Personally, I don't think I will ever buy another vehicle made by the Volkswagen group given the lengths they went to to cheat on the U S EPA regs. Who knows what else they have cheated on.

 

How about an Aston Rapide (used) if you are looking at the Benz or Panamera?

 

Wow. Now THAT's as good looking as a sedan (or any car for that matter) gets. Not on my radar though, as even used, it's well beyond the price point of the Panamera and MB. I'm guessing even regular maintenance is also a magnitude higher than Porsche/MB/Jaguar. So fun to look at though.

 

It's certainly the hottest looking car with four doors on the market. There is one member here who has one; perhaps he'll chime in? The Aston is more of keepsake car than the Benz or Porsche. One neat thing is the back seat tops fold down and Aston has a pad that goes over the backs of the seats to make one big storage area to the front seats.

My girlfriend and I looked at one to replace my Evora and we both loved it, but did not like the color of the one on offer. It to was pushing my budget, so went with new XE instead. I'd like to revisit the Rapide when the XE lease ends.

 

Pretty pessimistic point of view, and certainly somewhat hypocritical if you ask me.

You still take medication, yet the pharmaceutical companies have stolen us blind.
You still use a cell phone, but like the days of Phillip Morris, you are told "Don't worry, our tests say it's safe." (sorry, a personal rant as a past radio tech.)
And you still live in America, yet our own country has lied to us for decades.
Oh, and none of our American car makers have ever deceived us buyers, have they?

My point is that VAG is a huge repository of engineering knowledge, and all controlled by that single corporation. Regardless of the brand, Bently, VW or otherwise, every plant has access to, and often shares the same knowledge and patents between them.
Audi has really benefited from this, and like Jaguar, are no longer the unreliable brand known only a decade or so ago.

Also, while Jag has stagnated almost to the point of going out of business several times, VAG continues some serious R&D, and sets them way ahead of us in technology.

Cee Jays experience certainly stands well apart from the majority of drivers I know (and I have been active in the car club scene non-stop since the early 90's). I would not hide in shame driving a Q5/7, or an A6/7.
Ergonomically, Audi has nearly perfected the drivers experience. All critical buttons and controls are exactly where they need to be for ease of use, and night driving is pure bliss (something both Jag and Lexus could take lessons from).

The OP may be well above any income level I have experienced, so his options are certainly there, but I feel my opinion of at least looking at what VAG has to offer is still a valid. There is a lot of vehicle there for the money.
Heck... maybe he could just go snag an A8 and be done with his car shopping! But then, I suspect he would take the A8, and hand the keys of the Jag to the misses!

 

Too bad they didn't use that "huge repository of engineering" to comply with today's rules and regs (which I also find somewhat constricting) instead of cheating.

 

A well written discussion to this would belong on a political board.

So I'll not.

 

I don't know about you guys but for some strange reason i have always loved the look of the x-type especially in BRG ohhh

 

I know many will hate on the Panamera but I think it is a great looking car. Is it different, yes. Like has been said most cars now look similar, at least Porsche made a bold design choice to remove itself from the regular crowd. The bolder the design the more polarizing the opinions, either love or hate.

I have two friends with Mercedes AMG, one a 2005 CL55 AMG that he has owned for 10 years. Has had very few issues, is lightning quick, has a beautiful interior, and is built like a tank. The other has a 2013 CLS63 AMG also with no issues.

 

Thanks for all the feedback from everyone. In the end, I just didn't like the styling of any of the Audis despite all the love from the automotive press. Nor any of the Lexi. So pulled the trigger on a white Panamera. The looks have grown on me with the right color and set of rims. The CLS63 was tempting but I ultimately didn't like the looks either and decided it would be silly to have a daily driver that was faster and potentially less reliable than the weekend car . Time will tell if its the right choice, but I've also had good experiences with Porsche.

 

Sweet!

 

Congrats!

Did you test drive the CLS? I took one for a spin a while back and it was quick but is a huge boat of a car. A Porsche with 4 doors will be MUCH more fun!!!

 

Is that new? Which spec of Panamera is it? We need more pic!!! Sharp combo

 

Thanks! The CLS I found online was 8 hours away, and the local dealer didn't have an AMG version available so I never ended up test driving one. I'm sure it's a beast but ultimately hard to rationalize as a practical family car. The Panamera I ended up getting was just too good a deal to pass up.

It's not new, but what I got is actually better in a way. It's a 2015 S E-Hybrid with only 8k miles and a late 2015 service date, so it still has 3 full years and 42k miles left on the original warranty. Dealer wasn't planning on selling it as a certified model because it had so much warranty left, but agreed to roll the cost of certification into the asking price. So with certification, I am getting 5 full years of warranty up to 100k miles, which is better than what I'd get buying it new. It was put into service by the dealer as a loaner vehicle, so the entire service and maintenance history is from the same dealer, and I'm getting to take advantage of a pretty big depreciation hit. It's not super high performance, but should be quite a bit better than the POS BMW it's replacing. Plus the prospect of potentially filling up only once a month or so is intriguing since range on electric only is 20 miles, and my commute is only about 10 miles. My office coincidentally also just put up a charging station , so as long as it's not occupied, I ought to be able to keep the battery topped off most of the time. Don't take delivery til tomorrow, so no more pics yet, but it is exactly this wheel and color combo with the cool neon green brake calipers.

 

We'll need to see close up's of those wheels and calipers!!!

 

Enjoy!!

 

Finally got to spend a full day in the Panamera after going overseas for 3 weeks the day after getting it. Definitely happier with it after spending some time getting to know it. Nowhere near as fun to drive as the XKR, but it's a really solid car. Better fit and finish than the Jag (or anything else I've owned for that matter). Tech and creature comforts are also a step up. I was a little disappointed with the performance at first, but after getting better acquainted with the various drive modes and suspension settings, I'm now a happy camper. Pulls quite hard when "Sport Plus" mode is engaged, which is basically where the electric motor is used to boost the supercharged V6 at full grunt. Coming off the Jag, it's deathly quiet even with the gas pedal mashed but also surprisingly nimble for a 4,600 lb car.

For now, I think it's a pretty good complement to the XKR. It might be the novelty of the hybrid powertrain, but I feel like a completely different driver in the Panamera. While the XKR makes me want to gun it constantly just to revel in the exhaust note and power rush, the Panamera (for now) has me wanting to drive as smoothly as possible to see how long I can go without having the gas engine kick on. It's definitely floggable if you feel like it, but with my wife at the wheel, I could see it going almost indefinitely on electric alone since her daily commute and driving style are well within the electric only range.

Ultimately, I think it's a jump up in driving pleasure (and hopefully reliability) from the miserable BMW 750 it's replacing, but not a particularly practical second car since it only seats four max (rear seats are buckets) and has a smallish trunk area. It's just enough to fit both my kids but not any friends wanting to tag along anywhere - although maybe that's a good thing.

I've also come around a bit on the looks, which I think are better in person. Nothing like the Jag, but not bad as sedans go.