Talk about an unorthodox and unusual comparison – the german fellows at Autobild puts the new BMW 7 Series against the Porsche Panamera and the Maserati Quattroporte.
Overview
All three vehicles tested are equipped with a V8 and rear-wheel drive. While the Maserati is the sportiest from the bunch, the Panamera and 7 Series compensate with their overwhelming technology and road stance.
The twin-turbo V8 engine in the 750i produces 407 horsepower and 600 Nm of torque from 1,750 rpm. All that brute force is kept in place by the extremely elaborate aluminum suspension system and its Active Roll Stabilization.
With the push of a button, the driver can choose between the Comfort, Normal, Sport and Sport Plus driving modes. Furthermore, the M-Sport Package adds even more appeal to the BMW flagship.
Maserati leads in the horsepower department with its 440 ponies coming out of a 4.7 liter V78 engine. Quattroporte also features a sport suspension and 20-inch wheels.
Porsche Panamera uses a new generation 4.8 liter V8 engine derived from the Cayenne S / GTS. It outputs exactly 400 horsepower through direct injection and variable intake control.
Same as the 7 Series, Panamera features an advanced and complex suspension system that compliments the driving characteristics of this controversial Porsche.
Driving experience
According to Autobild, the 7 Series is “king” on the Autobahn. The limousine characteristics of the 7 Series stand out and the active roll stabilization works as advertised.
With a push of a button, the Maserati unleashes a “hell sound”, so outrageous that everything and everyone around the car is simply intimidated, but yet…delighted. The automatic transmission is fast and smooth in changing gears and it stands out even more during the racetrack exercise. As expected, the Quattroporte comes ahead of the BMW during the timed laps.
Surprisingly, Autobild finds that Panamera S, with its superior sporting talents, puts his rivals into the ground.
On the motorway, the Panamera marches calmly to the top speed of 283 km/h and acts as a sports car that needs a firm hand on the steering wheel. On rural roads, Panamera S feels incredible light, preparing itself for the ultimate test: timed laps on the racetrack. Panamera S has the fastest acceleration time and thanks to its sporty brakes, delivers the shortest stopping distance.
While cornering, the steering wheel never feels too sharp and Panamera S instantly evokes confidence.
Maybe not the most accurate or appropriate comparison, but it is quite interesting to see how these three distinctive vehicles stack up against each other.
[Source: Autobild | Photos by Car and Driver ]
28 Responses to “Unusual comparison: BMW 7 Series vs. Porsche Panamera vs. Maserati Quattroporte”
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The Porsche is a 4 door coupe, not a sedan. I like the Maseratti but with the same thirst of the current M5, I rather save that gas money for something else
Again, it’s all about what you’re after, but I’ll say that the Porshe sounds like a very entertaining car to own. The Seven has grown up in its role as autobahn king, able to cruise and cosset the passengers with superb comfort and style. It is then able to do some spirited driving – and its very good at that.
Now, Panamera – by the sound if this test, does everything better except the luxo ride on the bahn. But like Daniel said, it is a four door coupe and can not offer the same functional space as the Seven. That, in my books, place the Seven in front of the Panamera.
I wouldn’t mind owning both tho!
I drove a Quattroporte Sport GT for about 3 months and I can say it’s a fantastic car. It had thee best exhaust note from a car I’ve driven… and apparently a study was done I believe in the UK and the Maserati exhaust was the one exhaust to make the girls ‘excited’ ;) It’s a great cruiser.. .the Skyhook suspension is good. Steering feel I found was very nice. More firm than the new 7 series and more sporty. The ladies loved it, and I loved it!
From an ownership point of view however, it’d be hard to go with the Maserati in the long run… they are finicky, and a lot more expensive to fix than a BMW or Porsche. For example, the quality of your gas has the ability to throw engine warnings and run rough. Shell 91 made her run like a beauty tho! But yes… everything is just so expensive on the Maser… insurance for one, and the maintenance… BMW is more reliable and cheaper maintenance and insurance.
