ajriches01

There was a lot of stop start but economy is never going to get to 40+mpg on the motorway. Average speed was not unreasonable but not saying anything more than that!!

Yoeris - I have blinds and privacy. Privacy looks awesome and blinds is great for the baby.

YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT BOSE. End of story. It's no Burmester (which is stunning) but it's very good. Very surprised DAB not standard - pretty outrageous in this era!!

4 wheel steering in my opinion is really not needed. The car turns like a London taxi anyway (it's very surprising!!), and is very planted on the motorway. Unless you are going to track the car (haha), I'd personally save the cash. We couldn't get the Sports Exhaust but this is something I may treat myself to in the next 12 months. It does sound great anyway but I miss the burble on the down shift.

Get the Adaptive CC, on any road with other traffic it just takes the stress away. In a traffic jam? No problem, a simple tap of the accelerator and the car will trail the one in front.

3 suggestions from me (apologies if I missed these): 1. Massage seats are a dream, they are very effective and really make it feel special. Bargain price. 2. Love the Porsche crests on the head rests. 3. Alcantara roof a must. I also think the entertainment is amazing but probably a luxury...

thorfun

does the BOSE system reduce the boot size at all? if not, do you know where they've hidden the subwoofer?

I have a sneaky suspicion that maybe it's in one of the side wells under a wheel arch. if that's the case I'm even more annoyed with Porsche as I could've had the Bose system and still have the same boot capacity I have now!! it might also mean that they've blocked off the side arch where the sub would go but there's nothing behind it which might mean that, if I shout loud enough, they can remove the covering and make it like the diesel.

ajriches01

Not that I know of, pic of your boot looks same as mine. Start knocking on panels!

thorfun

with a hammer or something a bit gentler?

ISUK

The Bose subwoofer sits under the rear floor in the trunk in the non hybrid cars.

Yoeris

Thanks for suggestions!
Privacy and shades it will be!

Good to hear that the Bose will not affect boot size.
Friday I will have a test drive at the dealer, I hope that the testdrive has Bose and NON-fourwheel steering. If both music performance and steering response are satisfactory then I can think about leaving Burmester and 4wheel steering alone

However, making the car even more agile seems like a no-brainer?

And I am really rarely on the motorway or in traffic jams, maybe only two times a month. I think that adaptive CC would be a waste of money then?

Also thought about the massaging seats, but most of the time I am maximum driving for 30 minutes for work, and when spirited driving in the weekend I won't use it? Rather jump in the jacuzzi when coming home

Alcantara roof is surely very nice, but also a real luxury with a reasonable price tag, then I would rather spend this in 4wheel steering or even Burmester wouldn't you?

thorfun

yep. but in the hybrid that's where the batteries are stored. so no space for much else as far as I'm aware!

SaratogaLefty

Hopefully nothing serious!! I'm wondering if there is a particular speed at which the electric distance is maximized ?? Obviously hills matter but assuming a flat road does it make any difference if you travel at 60 or 75?

ajriches01

Drive without the 4 wheel and you will see...car never feels big in my view. The wife is bored of me remarking on the turning circle (coming from a 911 enthusiast this is quite sad).

Sounds like ACC not worth it.

Massaging seats...please try it and see. I have a 7 minute commute back from the train station everyday and what a joy to have the stress pummelled out of my back in such short order! Also encourages the wife to come driving! Same with Alcantara see one with and without, in my view it just pulls the whole car together and is the difference between a Porsche and a BMW.

Electric efficiency I think primarily derives from consistence of speed and speed. At 70, when accelerating slightly, the engine kicks-in quickly. At 40 to 60, it happily stays on e-power. So I suspect cruising at 50 would see the close to 30 miles. Accelerating 2 tonnes on and off is not so good!

thorfun

on the way to the station this morning I did the drive in electric alone. it was showing a range of 24 miles when I pulled out of the drive. by the time I got to the station (about 9 miles away) it was showing a range of 8 miles!!

But, as I've said before, I have a heavy right foot and was pushing the e-power to the max most of the time and was doing 70-ish mph on the dual carriageway so I'm not surprised that I drained the battery reserves so quickly.

The upside is it forces me to use the petrol engine on the way home.

ajriches01

Best of both worlds!

Do love the noise. Like an angry panther

Gus_Smedstad

I'm surprised you feel this way. The turning circle on my 2015 Panamera drove me nuts. I went from a Toyota Supra Turbo, which was 1.75' shorter, to a Panamera and I suddenly found it difficult to park. Turning circle is supposedly 1.7' larger (Google says 19.6' vs. 17.9'), but it felt like a lot more. I never made it out of my garage in a single motion, as I did with the Supra and I do now with a 991.1.

I found a dealership page that says the rear-wheel steering reduces the turning circle by 2', which presumably is 17.6'. I would have killed for that, if it were available when I ordered in 2014. I'm not sure it would have kept the car even so, but turning radius was my #3 reason that I traded it in. I thought I'd get used to it, but I didn't - I never managed to get to the point where I could park reliably without needing to correct.

Gus_Smedstad

It absolutely does. As I said upthread, when you get up above about 45 MPH, the car is spending the vast majority of its energy overcoming wind drag. Whether the power is coming from electricity or gas, you can expect energy efficiency to go down linearly with speed. It's an unavoidable bit of physics.

That said, I never found the displayed electric range estimates to be all that accurate. Sometimes it was high, sometimes it was low. I ended up giving up on that and just eyeballing the battery % like it was a fuel gauge.

ajriches01

Turning circle of a BMW 5 Series: 12.22 metres
Turning circle of a 2017 Panamera: 11.88 metres without rws or 11.39 metres with.
Turning circle of a 991: 11.1 metres

I'd be very interested in seeing back to back but the numbers suggest not much difference? Maths never my strong point though!!

Gus_Smedstad

Ah, a sensible measurement system. Unfortunately I still think in Imperial units.

To translate my prior numbers, and using diameter instead of radius:

11.9 meters: Panamera (close enough to 11.88)
11.0 meters: 911 (thought it was smaller than this, actually)
10.9 meters: Supra Turbo
10.7 meters: claimed Panamera RWS turning diameter by Carlsen Porsche and Brian Harris Porsche.

11.9 doesn't sound like that much more than 11.0, it's true. I'm not sure if it's the numbers, or the sheer size of the car, but I know that the Supra and the 911 were equally comfortable to park, and the Panamera never was. I was glad I sprung for the Surround View cameras on the Panamera, because I needed them constantly.

It's true that I've never driven a Panamera with RWS. I'm just assuming that it makes a big difference based on the press releases. I think the only way to know for sure is to test drive one, and make a point of doing a few practice runs at parking in different spaces, both simple parking and parallel parking.

It's also true that I'm comparing the Panamera to 2 door coupes, not a big sedan like a BMW 5 series. I suspect I'd be equally uncomfortable in one of those.

I'd like to know the source of the 11.39 meter figure you quoted. I have no way of knowing if 11.39 or 10.7 is correct, I'm just going based on what I saw on those dealership sites.