Not Special, Just “Edition”: Meet the Newest Porsche Panamera

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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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