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By EWAN KENNEDY
19 April 2010
Porsche Cars Australia has just announced it will soon begin
importation of additional Panamera models to Australia.
When launched here in October 2009, the big five-door sports coupe
was sold with V8 engines (naturally aspirated or turbocharged) and
all-wheel drive. This high specification level explains why the
price list began at $270,000 and went all the way up to $365
grand. Not a car for those who can be described as only moderately
wealthy.
Now Panamera is offered with a starting price of only $193,000.
This is a significant saving that brings the Porsche into the
realms of affordability for significantly more buyers. Though by
the time the government and Porsche dealers add their charges the
Panamera will still be on the wrong side of $200,000
The saving of almost $80,000 doesn't cause as much of a sacrifice
as you might expect. You miss out on two cylinders and the engine
is connected only to the rear wheels. This actually brings the
Panamera to the normal Porsche setup – because almost all
Porsche sports cars come with six cylinders and rear-wheel drive.
Four-wheel drive is also offered in the new Panamera V6 range. The
added traction and cornering power provided by also bringing the
front wheels into the action adds only $11,400 to the price –
the Panamera 4 has a manufacturer’s list price of $204,400.
Though the new six-cylinder powerplant has the long-familiar
capacity of 3.6 litres, it has a V6 configuration. Surprisingly in
these days of shared engineering between car makers, Porsche
designed and builds the engine itself. In common with the very
latest Porsche 911s it features direct fuel injection. Peak power
of 220 kilowatts, with top torque of 400 Newton metres, is
extremely impressive for an engine of this relatively modest size.
In performance car terms, this means the engine develops 300
horsepower, 100 down from the 4.8-litre V8 engine.
Power is transferred to the road by a Porsche PDK double-clutch
gearbox. The German company invented this type of manual-automatic
gearbox almost 40 years ago, so is a past master at the
high-efficient concept.
Porsche Panamera is a big car, at just under five metres overall
it’s longer than a Commodore or Falcon and is a genuine four-seater.
Though it could be called a five-door hatchback, Porsche prefers
to see it five-door coupe. The controversial styling of the back
end isn't one of Porsche's best styling efforts, but it does make
for decent headroom in the back seat and a good load area.
Talking of the rear, you will notice that the Panamera V6 only has
dual exhaust tailpipes, not the quad pipes of the V8, but
otherwise there aren’t a lot of major styling differences. Car
spotters will be able to spot other small changes between the two
variants, but there's nothing major to tell the world that you are
driving one of the new ‘economy’ Porsches.
As we write this, the new Panamera V6 models are about to be
revealed to the world at a major event during the Beijing Motor
Show. The V6s will come to Australia in July this year. In the
meantime it might be worth a call to your dealer as there's likely
to be a pent up demand. We can't wait to get ourselves into one
and bring you a full road test.
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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