So I was visiting my PCar friend's new house that he's building the other day and he is now considering getting a 2013 Audi S8 over the Panamera Turbo (what the wife wants). Remembering the S cars from the past from Audi.....they were nice but were always alittle under powered compared to the M cars from BMW and AMG from MB. We went to 2 Audi dealers but of course they didn't have any as they are hard to get and they sell right away. He's telling me the new S8 has supercar straight line performance in which I didn't believe him. So I looked online and 0-60MPH in 3.5sec and 1/4 mile in 11.8sec....that's not only supercar numbers but that's better numbers than a Z06 (although Z06 had a higher trap speed). Not sure if I like the styling on the S8 but again the rear of the Panamera is Fugly....IMO. Kudos to Audi on building a sleeper!

 

No ... it's the whole car.

The Audi's have an intoxicating exhaust note.

 

Thanks for posting the video...pretty impressive straight line numbers, and very positive driving impressions!

Perhaps the Panamera is more of an "acquired taste". First day I actually saw one on the road I then saw another, and another the following day, and not one since. From some angles I thought it looked pretty good...in a bulbous P-car sort of way.

 

For the S8 0-60mph, Autoweek claims 3.9, Car & Driver 4.0, and AOL Auto 4.7... That's a pretty big gap. I would tend to go with the low fours... There is no way a big, heavy car like that can take off so fast. Look at all the other cars with the same power-weight ratio. They are all in the mid fours... Motortrend are completely nuts with their times...

 

Porsche Panamera? Acquired taste? Maybe. The X351 I hated at first and have started to love it. The Panamera, however, I have looked at equally long and I just cannot understand what the heck they were doing when they designed that car. It is truly on the level of Pontiac Aztek in the ugly category!

 

The interior styling appealed to me, as did a usable and accessible back seat when the practical side of my brain thought I should maybe have one, but the other side didn't want a conventional 4 door sedan shape. The Aztek was truly ugly in every respect, except to the few I guess that thought a tent in the back was cool, but I wouldn't put the Panamera in that catagory.

Bruce

 

The real time is probably the average of them all. I remember seeing the 2007-2009 4.2L XKRs running 0-60 from a low of 4.2sec (Road and Track) to as high as 5.3sec (Motorweek) which is also a huge disparity.

I don't think the front end of the Panamera is that bad as it looks like any other PCar. Possibly the new Panamera based on the Sport Turismo concept will look better.

 

The difference in times may be to use of rolling start vs. standing start. Other factors affect 0-60 times. Much debated.

 

The interior design of the Panamera is incredible. The rear seats are also amazing. Basically, it's the nicest car I've ever been in...on the inside. The front end is a Porsche. No complaints there. However, I have no idea where the back end came from.

I so wanted to buy that car, but just couldn't live with the back end design.

 

Agree on the interior. It has one of the most comfortable, natural driving positions when you are in it.

 

Panamera = One of my favorite cars, inside and out. Nothing wrong with the look. Can't even imagine why anyone would compare it to an Aztek. For those of you that love it, you are not alone... Beautiful car...

 

I traded my 07 xkr for the panamera turbo a few years ago. It's definitely a love it or hate it in the looks department, but I will tell you that I get more thumbs up, "nice ride", "beautiful car" comments in my panamera than I ever got in the jag and everyone agrees that it is one of the prettiest cars around. Performance wise you can't even compare the 2, I had tons of work done to the jaguar to get it to around 500 hp and my panamera would smoke it with 4 people and 4 sets of golf clubs in it everyday and twice if it's raining due to awd.

 

What? ...can it be? ...is this true? ...surely you jest! We've been telling ourselves all this time that Jaguars are the ultimate attention magnets!
Hang on...do you currently own a Jag?

Bruce

 

My buddy says the S8 should be as quick in a straight line as the Panamera Turbo. So I looked at Motor Trend's test of the Panamera Turbo and the numbers were 0-60MPH in 3.5 sec and 1/4 mile in 11.9 sec.....same as the S8. ABT tuner has already "chipped" the S8 to add another 100HP. The Panamera's interior is nice. I remember being invited to the Porsche Launch Event for the 991 in February at a dealer in the North Shore of Chicago and looking at the interior of a Panamera Turbo...it gorgeous but again the S8's interior is not too shabby either. My buddy doesn't like the rear of the Panamera and rather keep his 997 Turbo but his wife insists of getting the Panamera Turbo as she doesn't like Audi. Go figure!

 

I don't currently own Jag - I had a nicely modded 07 xkr convertible - it was/is a beautiful car and I got plenty of thumbs up in it, but no where near as many as I get with the panamera. I've actually had people pull me over to comment on it.

Ghostrider - I agree the s8 has some phenomal performance it just looks too plain for me, and it's no where near as focused as the panamera. I had my ecu tuned and with some intake/exhaust mods I've got just over 600hp and I can't imagine ever needing more. With launch control on it moves so fast, it will literally make me sick (like a roller coaster). Now the s7 tuned - that's a whole different story.

 

A friend of mine wants the S8 this spring. He is so hooked on paper stats. I don't care how fast it is... it's not a looker. I don't want a "butterface" car no matter how fast it is. We all value different things in a car, and looks are about as high a priority as they get for me, and I don't mean flashy "look at me looks". 7 series & Panamera are a little better looking, but neither are a Jaguar or Maserati.

The hottest big car out to me is the new Range Rover!

 

Frankly, I think the Pano'crap is uglier than a Pontiac Aztec (really), and I don't care how wonderful the interior is or the speed with which the turbo can move you, you still have to look at that rear end every day. You wouldn't choose a wife for that reason, and you sure as hell shouldn't choose a car for it. While I haven't driven an S8, I race and drive my friend's Audi S5 6spd. all the time, and I love it. Audi has put out some great S series cars over the years, and they are all solid as a rock. My one complaint about the S5 is that it's so quiet even at all out speed that it's hard to tell you're doing anything extraordinary. But, these modern Audis are so smooth and handle speed with such ease, it's almost cheating.

 

Really? Really? Really? I highly doubt it! I will acknowledge that it has a nice interior and great performance but there is no way, no how that you could ever convince me that a Panamera gets more thumbs up than an XKR. If it did we probably wouldn't be debating it's looks on this forum! This is not the first time Porsche has put out a car that is FUGLY only to revise the design on the 2nd generation car. The original Cayenne vs. the current Cayenne is no comparison! The same goes for the original Panamera vs. the Sport concept.

 

I know plenty of people who would chose a wife on their frontal looks (and equipment) only. I personally like the full package looks and the Panamara would not be my choice either because of the rear end. But, it is just like all else: the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Glad that we are diverse enough in our tastes as seeing Jaguar XK(R)s only on the roads would quickly become boring.

As to the comparison test, I remember reading a relatively recent test of the new XJ vs. Audi7 vs. Merc XX and the testers got far more performance from the Audi than some other magazine tests did. The tester's speculation was that Audi provided a modded sleeper for the test. Would they do that? Why not?

Albert

 

Lovin that S8......Just found my next Audi, albeit it may take me 20 years to save for it...lol