Wow, that's ugly. My prediction? Porsche will sell lots of these to posers, then continue to water down it's sports car heritage for another 20 years until Porsche is just another Oldsmobile/Mercury/Plymouth. Maybe they'll even make a minivan or a pickup truck.

@squablow: HOW DARE YOU SPEAK OF MY PORSCHE THAT WAY! Ah screw it, your probably right.

Not so pretty. I'm not worried about their motoring prestige (Squablow), mostly because the 911 is basically the most dominant car in the GT classes right now, and looks to be for a while.

Plus, everyone hated the Cayenne when it came out, but I'm pretty excited to see that thing rip across Siberia in the Rally Transsiberia coming up in a week or so. Brings back memories of the 959 Dakar rally car.

It boggles the mind to think that Porsche can get the styling so wrong on this car. Look at the C-pillar in the profile shot; the random upsweep of the lower window edge that doesn't even line up with the rear glass is just gross. Also, if they're trying so hard to get a reasonably classic Porsche silhouette, why not just make the car rear-engined with a flat-six? A rear-engined sedan would be incredible and probably cheaper to develop as well.

I can't remember: is this rear or front engined?

If its front, why on earth would they have that crazy half-a-wagon butt?

@SwatLax: Engine is in the front. The Panamera likely uses the same engines as the Cayenne, but I don't think anyone knows whether the car has a front or rear-mounted transmission.

Also, Porsche at one point had old 928 bodies on several of their Panamera drivetrain development mules; a new 928 might be only non-sour fruit to hopefully emerge from this program.

Looks like a 996 got run through the taffy puller.

nice G'NR ref. Sigh, for the 80s, when Porsches needed nothing more than the wind in their heads...

Oh, sure, they're way more profitable now, so much so, they're buying other companies, yeah, those profits allow them to make radder & more insane GT2s, but still....

Rear engine in a sedan isn't necessarily workable. As it is, a lot of these cars will become passenger cars, like the Maserati Quattroporte, no matter the sporting heritage/abilities. A stuffed-shirt who is being driven around will not be happy with a hi-po engine rumbling behind his expensive head.

Why not just make it a wagon? It would certainly look much better to have a Cayenne/wagon ass than this.

@Retiree:
So well put! This "car" is so incredibly fugly. That bottom right picture makes me want to kill myself. How can they get the proportions SO wrong?

And Miscellanea, a wagon does make more sense...

Mercedes SLR? The pop-up wing has been a Porsche thing since at least the 964. Dorky for a front-engine sedan, though.

While not a 989, the Panamera does seem to have the same relationship to the current 911 that the 989 had to the 993. The 989 was front engined, too. At least for the Panamera there exists a front engined platform to build on. Front engine does buy more useful luggage space.

I agree on the styling comments. The rear side window is awkward, which is too bad since that rear window-fender area is a great signature 911 element. The rear door cut line is not as elegant as the 989s and overall the back of the car looks a little chunky. Given the recent X6 pix maybe this is a new Cherman styling trend?

Overall, it's not a car that I'd buy but I'm an aircooled guy and not rich.

At least it's not an SUV.

how they get these shots:
"excuse me sir... will just stop the car right there, i need to get some spy shots. hold that pose, ok perfect, now turn the wheels to the right a little more. Brilliant! excellent shot. just one more and i think that will be enough. Thanks for ur cooperation."

Porsche is boldly charting a new marketing strategy: positioning the cheapest models (Boxster, Cayman) as the "halo cars" and the expensive vehicles for the gold-chains-and-chest-hair crowd.

I suppose if you had to have a Porsche as your daily driver, and that included taking the kiddies to school, you could do worse.

Looks like a stretched G35 from the front and side. The rear has a kind of Korean awkwardness. Fugly.

Looks like it's trying to awkwardly split the difference between the 911 and a full sedan.

The front end isn't awful, but the rear looks like it's almost rear-engined.

I'm sure that was some designer's take on "capturing the rear-drive heritage" in the styling cues, but in reality it looks like a poopy diaper dragging on the floor.

And the pop-up spoiler's just not doin it for me. Porsche dudes can correct me, but I thought the pop-up was mainly to help with airflow/cooling at speed, not just downforce...? (Which, if true, makes the pop-up a really dumb idea on a front-engined car)

+1 on the wagon...but then again, the slightest dream of performance wagons gets me all hot and bothered.

@jsforbes: I have been struggling to say exactly what you have...well put.

Eeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

@Papercutninja: Guess someone's never heard of Tatra: [en.wikipedia.org])
Note that they were making ass-engined (and air-cooled V8-powered!) sedans as late as 1999! If that, combined with the whole Eastern European thing, doesn't make the T700 JFG nominee material, please tell me what does.

Also, call me crazy, but the Panamera doesn't seem as awful as it does, well, uninspired, to my eye.

