The New Porsche Panamera S

it’s just too much seeing Porsche Cayenne cruising up and down the road in my area. That’s before i found out the price was actually around RM500k (2nd hand) lower than I previously thought which was in the high of RM900k. But at this price I just wonder, why would anyone want to buy such a piece of monster, when better and more high performing SUVs or Sport sedans are available at a relatively cheaper price. May be because of the brand and they have nothing better to do with their money. Porsche now has released and confirmed the pricing for the Porsche Panamera grand tourer in the UK. The Panamera will start from £72,266 (RM 397,160) for the Panamera S, going up to £77,269 for the Panamera 4S and £95,298 for the top of the range Panamera Turbo. Panamera is a conventional front-engined rear-wheel drive that will become Porsche’s Grand Tourer.

The baseline Panamera S comes with a 6-speed manual and rear wheel drive as standard, and can be upgraded to a 7-speed PDK dual clutch gearbox for £2,289. The 4S and Turbo has an active all-wheel drive system with Porsche Traction Management (PTM) and features the PDK gearbox as standard. The all-wheel drive does help with traction especially to get all the power down properly from a standing start, since 0 to 100km/h in the 4S takes only 5 seconds compared to 5.4 seconds on the S model, both with the PDK gearbox. At launch, the Panamera will have three engine choices – a 3.6 L V6 found in the 2008 facelifted Cayenne with 300 hp (224 kW; 304 PS) in the base Panamera, a 4.8 L V8 with 405 hp (302 kW; 411 PS) in the Panamera S and Panamera 4S. The final assembly of the vehicles will take place in Leipzig. Engines will be assembled in Stuttgart, and the car’s painted body will come from the Volkswagen facility in Hannover. Panamera S is expected to be out by 2nd quarter of this year. (p/s: my favourite car is still BMW 325 Sports Edition)