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Take a walk, smell the roses. Any topic is fine, save people bashing.

Panamera- Squashed Cayenne or terrible hoax? Here are better fast family car alternatives,..

middleground,

I'm a big fan of Porsche- the best built cars int he World, but I find the new four-door Panamera to be decidedly a dull student- not learning it's lessons! There's a lot of Cayenne's driving around Los Angeles and now that I see a Panamera every day, I can't escape the though that the Panamera design is dull, dull, dull- it really looks like a squashed Cayenne- take a Cayenne and have 14" sectioned out the height. Not the ugliest car in the world that Patrick mentions, but on the other hand, I think Porsche should be held to the highest possible standard and for 15 years, their designs have become flat and repetitive.

Top Gear drove the Panamera a while back- raced and was defeated by a letter posted from the extreme south to the north of the U.K. and while they thought the Porsche was comfortable and effortless to drive a long distance, and did well on the track, it still seemed they were damning with faint praise- "O.K. really well done but yaawwnnn,..".

I was at a neighbourhood shopping centre a couple of years back and someone drove through with a Carrera GT- they were marked-up to $750,000 when they first came out and nio one paid any attention- it was small and black and didn't strike me as more than a Toyota MR2 with a glass-fibre boy racer kit.

Porsche has become so overly-careful in their design that everything has to look like the same car- really from the front- since 1999!- it takes me a moment to distinguish a Boxster from a 998- same boneet, wings, bumpers, and windscreen forms, same lights and so on. It's often commented that Porsche can never give the Boxster a really powerful engine and refine the suspension because it would be a much better car than the 911 series at 2/3 the price.

If you're on the market for a beautiful four-door- how about the Aston-Martin Rapide?:









No, I think Porsche made a big miscalculation with the Panamera, but I must be in the minority as I'm seeing piles of them in Los Angeles.

The new Jaguar XJ looks to be another interesting four-door:





A friend is givng back his BMW 535i in June and I'm encouraging him to try the XF-R and the new XJ.

Two exciting four-doors design I think make the Porsche look more than a little 1997,.. And there are some pleasant Bentley's too!

It appears that the swan songs of the petrol car will have four doors. Just watch- Nissan will make a 600HP Maxima inspired by sharks,..


Cheers,

Bambi B



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