I second that - it doesn't seem hideous to me, just kind of unimaginative. Some views hint at serious potential, I think (basically any view that hides the profile of the trunk area). I feel like there are a lot of small changes that could make big improvements, so maybe the production version will be a bit more interesting.

To my eyes it's a lot nicer than the Cayenne, frankly. Not a great Porsche, but not the worst thing they've ever built.

If the roofline flowed with the rear windows then it
would probably look alot better
it just seems too chunky from the C pillars back

I guess the times call for a sedan than a proper sports tourer...

I just threw up.....a lot.

I was really hoping that theory from on the Jalop's podcasts about it being a dummy body 'German Humor' but this is really disgusting.

@yellofury: Like this? [jalopnik.com]

@Mikael: Did someone say podcast *Hint Hint, Spinelli*

One thing can be said for certain... this car will sell like hotcakes.

@STEEL_ETC:

The rear windowline is camouflaged. If ou look hard enough, you can see the real outline...

@TomAnderson:

Uh...the Tatra is hardly a luxury car. That's sort of the point of the Panamera. A mouth-breathing hedge-fund manager is not going to be riding in a communist-era rattle can. No matter HOW ironic it is.

Here's my quick rendering of what the Panamera Wagon could look like thanks to my gratuitous use of the pic from Jalopnik and KGP:

[i98.photobucket.com]

It certainly starts to help ease the ass end a bit, but becomes the dodge magnum of porsche, which isn't so bad.

@Miscellanea: Works for me.

Oh, wait...I don't make that kind of money. Never mind.

@Miscellanea: Ha! That's excellent. Mind if we use it?

I see an Infiniti J30. The whole treatment looks early 90's.

if it's front engine wouldn't that rear be a hatchback? I'd think you wouldn't need a wagon if it's a hatch with folding rear seats. It could be pretty practical.

@Ray Wert:
Go right ahead. Just rehost it please.

@Miscellanea: thats great, but where does the cool little retractable wing go?

@Speedie: Who cares? It looks a gazillion times better.

way I look at it, let Porsche make crazy cars like this. Like was said before, some poser somewhere will buy it, giving Porsche more money to research and build badder pure sports cars.

while I don't think this is the pettiest girl at the dance at least it's different.... are we sure it a Porsche and not a Citroen, they are usually the only ones will to go this far into odd styling.

[img338.imageshack.us]

MS Paint Hack 924

it's no Cayman!

I will forever call this car the "panarama"

I think Porsche is just using this mule to test the running gear etc. They will unwrap the gorgeous new body at one of the major car shows shortly before production begins.

...won't they? won't they? Please tell me this ain't no Porsche.

As a rabid FR Porsche fan the coupe version of this will be sweet. But not the saloon.

All hail Porsche putting the engine back where it belongs.

@papercutninja: The Tatra (at least the eight cylinder model) was very luxurious and costly. In fact, WWII German officers made it their staff car of choice after the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Their inability to handle the rear engine caused so many German casualties that the cars became infamous to the Allies.

As a longtime 356 and early 911 owner, I like the Panamera design. The engine is just in the wrong location.

It's not exactly pretty (it doesn't appear to be cohesive enough to even be considered attractive), but it's not the ambomination that the Cayenne was, and given how well Porsche engineered an SUV, this should turn out even better (although it'd be more badass if that 911-esque ass housed an engine).

Besides, Porsche's whole design theme is derived from the original VW Bug.

@Maymar: You say that like it's a bad thing ;)

A couple of years ago a UK publication printed a picture of Britains ideal car.

The readers voted for their favourite bits of each car, and the whole thing was photoshopped together.

The result was a saloon car with a Porsche front.

I think it had a Jag mid-section, Lexus rear, and some utterly random wheels.

If anyone could dig it out...

What??

I remember some concept art... i remember it being kind of attractive...

But...

What happened in between that and this?

These photos have a really strange aspect ratio -- have they been resized?

@Stoatmaster: Here you go...Discuss.

[www.germancarzone.com]

@Mikael: I don't know about the engine belonging there, but I do know an FR Porsche coupe will be sweet. As far as the sedan goes, I think it was tastefully done (I thank all that is good they didn't create a resurrected Crossfire). Interestingly enough, the FR coupe may end up outhandling the Carrera. I just hope they throw in lots of power so the car reaches its full, unrestricted potential. With that in mind, if there are any Porsche execs listening: If the FR coupe beats the Carrera, the profits will still land in Stuttgart. If the FR coupe is intentionally given a weak engine, we all lose. One more thing: for the love of god, BUILD THIS ONE TO BE RELIABLE. The old 928 lasts like it was made in China by a team of stoners huffing starting fluid while working with one hand tied behind their backs.

For some reason, the rear-end looks like a stretched-out Ford Contour to me. I like the front, though. It looks sort-of Aston-Martin-esque. Give me a two-door version of that car with a a shorter wheelbase and better back-end, and I'm sold.