Porsche never stops exceeding customer expectations.

Porsche has many qualities that make it exceptional, and one of them is its ability to keep exceeding customer expectations. I experienced that firsthand when I test-drove the new Panamera. Our 970 Panamera Edition is already an outstanding car, with nothing I could ask more of. In fact, I once described it this way on the blog:

Its commanding presence in the parking lot. The unmistakable stature of a king. The acceleration as it merges onto the highway. The sound of the engine. The feeling of car and driver moving as one. Throttle and brakes responding exactly as the driver intends. Its grip on the road, its stability, its solid, substantial feel—and the way it drives without ever making its weight feel like a burden. Just getting behind the wheel gives you the strange impression that you’ve become a more impressive person… It’s incredible. Almost too good to be true.
It may not have the tightest turning circle, fit into every parking space, deliver great fuel economy, or squeeze down narrow roads—but its many virtues more than make up for all of that.

That’s how I put it.

Even more than a year after taking delivery, I still feel a thrill every time I drive our Panamera Edition.

Test-driving the new Panamera

Then, last year, the new Panamera finally went on sale in Germany, and test drives began in Japan around February this year. Our dealer contact, H, got in touch right away: “We have a Panamera 4S available for a test drive. Would you be interested?” I answered without hesitation: “Of course!” A little later, my husband and I went to take it for a drive.

…but privately, I was thinking:

“There’s no way it can be better than the current Panamera.”

It even came with the tagline “The 911 gets jealous.” But I thought, “That’s surely a bit of an exaggeration.” I also didn’t want to get my hopes up, only to come away thinking, “It wasn’t as impressive as I expected.”

And then—

We went to the dealership, climbed into the new Panamera, and within just “two seconds” of pressing the accelerator, my husband and I both had the same thought:

…P-Porsche, you’ve done something incredible! ((；ﾟДﾟ)

The smoothness off the line was on a whole different level from the current model. It moved with an effortless fluidity that made its weight disappear, and I could feel the difference as soon as I pressed the accelerator by just a millimeter. Push down harder, and a satisfying high-pitched note of acceleration rises from behind you. On the highway and through corners, it still has all the sporty character you’d expect. The steering felt so precise, I thought it wasn’t off by even a millimeter—not even a tenth of one.

It was as if someone had simply made a 911 bigger. A Porsche representative had explained that the team hadn’t just built on the current Panamera and refined it; they had developed the new car with the intention of starting from scratch. At last, I understood exactly what they meant.

Courage changes everything

Porsche Japan’s website currently describes the Panamera like this:

The new Panamera
Courage changes everything.

“To be ambitious and turn ideals into reality. Not to pursue only the path already laid out, but to constantly challenge ourselves to transform every approach we can imagine. To do things differently from everyone else. What matters in all of this is courage.
To break with convention. To stand firm with unshakable resolve. To shape a future we have yet to see.
With courage, we create a new world. Only by doing this can Porsche continue to be Porsche.

The new Panamera. A new generation that changes everything.”

Wow, it moves me to tears… (T_T) I’ve read this passage so many times（I could probably recite it from memory by now, lol）

I’m so impressed by whoever at Porsche came up with these words that I’d happily hop on the Shinkansen, go meet them, and shake their hand just to say, “That really moved me!” lol

I think most people find it hard to let go of the approach that brought them success. We may understand that bold innovation is needed to do even better, and that it’s important to move forward in a new way—but doing so means rejecting everything we’ve done up to that point. That’s no easy thing.

And of course, there’s no guarantee that a new approach will succeed.

I’m an ordinary person, so trying something new and failing wouldn’t put much at stake. But Porsche has decades of history behind it, along with a record of achievement and success. If it failed, it could lose a great many fans, its brand strength, and the trust people have in it. Yet Porsche is willing to take that risk, try an entirely new approach, deliver results, and exceed customer expectations.

That’s truly remarkable…

I absolutely love this uncompromising drive for excellence, a quality Porsche has held onto since its founding. I think people who love Porsche are drawn not just to the cars, but to Porsche’s “Porsche-ness”—its distinctive spirit, too. And I hope to become someone who embodies that spirit myself.