Porsche Panamera V6: Ownership experience & modifications

The Porsche Panamera ticked most of the boxes in my criteria and I saw no reason to look elsewhere.

BHPian Tanveer_2558 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Late night, Blurry Lights, Deep Mind.

Lets rewind and a bit and see how it all happened..

What was I enjoying? This

Bought the car at 18k kms, Sold it around 74k with a stage 2 map and tons of mods on it, I was super happy with the car but unfortunately 2 things always made me want to part ways with it in the recent times..

1 : Back Seat Space, Car was Practically used as a 2 seater.

2 : Cornering Abilities even with B6 wasn’t confidence inspiring

The car was practically being used as a 2 seater, Which meant no family state trips with the 530d and I missed a lot of highway drives because of this, Plus feels bad that your family cannot really enjoy the car on the highway too even if they wanted to.

I had the B6 installed for better stability it made a lot of difference, Probably I should have done it as soon as I got the car, But still during heavy cornering the car use to pitch and wobble which I did not like at all.

All in all I had driven the car a lot and decided ill look for an upgrade but well, That won’t be easy will it ?

I was thinking to upgrade from a V6 Diesel which is Stage 2 with 4 doors and wanted something on the similar lines with better backseat experience, better performance & better driving experience, I was totally stumped to what it could be, Ofcourse if money wasn’t a barrier I could have simply bought a F90 M5 and before that a petrol pump considering that i drive quite a lot.

Letting the 530d go with a heavy heart!

Tons of memories, more than 50k kms with the car, Such low end torque, I will miss this car but whats the best part ? i can drive it whenever i want, This car will be out for every drive i go with on weekends.

Happy / Sad Moment together.

While I was deciding a very close friend told me seriously he wanted to buy my car, and probably in a matter of a few hours we knew the deal was sealed and I let her go, Mainly and majorly only because I know the car will be taken care well, I can drive it whenever I want & Ill see the car on almost every of my highway drives! What more could I ask for? I had to let her go with a heavy heart.

Now the hunt starts with all the concentration & along with that a few test drives as well.

Criteria’s to be met for my next Daily :

• Sedan

• V6 Diesel/ V6 Petrol or Above

• Comfortable back seat

• Mod Friendly

• Should be a stock car

• No Air Suspension

• Under 50 big ones

• Under 20k ODO Max

Cars Considered

BMW G30 530D : Test drove the car and man its a whole league ahead of the F10 in almost every way, Loved every bit of it, had no reason at all to drop the car, BUT! The moment I stepped inside the car for a TD I was just soo comfortable in driving the car in traffic, Speed breakers etc, It made me feel a little stupid, I was soo used to the engine response the size of the 530d and a stage 2 remap, I just couldn’t feel the better driving experience or rather a whole new experience, Some of my friends said it was the sensible option to go for after a F10 530d and some said it was a stupid move and would be a lateral upgrade at the best. Eventually after TD I concluded, The driving experience, Dimensions of the car was very similar for me to spend 45-50 lakhs on the car, I’d honestly like to try something new?

Mercedes W212 E63 AMG : By chance a dealer had a 14k kms done black E63 coming up for sale soon and I test drove the car, It was MH registered, looked mint inside out, But the car was dropped instantly post test drive & why ?

The ride quality was HARD! In comfort mode the ride quality was soo hard I could literally feel every small details on the road & which also made the cabin rattle a lot, My dad at the back seat was comfortable when it came to space but man he was too irritated with the ride quality, Driving experience was typical AMG V8 engine, Starts slow from the low end and then simply just keeps going, It surely ticked the performance criteria but the ride quality and comfort was a major downer. Car was dropped. Also 14k on the ODO was in MILES not kms, Which translated to roughly 22k kms and not at 14k kms advertised by the dealer.

BMW F10 M5 : I did not test drive the car, There were a couple of them on sale at that time, But this was dropped considering the back seat comfort and space.

Audi S5 : Came across a yellow car for sale, V6 turbo petrol was tempting, But dated exterior looks along with A4 dimensions and It was a test drive car along with dated interiors and not very spacious interiors din’t feel a complete package at all.

Mercedes S350 : A lovely car, Too many on sale in the used market so lot of options to choose from, But I felt its just a car that would not suit me right now, Probably once I am 35+ ? Another issue was the air suspension, Most of the cars on sale were near the 40-60k kms mark, Exactly when the air suspension would give up which means major bills, it won’t be a drivers delight either, It would only keep my folks happy at the back seat, Just din’t feel right for me, For the same reason even the 730LD was dropped.

Audi A8 4.2 TDI : There was only ONE 4.2 TDI on sale & man I soo really wanted it just for the heart it had, But unfortunately the car was completely ignored/ avoided by my dad, He just did not want an Audi as he is very used to with the interiors and space & he din’t bother much that it was the V8 diesel, I would have personally loved to get it, but was a No no from higher authority.

Porsche Panamera Diesel : I had thought of the Panamera honestly but every time I checked up in the used car market they were priced well above my budget and frankly I did not find the car worth spending more than 60-70 big ones that too for a used 30-40k kms ones, yes the diesel ones I am talking about.

A white JH registered 2015 model with around 40k on odd had an asking price of 67 Lakhs, No way I even enquired further for it, Another black MH one was sale online asking around 65 again done about 35k kms, Both were equipped with air suspension which I frankly wanted to avoid, Plus the pricing quoted was way above my budget, But they both were 970.1 which was the facelifted Panamera’s which came with a few more extra like sleeker rear tail lights, LED’s up front and reclining back seats, I surely wanted the 970.1 version,

Until,

Few days into the hunt, My dad gives me a call late in the night and asked me to come down have a look at a car, I did not even know which car !!

