Porsche Dealers Pleased With Panamera Wagon but Want More From the Sedan
Refuting everything we assumed we knew about the North American car market, some Porsche dealers are claiming the Panamera Wagon is already getting a lot of positive attention. Could that could be down to Porsche offering a more practical seating configuration?
While the rear of the Sport Turismo does provide extra storage space and easier access, it’s not a game changer over the standard sedan. What it does offer is room for five, something the German carmaker couldn’t bring itself to implement on the standard Panamera. Of course, that was likely preordained. Porsche understands most people actually care about the ability to bring all and not just some of their children with them on a journey. By omitting a seat in the sedan, it gave consumers another reason to take a look at the wagon.
Dealers aren’t altogether fond of the seating configurations.
“It’s fair to say that dealers would like to see [five seats] also available in the sedan,” Joe Lawrence, COO of Porsche Cars North America, confessed to Automotive News at the New York auto show. “That’s something we’re discussing, and we’ll see what the future holds.”
Dealers have asked for a five-seater for a while. While the Sport Turismo models accomplish this, some aren’t satisfied with it being the company’s only offering. Still, this should be a good way to keep the two body styles from getting in each other’s way. With identical engines and similar trims, the Turismo needs something else to set it apart when it arrives.
It’s not like the updated sedan is garnering negative attention in the wagon’s shadow. Despite some unexpectedly late delivery dates, sales for the 2017 Panamara came back strong in March.
“It’s really taking off, and we’ve got a great order intake on it,” Lawrence said.
[Image: Porsche]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Apparently the Panamera is indeed polarizing, even in our small sample size here. Me, I've tended to like them, and I like this latest iteration too. The price is neither here nor there for the market it addresses; people who pay that much for a car aren't going to worry about $20 or $30 grand either way. A friend of ours has a Panamera. She's a wealthy widow in, I'd guess, her early 70's. She rode in a couple of them while visiting her kids/grandkids in Dubai and bought herself one when she came home. Good on her I say!
Are they really calling the normal variant a sedan? It's definitely not a sedan, but rather a liftback...like the A7 and the Model S and the Volt.