Covering 1,000 km in the Panamera

Lately, I’ve written several posts about trips to Fuji Speedway, and this time I drove the Panamera solo for a round trip of around 1,000 km. On previous family road trips, my husband usually did most of the driving, and I’d take the wheel for just a little while here and there. So this was the first time in my life I’d driven for such a long time and such a distance.

Our first Panamera, a 970, arrived about three years ago.

The Panamera Turbo joined us a year and a half ago. Over the past three years, I’ve driven a Panamera on all kinds of roads—from city streets and winding roads to highways—so I thought I already knew what made it special.

But this 1,000 km drive gave me a fresh appreciation of just how good the Panamera is. I’d like to share a few things that stood out.

What Makes the Panamera So Great

Comfortable, Even on Long Drives

The Panamera has a smooth ride and makes it easy to settle in for a long drive. When my husband occasionally comes home after a long trip in the Boxster, he says:

“The Boxster is a blast, but it always puts you in ‘let’s go!’ mode. That’s fun, but it can get pretty tiring when you’re behind the wheel for hours.”

With the Panamera, though, I didn’t feel that kind of fatigue.

That doesn’t mean the Panamera is a dull car to drive—it’s a bona fide sports car. On the highway, when my husband in the Boxster passed a slower car ahead, I was able to follow with ease, accelerating to pass it too. (I switched to Sport mode just for the overtake.)

Thanks to the optional ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control), I could switch it on in traffic and let the car handle much of the driving. It also made cruising at around 100 km/h much more relaxing.

I wondered if I’d end up with a sore back after driving for so long, but that wasn’t an issue at all. To be fair, I don’t often have back trouble anyway…

All-Wheel-Drive Confidence

As I mentioned briefly in an earlier post, there was snow on the road over the Kagoshima Pass between Gotemba and Lake Yamanaka, and the surface was a little slushy. My husband said the Boxster felt as if its tires might slip on every bend, which made him nervous. In the Panamera, I didn’t feel that fear at all. (And no, it wasn’t wearing winter tires.)

We were doing around 30–40 km/h, but the car never slipped, and I never felt uneasy behind the wheel. It felt planted throughout, and the corners were no problem. That’s all-wheel-drive confidence for you. I wonder if it would have felt different in a rear-wheel-drive Panamera.

Nobody Tailgated Me

I’ve written about this several times before, but over the roughly 1,000 km round trip—about 70 to 80 percent of which was on the highway—not a single car tailgated me. (Maybe it helped that I wasn’t crawling along, either.)

I’ve seen people online say that even when traffic is heavy and cars are backed up on the highway, some drivers still tailgate unnecessarily. I’ve experienced that myself in a VW Golf.

But in the Panamera, it didn’t happen once. Once you’re over 90 km/h, the rear spoiler rises, giving the car an even more imposing look. I can see why people might think twice before tailgating it.

Driving in an unfamiliar area can make you a little tense and alert, but not having to worry about being tailgated meant I could drive as I normally would, without that added stress. That was a real plus.

Reasonably Good Fuel Economy

I completely forgot to check the fuel economy for the full round trip, but on the way there, it was 9.2 L/100 km—about 10.8 km/L. We spent a lot of time on the highway and used ACC quite a bit, so conditions were favorable for fuel economy. Even so, that’s pretty good for a car weighing more than two tonnes and powered by a 4.0-liter V8.

The fuel economy wasn’t this good when we first got the car, but lately, it seems to have been improving.

Over 20,000 km on the Clock!

It had been a year and five months since the Panamera Turbo was delivered. When I checked the odometer after driving home from Fuji Speedway the other day, I realized we’d finally passed 20,000 km.

I’ve been making a point of driving the VW Golf more lately, but at this rate, we’ll hit 30,000 km before we know it. It’s such a great car that I always want to take it out—what can you do? lol

Still, there seems to be no end to the joy of rediscovering what makes the Panamera special.