My surprise it was a Panamera, Well okay, Sat inside and it felt NEW and I wondered how? To which I glanced at the ODO which said 5250 KMS ! Did I read that right? Did I miss a digit there? But well no, Indeed the car had done only 5250 kms, Test drove the car it felt tight, Engine gearbox was smooth. The whole driving experience I had was NEW, exactly what I wanted, once you sit inside the cabin you don’t feel its a 5 Meter long car. More on this later. Best part had to be the pricing which was achievable.

I took another TD the next day during the day, The car had minor nicks on the rear bumper and stone chips on the front bonnet, Apart from that nothing seemed replaced or repainted. Engine bay was neat and clean with no signs of any work done. The car was still on its stock tyre! Got the car checked where it would be maintained, Red Line Autohaus and I got a thumbs up from there too.

Some pictures clicked the first time i saw the car

ODO !

Interior, Seats, Had no signs of usage..

Checking out the rear seats, also notice the display for air con temp, Button to lock/Unlock the car and to control rear blinds along with air direction buttons, Below that is the charging socket and storage area too.

Following pictures from outside were taken the next day

Love the key!

Din't like the alloys since day one, I knew i had to swap.

Made sure to check if the retractable spoiler was working fine, If not these are expensive to repair.

I knew she was the one, Named her "Panny".

It was Decided!

Porsche Panamera Ticked most of the boxes in my criteria and I saw no reason to look elsewhere.

But before that i wanted to be completely sure of this particular car.

Things to check while buying a low mileage car

Low ODO reading with anything above a couple of years on the car should be treated with extra caution, Following are the things i checked before taking the plunge.

Interior wear

Interior wear such as wear on the seats, Buttons, Knobs, Steering material, Door handles are a perfect example to judge how much the car has been used, For instance the ODO in my car showed 5500kms, And the interior wear was nothing, All the buttons, Door handles, Steering, Arm rest were in mint condition. So that was a positive, If you find a car with low mileage but the interior shows good amount of wear, Thats a red flag.

Service history At Dealership

Important to look for service history of the car, In my case the car did its last service at 3600 kms at a Porsche service centre.

Getting a proper check of the car done at a service centre or known workshop.

Redline Autohaus for the win, Checked the car and apart from the roof liner being changed they din't find anything wrong with the car & a thumbs up was given for the same.

Tyre check

Upon having a closer look at the tyres on my car, They were indeed stock tyres which came with the car !! They had cracks appearing on them but the dept was infact 80% still there, Another positive the car had genuinely done only 5k kms.

Dealershi…err…. Dealer Experience :

Unfortunately the only sour point in the deal was the buying experience, The dealer was a known person which actually made us trust more on the car and on him. Which turned out to be a huge mistake, First of all,

Few minor issues I found with the car during TD :

• Rear right AC vent had no air blowing (Common flap issues)

• Rear Automatic blind wasn’t working (apparently wasn't fitted well)

• Second key was not available

• One of the headlight washer nozzle was missing

Small issues which the dealer agreed to fix and deliver the car in a weeks time on his expense and a final price was decided. (Fair enough)

More than 50% of the amount was transferred to him in the next few days (Big mistake)

Unfortunately for some reason the dealer kept me hanging for the next 60 days, Yes you read that right, 60 days after taking 50% payment, His excuses were the work is not done and parts are not available etc, Which was all solely excuses, The car was being shown around to other prospected buyers in those 60 days to fetch a better price Eventually when the bubble busted and I landed on his doorstep is when he delivered the car the next day with offcourse no work done on the car, and the car had clocked about 300 kms more than the last time i saw, His reason was car was travelling to and fro to garages!

So I paid 50% of the amount waited for 60 days and few minor things work on the car was also not done.

I would love to reveal the name/Dealership, But I’ll let it slide.

For buyers in Mumbai, Beware while buying a high end used car, Do a background check on the dealer too, Try to get the car from an established used car showroom or known dealer in the car community.

Eventually I deducted the amount for all the pending work on the car from the price we had decided the car on and took the delivery finally! Got the RC transferred and it verified too!

Such things you gotta go through if only the other person isn’t transparent.

Best things takes time.

Car was sent to Redline Autohaus for all the small niggles plus a servicing which was done in a few days!

I was also not a fan of the stock alloy design & I also had to change the tyre instantly, Decided to swap both the tyres & alloys and upsize to 19 inches from 18’s, Internationally you can buy a panamera with 18 to 20 inches wheel as well.

Akshay from Redline recommended Japan Racing Alloys & they had recently launched a JR38 model which was a perfect fit for Panamera, 5x130 PCD !!

Stock size the car came with was,

245/50/18 front

275/45/18 Rear

Which was swapped with

245/45/19 Front

275/40/19 Rear

Wheels arrived.

Ready for swap.

While the car was at Redline Autohaus we also noticed one of the damper to be weak which got us thinking the car has been standing all this while on those damper, Akshay recommended to swap all 4 but I wanted the stock ride quality only, The stock ride quality and handling of the car was superb and I did not want to mess with it, However we decided to swap all dampers with Bilstein B4 OEM spec,

Basically B4 is the closest to the stock spec of the car & it turned out to be a perfect decision, Ride quality or the handling was further improved, More of this later.

Finally Lets drive!

With the new tyres, Alloys, Bilstein, Serviced, I was all ready to go for a highway drive everyday but unfortunately COVID struck India again and another lockdown was imposed.

My wait had become longer but there was nothing that could be done, I had driven the car a lot inside the city but was still craving to feel the highway feel of the car.

While i had started driving every now and then, I wanted to drive the car more before i pen down about it..

Continue reading BHPian Tanveer_2558's ownership experience of his Panamera for more insights and information.