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However I heard good things about the night vision saving a couple of people around here - we have a lot of deer in Eastern PA. And I do want the adaptive cruise. The cost for those two are very close to the price for the whole assist package. The dealer did say that some people do not like the LKA steering input but I figure I can turn it off. So that was my rationale on that package.
Okay I guess maybe the Night Vision makes sense for you with the deer problem. I do have the ACC and for the most part I really like it. I did have a really scary experience with it one time. I was traveling around 80 mph on the Interstate 5 Freeway in the middle of nowhere. I saw a large piece of metal (probably aluminum foil) flapping along toward me and suddenly the ACC slammed on the brakes hard thinking it was about to hit something. There was a car behind me and fortunately he was far enough back that he was able to switch lanes quickly and avoid rear ending my car. Needless to say he was pretty upset and gave me the horn and universal salute as he sped by me on the right. Since then I've also had a few issues when I'm approaching a car from behind and then decide to move left to pass them. If I am reaching the ACC limit range as I'm moving into the faster lane the ACC actually takes over and slows me down just when I really wanted to accelerate as it is picking up my acceleration while the car in front is getting too close. Once you realize these things can happen you don't wait too long to change lanes for passing.
My guess is you will wind up turning off the Innodrive and LKA most if not all of the time.
I don't have any trouble with LKA, it's easy enough to work around when you figure it out and has real benefits. Innodrive on the other hand is a loser in my opinion, it's awful at negotiating speed changes and about .00001 percent of owners will actually use the turning function. Skip that one unless you hate yourself. As far as ACC goes the emergency braking has been hinky on the cars I've owned because they all honor every potential threat. After a while you get used to knowing when the braking will be triggered improperly and drive around it. As to coming up on cars you can simply press on the gas to keep it from slowing. You have to do this in a number of situations, I think maybe the most common is when a driver in front of you is going to make a right turn off the road onto a road running perpendicular. In many cases you wouldn't slow for this car yourself because you can see it will be well clear before you get to where paint is going to be swapped. The ACC doesn't make that differentiation and will invariably slow you down when it isn't needed. You really have to learn how to drive ACC, it's more of a thinking game than standard cruise but (again) IMO the benefits outweigh the problems.
My original order for a Sport Turismo had RWS on the build sheet but when delivery kept being postponed and I bought a pre-ordered regular (non-ST) 4 e-Hybrid instead, it did not have RWS. I have driven a friend’s 4 e-Hybrid ST with RWS and I felt it noticeably reduces the somewhat rear-heavy feel of the car, which is not there in the diesel non-hybrid Panameras I have driven (dealer loan cars). Given the 2-300kg weight of the battery pack all behind the rear axle, this should come as no surprise. When in France, I live in a mountain village, both of whose access roads have multiple hairpin bends. That is where I feel I would derive maximum benefit from the RWS.
I doubt that the 7.2 charger adds any resale value. I opted not to get it, and from empty it takes me about 12 hours to charge at 120 volts in my garage, which is absolutely fine for me (overnight charging). There's the odd time when I wished that I could charge a little faster, but I don't regret not paying extra for the 7.2 charger.
I got the Assistance Package because I have to have ACC and I really wanted the infrared night-vision camera. The camera helps a lot in city driving at night with pedestrians, bicyclists, and animals that I can't see until I'm almost upon them (if at all sometimes); the infrared camera picks up people and animals well, and I think that should be a standard feature in cars now for the safety value. But Porsche has the camera mounted way too low; it should be mounted up on the top of the windshield behind the mirror for better visibility.
I never use Innodrive or LKA, but I use LCA and ACC all the time, and they have certainly kept me out of a few accidents.
My two cents' worth. We have RWS and like it. We live in a fairly dense urban area, and the Panamera is a big car, so nimbleness is welcome. The ACC is similar to what I've had on other cars, and you get used to its quirks. We have not used Innodrive very much, but it is great on twisting mountain roads, because it maintains an appropriate speed without drastic down-shifting or up-shifting. I really think Innodrive works smoothly and effectively in that environment. But on normal highways I don't ever bother with it. LKA is a useful safety feature, and I generally keep it engaged for highway driving. If nothing else it would keep you from falling asleep and drifting. The night vision feature is also a useful safety feature in either urban or rural driving.
On a couple of the features you mentioned I don't have a strong opinion. We did not get the faster charging feature, and we don't miss it. We usually charge overnight and rarely during the daytime,so there have been only a couple of times I would have preferred faster charging. We did get the supposedly quieter glass, and indeed the car is quiet and serene in highway cruising; however, I don't know how much of that to credit to the glass in particular.
We did get the supposedly quieter glass, and indeed the car is quiet and serene in highway cruising; however, I don't know how much of that to credit to the glass in particular.
I did not get the "quieter glass", and have no regrets, as the car is very quiet and serene at all speeds. You really notice how quiet it is if you roll down your windows at highway speeds in heavy traffic, to hear how much noise there is made by the other vehicles (and I mean cars, not trucks) on the road at 50 or 60 mph. I suspect that the "quieter glass" is a gimmick employed by Porsche to fleece buyers of even more money.
I've read several reports from owners who've had both on the same car saying the glass does work as advertised although I've never seen anyone show results from a db meter. However that may be this is a very quiet car outside of tire roar on some surfaces and I wouldn't personally consider the glass. Forgot to mention, the RWS does work as advertised and a boat like this can use the help in tight lots. In my mind it's worth getting for cars that spend time in the city, not sure I'd say the say the same for those spending their time in rural areas where parking lots are bigger and less crowded. Driving one back to back with and without RWS I could hardly notice the difference out on the freeway other than it feels a little faster when you go to change lanes, just starts going sooner, hard to describe but at least for this driver it was certainly subtle.
I truly appreciate all of your experiences so far. It seems to me that most of these options are “nice to haves”. Given that the price of the assist package is less than the ACC + night vision, I’ll stick with that. The RAS seems to be liked by those who have it and not missed by those who don’t, so I’m leaning toward keeping it. The insulated glass remains a question mark to me however...
For all of you reading along with this thread, here’s a little toy I picked up this week.
In mid-June, I was on a pace to go 2200 miles on a single tank of gas, after about 350 miles of driving (in which span I had only used about 3 gallons of gas/petrol) -- about 2.4 liters/100 km average over that span.
Before I purchased my eHybrid, I looked high and low for concrete numbers like these. Took the plunge anyways and am happy I did.
To be honest, I don't find the V6 eHybrid likes to be wrung out. I tried dedicating one tank of fuel to the occasional romp but it just doesn't beckon like my AMG E63S did. Either way, I don't mind.
Can somebody provide me with the part number found on a 2017+ Panamera eHybrid Universal Charger?
I ordered a NEMA 14-50 cable for my universal charger (via VIN lookup) and the charger side of the cable is not compatible with my unit. I bought my car from a Mercedes dealership and it appears that my universal charger is from a 2015-2018 Cayenne eHybrid.
07-29-2019, 08:01 PM
