Review: Porsche Panamera facelift

When you see a Porsche, you recognise it without giving a second thought. It is the same with the Panamera. When it first hit the scene, there wasn't a sense of elegance to it like maybe the Aston Martin Rapide, and it was unusually long but at the end of the day, one look at that sporty stance and you'd not mistake it for anything other than a Porsche.

Porsche has now introduced a facelift of the Panamera and this one gets updates which take a while to spot. It gets a slight tweak to the headlamps which come with LED day-time running lamps, the side-sills are redesigned and the air intakes appear to be larger.

On offer are five variants which include 4 petrol and 1 diesel, so Porsche has given the buyer a lot to choose from. The base Panamera and the Panamera 4 get the 3.6-litre V6 engine, the Turbo is the recipient of a turbocharged V8 while the GTS has a V8. The diesel is the familiar 3.0-litre V6.

The diesel gets 18-inch wheels and improved software for the Porsche Stability Management (PSM) system. All the Panameras, except the base V6, now get air suspension with Porsche Active Suspension Management.

For the 3.0-litre V6, there is 248bhp on offer and it doesn't take a genius to figure out how this power treats the 1770 kg Panamera. Whatever you might think about the design of the Panamera, the inside of the car oozes elegance and luxury. The 8-speed automatic transmission makes for effortless gear changes and amazing performance. It's calm and collected in traffic conditions but when you really want to steam down that highway, it sprints at the tap of the throttle. It also helps that you are given paddle shifters which, in both Sport and Comfort settings, are good.

You might think this is a big car and might think twice before attacking a corner, but trust me it's absolutely mind blowing. In sport mode, the engine and the dampers demonstrate a side of the Panamera that we really wouldn't have seen. It glides around like a ballet dancer and don't worry about the tail coming out because the chassis just holds all of that together beautifully.

Inside too it's comfortable and you are treated to luxuries like an electric sun roof, Porsche Communication Management plus Navigation system, Bose sound system and park assist with reversing camera.

At the end of the day though, luxury comes at a price and the Panamera comes priced at Rs 1.23 crores. If you are the kinds who doesn't care about what you spend on, then Panamera is your deal but there are grander options out there and maybe cheaper ones too.