Did the 2025 Porsche Panamera GTS Shatter Our Dreams?

It’s common for us to have expectations of a new model, but a trim level? Rare, but such is the case with Porsche’s GTS variants. Across the Porsche brand, GTS models occupy the happy middle ground between the diet-sport entry-level Porsches and the hardcore track-focused models. When Porsche announced the new-for-2025 GTS version of the Panamera, we were eager to find out if it hit the tickle spot … but wary it might spoil the dream for us. 

Instead of an elaborate press junket to the wilds of uncharted Europe, Porsche dropped a $182,000 2025 Panamera GTS on our doorstep for one day only, just enough time to flog it on the roads we know best. Now’s as good a time as any to mention that this is a Euro-spec car. Porsche warned us that navigation and some navi-linked driver assistance equipment wouldn’t work, but in terms of powertrain and chassis, U.S.-spec models would be functionally identical.

OK, enough exposition—we have driving to do. You want to ride shotgun with us? Great. Hop in, buckle up, and hang on. 

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A Little Grand Touring Before We Sport

We depart in the predawn hours, hoping to miss L.A.’s infamous rush-hour traffic on our run out to Malibu. It’s a good thing our neighbors are Porsche fanatics, because the Panamera fires with a noisy blat, then settles into an eminently satisfying rumble. This is a purist’s powertrain: eight cylinders, four liters, two turbochargers, zero plug-in ports, and no battery save the one that starts the engine. Every one of 493 honest horsepower (and 486 equally honest lb-ft of torque) is delivered to all four wheels via an eight-speed twin-clutch transmission. Best bit of barroom trivia from the spec sheet: The Panamera GTS can tow 4,850 pounds. Who’da thunk it?

We burble quietly out of the neighborhood, taking in the clean look of the new Panamera’s cabin. Those who have been following Porsche’s four-door over the years will have seen the center console broadening to accommodate an ever-increasing population of switches, buttons, and levers. Now, however, it’s almost barren: The transmission selector has fled to the dashboard, and most secondary controls have migrated to the touchscreen, leaving just a few touch-sensitive climate controls that are blacked out when the car is shut down. The effect is very cool and a nice reversal from the control overload on the previous Panamera.

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Power on Demand

The Panamera GTS’ ride is choppy on city streets but smooths out nicely on the highway, good evidence that Porsche has correctly dialed in the GT part of GTS. We pop on adaptive cruise and lane centering, and it guides the Panamera down the road for exactly two curves before kicking off with a warning that local road data is unavailable. Well, we’d been warned. No matter: The Panamera GTS tracks nicely, its steering system endowed with a pleasant heft.

There’s a nice thrum from the V-8, soft enough not to impede conversation but loud enough to remind you that you didn’t buy the V-6 economy engine. Too bad about all the tire noise, though—there sure is a lot of it. With the drive mode set to Normal, the powertrain is so smooth, it could be electric. It’s sedate until you need it not to be: At the center of the steering-wheel-mounted mode dial is a Sport Response push-button. A quick thumb press puts the engine in loud mode and pops the transmission down a gear, readying the car to zoom around that idiot in the F-250 who won’t give up the passing lane. Nice.

Mere minutes later, we’re off the freeway and cruising up Mulholland Highway on the way to the first set of curvy-curves. Our timing could not be better: We approach the first set of bends just as the sun starts to illuminate the pavement. We turn the mode dial from Normal to Sport just as we turn into the first sharp bend, and what a transformation! We’re no longer driving a Panamera; now we’re in a Porsche.

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Go Hard From the Get-Go

Our usual modus operandi with any new performance car is to ease into speed as we get to know its ways. No need in the Panamera GTS. The transition from cruising to carving is as natural as breathing. Like other GTS models, the Panamera is approachable and predictable, turning in sharply and gripping tenaciously. Within seconds we’re hammering away at the curves, secure inside a massive envelope of grip. The steering is heavy, maybe a little bit too much so; it necessitates a tighter grip that mutes some of the subtle feedback. But the car talks to us, and that’s what’s important.

Climbing into the hills, the eight-speed transmission always seems to know what gear to pick, although given the big, broad torque curve of the twin-turbo V-8, it’s not as if the gearbox really needs to guess accurately. We pass over a midcorner bump known for throwing cars off balance, and as predicted, the Panamera GTS soars over it with its rear end firmly planted. 

