The art of passing off an ordinary sedan as a revolution
Porsche release a video this week to tease the reveal of the next-generation Panamera luxury sedan. The video does not show the new Panamera at all, rather it builds anticipation for the reveal by recounting the revolutionary ideas that made Porsche what it is today, despite critics through history calling the ideas “madness.”
And that’s the main problem with the video, because there is nothing about a conventional luxury sedan with an unremarkable powertrain that could be considered “madness.”
Porsche has had revolutionary ideas in the past, ones that could still be considered today as extremely risky to say the least. It made a car with an air-cooled engine mounted at the back one of the most successful and best selling sports cars of all time. It was one of the first automakers to experiment with turbocharged engines for road cars. It made a hybrid-hypercar one of the most sought after vehicles on the market today.
But, that doesn’t mean everything Porsche does is extraordinary. This new Panamera will be nothing special. It will be a good car, no doubt. But, it will be forgotten in the annals of Porsche history, along with that stupid 2.0-liter turbo four Macan. Seriously, name an automaker that isn’t making a small, four-cylinder turbocharged crossover SUV.
