Used Porsche Panamera Turbo 2009-2016 review

Going harder is a worthwhile activity on almost any kind of open road, the Porsche impressively agile despite its bulk and heft, its nimbleness through corners heightened by the low centre of gravity that’s central to the concept of this four door, four-seat saloon. On autobahns, this Panamera will confidently run at high-speed-train challenging speeds. Four-wheel drive helps too, allowing fat gouts of power to be fed to all four wheels without disturbing the car’s trajectory. 

In the previous model, you were more likely to be disturbed by the Panamera’s backing track. Not the sounds of its V8 of course, which are decidedly pleasing, but the thresh, drum and hum of tyres on coarse bitumen, which are at their most acute in the fat-wheeled turbo. These sounds Porsche claims to have diminished through the judicious application of more substantial suspension bushes, the key challenge being to maintain wheel control with these bigger, softer rubbers.

The contours of the rubber air-springs have been reworked to the same end, and to improve the Panamera’s ride, too. And it appears to have worked. I say only 'appears' because the test roads I drove on were smoother than the Porsche’s roof, making it hard to tell. A back-to-back drive of old and new certainly revealed less bump-thump, but it will take a drive on British roads to uncover the extent of the improvement.

This is a gloriously excessive car that relatively few will buy, the lesser, more economical Panameras, and the intriguing e-hybrid attract more signatures on the dotted line. But if you want the ultimate Panamera – or the ultimate until the 50bhp more potent Turbo S turns up – then the Turbo is certainly an impressive weapon, now with 500bhp-plus bragging rights and more polished manners to go with them.