Porsche Panamera review - Interior & comfort

The Porsche Panamera’s heavy 2024 facelift has seen not only a redesign of the exterior, but some tweaks to the interior, too. The Panamera continues to exude quality as before, though, and sitting inside gives a real sense of solidity. There’s a new centre console, which feels a little less busy than before, which is the general theme all around.

Porsche Panamera dashboard

Like with the most recent Cayenne’s tweaked cabin, the latest Porsche Panamera’s interior has been redesigned with a more minimalist approach, and some physical switchgear relocated to the touchscreen – that could be good or bad, depending on your personal preference. The drive selector has also been moved to the dashboard to free up space on the centre console.

We’re glad to see that some functions, such as the climate controls, still get physical dials. We liked the pre-facelift car’s analogue-look gauge cluster, which straddled the line between digital and analogue by incorporating digital screens into dial-like bezels, but Porsche has done away with that this time around in favour of a 12.6-inch curved instrument screen. It’s worth noting that the centre compass or chrono stopwatch instrument dial that sits atop the dashboard is a near-£500 option, but breaks up what can be an overly-minimalistic span of material.

It’s a matter of taste, but some buyers might not like the use of glossy black plastic around the cabin, as it’s likely to leave fingerprint marks or scratches. 

In the centre of the dash is a 12.3-inch infotainment screen which looks slick, but now an optional 10.9-inch display can be specified for the passenger side, and is covered in a special film that stops it from being visible to the driver, so as not to distract them. Apple CarPlay also has extended functionality for the facelifted Panamera, because it can now control features like the climate control, seat-massage functions and even ambient lighting.

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Equipment

All Panameras come with leather seats (power-operated in the front), sat nav, 19-inch alloy wheels, all-round parking sensors, LED headlights and keyless go. There are no trim levels as such, but as has come to be expected from Porsche, there’s a seemingly endless array of options that can be added to make every Panamera unique.

Each power option of the Panamera gets its own look, though, with the higher-spec E-Hybrids getting varied alloy wheel designs as standard to help them stand out from each other.

Options

Go for an E-Hybrid model and you open up the option for Porsche’s Active Ride system, which is worth going for if you want to get the best balance of comfort and agility, as it analyses the road ahead and helps to iron out imperfections in real-time. Porsche says the system is only available on the hybrids due to its need for a high-voltage power source to work effectively, so isn’t available on solely petrol models for now.

A plethora of other options can be specified, including rear-axle steering for improved agility, heated rear seats, ventilated seats, a seat massage function, and more sophisticated premium sound systems offered by a variety of well-known companies, such as Bose or Burmester. Those options barely scratch the surface, though – play around on the configurator and you’ll quickly find the Panamera can become extremely pricey indeed.