The road crests and plunges down toward the ocean, and we engage the paddle shifters to get a little engine braking, only for the transmission to shift back up after a couple of seconds. Huh? Turns out we have to push and hold the shifter toggle to engage manual mode before our gear choices will stick. Well, that’s disheartening. When did Porsche start letting lawyers design its transmission controls? 

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Finding the Balance 

We’re really booking it now, and we give a couple of clumsy jerks on the steering wheel to see if we can upset the car, and the Panamera laughs us off, making it clear we are nowhere near its limits of grip. Oh, so that’s how the GTS wants to play it? Fine. We duck down Encinal Canyon Road, the express route to the ocean, hang a right onto Pacific Coast Highway and then another right onto Decker Canyon, one of the most challenging in an area crisscrossed with epic roads.

Decker is freshly paved with some alarmingly sharp curves, one of the first of which is a sharp uphill right-hand switchback, its new asphalt already scarred from cars that bottomed out. It’s a great place to test how the suspension absorbs a sudden upward shock and check the drivetrain’s ability to get power to the ground under adverse conditions. With the drive mode dial turned to Sport Plus, we run in hard, stand on the brakes, turn in, and nail the throttle. The Panamera GTS’ front end absorbs the jolt, and the car rockets out of the turn without an ounce of grip lost. Perfect—a 911 GT3 RS could not have done a better job.

This lovely turn is followed almost immediately by a corresponding left-hand 180, broader and flatter, which lets us see just how early we can get on—and stay on—the power. No drama, no wheelspin; the Panamera does its best imitation of a bullet fleeing the barrel.

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Get That Tail Out 

Not far up the road is a set of even tighter turns, a strip where we can push even the grippiest cars to the limits without fear of high-speed calamity. Here the Panamera finally breaks loose, and whoa, momma! There’s oversteer to be had, induced by momentum, power, or both. The tail-wags are quick and easy to catch, the stability control system standing back and giving us time to correct before stepping in to help. We’ll wait for a U.S.-spec model to perform instrumented testing, but we already know whichever lucky staffer gets to take the Panamera GTS through our figure-eight handling course is in for a treat. 

We have the Panamera GTS’ number now, and the rest of Decker passes in a blur of fast-moving scenery and screaming V-8. Even the transmission is cooperating: As we drop back down into Westlake Village, it holds our commanded gear even with the selector in drive mode.

No question, the Panamera has the Sport part of GTS nailed down, too. We’re ready for a stiff drink, but it’s not even 8 a.m., so a bagel and a bottle of orange juice will have to do.

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Reflecting on What We’ve Learned

It's tempting to loop back for another run (or two or three or six), but Porsche wants the car back, and we have a story to write. Rush hour is now in full swing—we really did get through our drive route quicker than expected—and the Panamera’s adaptive cruise is still claiming regional incompatibility, so we ask Waze for a side-street route back through the San Fernando Valley and reflect on what we’ve learned.

 First and most important: Porsche hasn’t forgotten what makes a great GTS. This version of the Panamera hits that magic ratio of sensibility and sportiness. It’s comfortable enough for day-to-day driving and aggressive enough for a satisfying run on a challenging road, and never does it feel like one of those two distinct personalities was compromised for the sake of the other.

Perfect? No, there are things we’d like to see changed. Although there’s definite delineation in the suspension between Normal and the Sport modes, we wouldn’t mind if the ride in Normal was a bit less lumpy—or perhaps Porsche could add a Comfort mode with even more compliance. The beauty of air springs is the delta between comfort and sport, and we’d like to see that gap widened a bit.

We couldn’t find a way to change the steering weight, and that’s something we’d like to see. Some MT staffers like a heftier wheel, but a lot of us like a tiller that can be guided with fingertips, the better to appreciate the feedback. In Sport Plus mode, the tiller is heavy and eager to recenter, and we’d like the option of something more delicate. 

Other than that, and the fact the V-8 drinks fuel like it’s 1962, we can’t find a hell of a lot to complain about. The Panamera GTS’s $150K-plus base price isn’t cheap, let alone the $182K as-tested price, but the car sure as hell justifies it. Could we ask any more from a Porsche GTS model? No, we could not.