MotorFanatics - Motor and Media Blog» Motor Blog http://motorfanatics.com What Makes Cars Cool Tue, 18 May 2010 20:57:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Hang on Kids! http://motorfanatics.com/2009/10/26/hang-on-kids/ http://motorfanatics.com/2009/10/26/hang-on-kids/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:32:20 +0000 MotorDan http://motorfanatics.com/?p=912 img_8871 Have you ever been given a gift that seems to have a life of its own?  Like one that you are given initially and that alone is great, but it just keeps giving?  Things like BBQ’s, wet bars, hot wifes, surfboards, golf clubs…you get my point.  Well if you frequent motorfanatics, you may remember that earlier this year I bought into the Porsche family…and while that purchase wasn’t a gift per se, it sure has kept on giving.  Beyond the daily drive or even the joy that it gives me to clean it, being in the Porsche family automatically included me in the “club”.   Being in the club has had a couple immediate perks:  the first is that when you valet park a Porsche, you don’t get that silly giggle from the valet that you get in a rough idling 4runner.  Secondly,  as you probably already know, the new Panamara is starting to show up at dealerships and the dealership I bought my car from invited me to take a drive. 

So last Saturday, I grabbed my wife and we headed out to Pacific Porsche and waited for a turn behind the wheel of the $119,000 S model.  This was the first I’d seen the vehicle in person and my first thought was “wow that thing is massive!” (that’s what she said).  But I guess if the intention is to steal market share from the S class  & 7 series, the vehicle has got to be big.  We started out as a 4-some: Kam the sales guy, Albert another Porsche customer, and my wife and I.  First, we had to stop and fuel up so Albert took over driving to there.  I was sitting behind the driver seat, and I was amazed at the comfort and space.  The back seats where nicer than most vehicles front seats, and held you right in place.  My only concern with the back seat is that for a guy my size (no giant) the visibility isn’t very good and passengers might feel a bit secluded back there.  Chris with his long legs would relax in comfort back there with plenty of leg & headroom.

When it was my turn behind the wheel, the first thing I noticed was the feel from the drivers seat because the vehicle felt MUCH smaller.  The visibility was good and it felt like a bigger 911, but not nearly as big as it actually is.  I quickly learned that the vehicle has massive power and awesome handling on our short test drive.  We didn’t get a chance to REALLY push it, but it was an amazing machine.  I can’t imagine how much $ you would have to make to justify the vehicle…but whatever, people spend that kinda cash on cars all the time and if I was going to drop over 100k on a 4 door sedan…it would be foolish of me not to consider the Panamara.

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