Category: Large Executive 
Price Range: £72,266 to £95,298
Towering performance of Turbo version, great stability, direct steering.
Styling won't appeal to everyone, size limits agility, not as spacious as it could be.
The Panamera is the most dynamic four-door you can buy.
Rumours of impending Porsche saloons have been around for over 20 years, so it's safe to say that the Panamera is one of the most eagerly anticipated cars in the brand's history. But what kind of Porsche would the company deliver: a four-door 911 or a low-riding Cayenne?
In truth, first impressions are a little confusing, the Panamera taking a bit of getting used to.
The top-of-the-range Turbo (£95,298) is the easiest to understand: shatteringly fast, it also has superb poise on rough roads and faultless stability.
Elsewhere, things are less straightforward. The mid-range 4S (£77,269) can feel slower than its 400bhp would suggest, with the complex transmission sometimes struggling to decide what to do next. Indeed, we found the two-wheel-drive S manual (£72,266) - which still has massive amounts of grip - preferable to the 4S in many ways. The picture might get even cloudier when the range is extended to incorporate a V6 engine in 2010 and a hybrid powerplant in 2011.
Overall, the Porsche has the strengths you would expect from the marque: high standards of build quality, supreme road-holding abilities, performance in spades and great poise. Porsche buyers who want the space of a Cayenne, but not the height, will love it.
So can the Panamera persuade BMW 7-Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class buyers to forego rear space in return for Porsche's famed driving dynamics? Read on to find out.
