The way I deal with that is that I switch to the slow-but-efficient e-Power mode if I'm behind other cars. Throttle response doesn't matter so much if you're limited to the acceleration of the car in front of you. I switch back to Sport if the road is clear. Which makes me wish that the mode buttons were on the steering wheel, or could be selected via the shift lever, since reaching for them is slow and awkward.
Still, I know how you feel. There are times that I think I really should have just gotten a Turbo, like you did.
09-24-2015, 11:33 AM
New To Me PTT!
