The Porsche Panamera is the latest in a long line of cars that I really should have waited to see in the metal before I really made a judgement.
In all the early pics I thought that it looked ungainly and undesirable and too much like an awkwardly elongated 911.
But I've just seen it at the media unveiling, 95 floors up in a Shanghai hotel ahead of Monday's motorshow. The verdict? It's not a rip-roaring beauty but it looks 300 per cent better than in any pic you've seen. It's long, low and looks especially svelte from the rear three-quarters, which, considering the performance of the Turbo version, is the view we're most likely to see.
The cabin, though, is the real treat. It's way more luxurious than anything Porsche has produced before and much higher quality too.
The company wants to sell 20,000 of these things every year. I now think that's not going to be a problem, even if Porsche can no longer gurarantee the support of the hedge fund buyers.
