Porsche Panamera review - Practicality, comfort and boot space

The Panamera range includes the standard car and the Sport Turismo 'shooting brake' estate. While the estate offers more space, the regular Panamera still offers plenty of room in the rear, despite the sloping roofline. The low seating position also means headroom isn’t too much of an issue. The long wheelbase model is 150mm longer, so you’ll definitely not struggle for legroom.

In the front, the rising centre console and high dash cocoon the driver, with plenty of adjustment available for the steering wheel and seats. It gives a sporty atmosphere, but with plenty of luxurious touches. Storage is also acceptable in the front, with a pair of cupholders, a bin between the front seats and long door bins that allow you to stow plenty of stuff. 

However, while the Panamera offers lots of space in the rear, it’s only because it seats just four people. How it does this though is exquisite, with lots of opulent extras including business style seats featuring a massaging function.

Size

The Panamera is more than 5m long and nearly 2m wide, so it’s a vast car. The sleek styling means there’s not too much glass area, either, but visibility is actually alright, and even when parking in tight spots it’s not too difficult to manoeuvre. 

It’s also low to the ground, but not that difficult to get into the front. Long rear doors open wide and help access to the back – although you’ll have to watch out for that flowing roof.

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Leg room, head room & passenger space 

As mentioned, legroom inside the Panamera is great; even more so if you go for the Executive model. There’s a good degree of flexibility thanks to the seating, too, while the cabin is at least as roomy as rivals such as high-spec versions of the Audi A7.

Boot

Despite its sloping roofline the regular Panamera offers 500 litres of luggage room up to the edge of the rear seats. Fold these down and boot space increases to 1,340 litres. The other body styles give some flexibility in load carrying capacity, with the Sport Turismo estate able to store a little extra at 520 litres with the rear seats in place and 1,390 litres with them folded. The Executive extended wheelbase variant offers the same boot space as the regular model when the seats are in place, but provides a 100-litre advantage (1,490 litres total) with the seats flat.

The power tailgate means loading bags is easy, although there is a little lip to lift them over and into the boot. There are tie down points to secure loads, while the boot floor is flat and uniform in shape, so you can easily carry bulky items.