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The Panamera has firmly established itself as a Porsche to be reckoned with. Whilst lovers of scaffold-clad GT2s and GT3s might have originally scoffed at the idea of a four-door Porsche, the big Pan is now a real contender against the German big barges.
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And though lovers of power and speed will salivate over the Turbo version with its blown V8 and four-wheel drive, we are actually rather taken with this ‘entry-level’ V6. On paper its 295bhp V6 might seem a little meek, when you’re up to speed and motoring it’s more than enough for the day-to-day.
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We had the pleasure of the V6 Panamera for a day and decided to take a visit to the new Alex Renner Motors workshop in Dubai Investment Park. After all, where better to soak up all things Porsche than the biggest independent garage in our fair part of the world.
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If you’d ever visited the old ARM workshop in Al Quoz you might wonder how Alex and his team ever managed to get any work done – it was certainly cramped down there.
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No such worries now – the new facility is positively cathedral-like with open space a-plenty. Sure, the ARM guys had only just moved in when we sprung our visit, so we can only imagine how it’s going to look when it’s chock-full of Porsches, Ferraris and Maseratis. Yes, ARM has branched out – owners of temperamental Italian stallions now have a place to get their car looked after away from the dealer network.
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But back to the Panamera. Yes, the styling takes a while to get used to – but done right with some sensible options and they start to look pretty damn good. This particular Panamera is suffering a little in the wheel stakes – some monster 911 Turbo alloys would finish off the look a treat I reckon – and I’ve never been a fan of silver cars.
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These personal niggles aside, there’s much to like about the Panamera – especially on the interior. Porsche have always done decent work on cabins – let’s overlook the first-generation Cayenne in this discussion – and the Panamera is dripping with class.
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It’s also positively overflowing with buttons – rather than go down a touch-screen route, or punt everything onto the steering wheel, Porsche have a button for absolutely everything. But with sensible positioning and descriptive names, it’s all rather straight forward to use.
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One particular feature I wanted to try out on this Panamera was the Automatic Stop-Start function. My past experience with the Panamera has always been when the temperatures are the wrong side of sensible, therefore the load but on the engine by the air-con system has meant that the engine needs to keep running. But in the current cooler weather, the Auto Stop-Start malarky begins to make a lot of sense.
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Sit at some traffic lights with your foot on the brake and after a couple of seconds the engine switches off. Take your foot off the brake and it automatically restarts. An entirely straight forward way to save on fuel that would otherwise be wasted into the atmosphere as you stare at the back bumper of whatever’s in front of you.
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The only time it proves to be ever-so-slightly annoying is when you performing a complex parking manoeuvre – or farting around for a photographer who wants you to place a car in just the right position… Still, you can always force the system off by pressing its button.
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Cruising around the ARM workshop between Cup cars – one of which is road legal (!) – and a variety of 911s and Cayennes, the sheer size of the Panamera makes itself known. Because you sit rather low down in the Panamera, your point of references that you might expect from a saloon have to be realigned.
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And despite the perceived lack of power, if you switch off the electronics you can still light up the rear tyres on the standard rear-drive version. No such traction issues here as the Panamera 4’s all-wheel-drive system feels planted no matter what shenanigans to get up to behind the wheel.
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The only slight sticking point with the Panamera is its price – this particular car cost a cool $125,000, not helped by the $18.5k’s worth of optional equipment that’s been loaded onto it. However, Porsches have never been the cheapest cars around and it certainly hasn’t stopped droves of people putting down the reddies to buy one.
