Porsche Panamera 4 PDK Review: 4 Play

What we like:

It's a Porsche

commanding road presence

nimble dynamics

What we dislike:

Not exactly pretty

expensive options

The Panamera is a true four seater so only two of your mates can take the rear seats. The two rear occupants will be comfortably cocooned on the two individual seats at the rear whilst enjoying more than enough knee and headroom. Access to the boot is fantastic thanks to the wide opening hatch. Boot space is pretty impressive and if required, the rear seat backs can tumble down to further increase load carrying capacity.

Up front, the driver is greeted by an electrically adjustable seat that not only looks good but is also both comfortable on long drives and supportive in the corners. The dashboard features the trademark Porsche hooded instrument binnacle with the rev counter taking centre stage and a rising centre console design. The latter features a myriad of switches that look like they came off a Vertu mobile phone's. The sea of switches around the gear lever look a tad messy and not so intuitive to use at first but closer scrutiny will reveal that the switches are logically clustered according to their functions - switches to alter the car's dynamic settings for example, are grouped on the area below right of the gear lever.

Overall build quality is exemplary - Perceived luxury and quality in Porsches have improved by a quantum leap since the introduction of the 997 911 models six years ago. The Panamera 4 here feels every inch like a car that is worthy of its three hundred grand price tag.

Priced at just under $300k, the Panamera 4 sounds reasonably priced next to more common V6 engine luxury limos like the Audi A8 3.0TFSI quattro, Mercedes-Benz S350L and the BMW 740Li among others. But go crazy on the Panamera's options list and the final price might easily go near the $350k mark as Porsche charges quite a premium for factory fitted options.

If you're the kind of CEO or MD that prefers to drive on your own rather than be chauffeur driven around in then a Panamera, even in base V6 form makes a lot more sense than a conventional luxury barge like a long wheelbase S-Class or 7 Series. Take a short drive in a Panamera and I'm sure you'll be convinced that it has the Porsche D.N.A. somewhere within inside it and forget about its somewhat ungainly looks. For those who like to be driven around by a chauffeur though, a S-Class is probably still be more comfortable and a safer bet.

Credits: Story and Photos by Raymond Lai