Scheduled to debut in the United States on Oct. 17, a Panamera made a brief stop in Dayton last week, one of only six cities to see the car up close.
“We debuted it at Monterey during Pebble Beach week, and we’ve had it in San Diego, Chicago, Denver, Seattle and now Dayton,” said Michelle Juzeszyn of Porsche North America. “We wanted the members of the Porsche Club of America to see the car at their Escape weekend.”
It was shown at White Allen European Auto Group Porsche, in the showroom of America’s Packard Museum and at the Taj Ma Garaj.
According to a number of published reports, 20,000 units of the four-door sedan will be built, but only 6,000 will be available in the U.S.
Tim Brookhart, Porsche sales manager for White Allen European Auto Group, said that number doesn’t surprise him.
“There are only 120 Porsche dealers in the U.S., so that sounds about right. We’re getting five Panameras, and two are already sold. We expect them to trickle in between now and April.”
Wheels caught up with it at America’s Packard Museum in downtown Dayton for some photos.
The Panamera will come in three models; the S with a base sticker of $89,800; the 4S that stickers at $93,800 and the Turbo that stickers at $132,600. Both the S and 4S have a rated top speed of 175 mph from the 400-horsepower V-8, while the Turbo tops out at 188 mph from the 500 horses up front. Power gets to the road through a seven-speed PDK automatically shifted manual transmission. The S features rear-wheel drive, while the 4S and Turbo are all-wheel drive.
The model Wheels photographed was a Carbon Grey metallic Panamera 4S with an optional beige leather interior. Other options indicated on the display panel included Sport Exhaust, 20-inch Spyder wheels, Bose Surround Sound, Dynamic Chassis Control and Adaptive Air Suspension. These options and 14 others listed brought the sticker price for this car to $122,950.
For more information go to: www.porsche.com/usa/models/panamera.
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