When so many cars claim to be a special edition, could it be that nothing is special anymore? That’s a philosophical question raised by Porsche with the latest version of the Panamera. It’s a special edition, but don’t call it that. It’s just the Panamera Edition. (Or, the Panamera 4 Edition.)
Porsche risks getting weirdly philosophical with this one, which is kind of unexpected given that all we’re talking about is a bundled package of equipment and trim gathered up for the 310-hp, base-model V-6 car, in rear-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive form.
The equipment consists of a 585-watt, 14-speaker Bose audio system and the contents of the Premium package. That package includes electronically controlled dampers (PASM), speed-sensitive power steering (Power Steering Plus), 14-way power seats with memory, rear seat heaters, adaptive headlamps, and a backup camera—which, incredibly, is not already standard.
How will you tell the Edition from a regular Panamera? It will help to be a Porsche savant: Its demarcations are limited to a bit of gloss-black trim window trim and 19-inch Turbo II–style wheels with a Porsche crest in the center. Edition-ness is denoted inside by the two-tone black-and-beige color scheme, the embossed Porsche crest on the headrests, the Porsche Design steering wheel, unique floor mats, and, most telling, door sills that say, “Edition.”
On sale in June, at a base MSRP of $80,995 ($85,295 with AWD), the Edition represents an increase of only $1900 over the standard Panamera or $1500 over the base Panamera 4. Considering that it comes with more than $4000 worth of extra stuff, you could think of it as the Value Edition, but of course Porsche would never use that label.
Instead they used no label, inviting us to wonder: What does it all mean, anyway? Is this the Panamera Nihilism Edition? The Being-and-Nothingness Edition? Being German and all, maybe it’s really the Existential Edition, free to define itself in a meaningless world.
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