The Porsche has fantastic performance and on the reliability and maintenance front it’s quite competitive. Looks are subjective but I think it’s not really that pretty. Like some ppl have said, Porsche needs to stop putting the 911 face and butt on EVERYTHING they make! I’d hate to see what their jet would look like if they got into the business jet market! That really being the only thing against the Porsche, it’s actually quite good. However, if you’re looking for luxury, space, speed, class and looks, just drop by your local BMW dealer and book a test drive in a Seven!
the video would be nice :(
First off, what is unusual about this comparison. They are all the respective high end four door sedan of the respective company
second, this article is complete plagarism. Please make corrective action by removing this article unless there is of course permission
Woah Vision man!.. .you comin’ in HOT!… slow that baby down!… just chill man, just sit back and chill.. I got this for you bro! you ain’t even gotta worry, Big J got this!
ok.. so Vision… ma man! ha ha… you ma man!.. aiight, so the deal is, BMWBlog has listed it’s source for the material both textual and visual. reading through my rule book, everything checks out A-OK!.. see, I told ya!.. I got this bro! ha ha…. you ma man!!
U killed me
Yes, it is unusual. These cars are not direct competitors and Panamera is NOT a four door sedan. YES, it has 4 doors, but as someone mentioned, it’s being considered a four door coupe, more like a niche product, just as the 5 GT.
It’s unusual comparision. Panamera is about 10cm shorter, 20 cm narrower and 7 cm shorter than 7-er. It was designed to compete with such cars as MB CSL, which is not taken as S-class and 7-er rival on its own. 7-er is much bigger car adressed to the other class of people. Of course, some of people could face a dilemma whether to buy Panamara or 7-er, but most of potential customers – I believe – wouldn’t have the problem, they wouldn’t consider Panamera as 7-er rival and would compare 7-er with such cars as S-class. Your reference to high end four-door cars makes little sense to me, since it’s obvious that this cars shouldn’t be placed in the same segment.
Horatiu, it’s really hard to me to consider 5GT as Panamera rival. This car has some interesting features similar to four-door coupe, but on the other hand, it is so different from four-door coupe – designed to face numbers of customers’ demands that usually are not well fitted to general attitude of four-door coupe potential customer to cars. One can buy 5GT as family car (hence a lot of comparisions with R-class), but four-door coupe is rarely consider as family car (of course, it concerns average customer).
I think Horatiu means that the Panamera is kind of a unique product with its own niche market and no rival at this time – so does the 5 GT
I agree with Vision, often BMW Blog articles only have a subtle hint to the source of their material. While the source seems to be given always, it would be good practice to make it clear right at the beginning, why not put the Autobild link right there?
Second: BMW Blog shows its incompetency once more. Maserati is spelled with a single “t”. Ratti is the plural of rats in Italian, surely not anything the brand wants to be associated with.
I really gotta disagree. In the first sentence BMW Blog says that it’s based on an Autobild article. Also, the sources are always linked at the bottom of the article, usually with a direct link to the very article being referenced.
2nd.. I think you’re going a little to hard on them for the proper spelling of Maserati since it’s obvious you weren’t quite so observant yourself. You should have noticed that Maserati was only misspelt in the title and tags. Throughout the whole article it was spelt correctly. If you noticed that you wouldn’t have mistaken their error as a spelling mistake, but would have mentioned it as a typographical error.
I did notice vey well that Autobild is mentioned right in the first sentence, that’s why I am asking to put an additional link right there. BMW Blog is really the only blog I read where the source is not linked at the very first mentioning. Why is it that it happens all too often that I read something on here and think “they haven’t written this by themselves, did they?” I am glad to find out here that I am not the only one.
Second: it’s a car blog and it’s the title! Where is the proof reading? This is not hot off the press, for immediate publication. It’s the one thing that shows up in google and everywhere people link to it. Even one of the commenters here has already picked it up.
Mike, it clearly says 3 times within the article, Autobild said this, Autobild said that…so not sure how you could have mistaken this by being written by us…
Sorry if I didn’t make it clear enough, but my last post was more looking at BMW blog in general. If I may give one example here, there is the press release of the X5 LCI, http://www.bmwblog.com/2010/02/06/premiere-2010-bmw-x5-facelift-lci, there is no introductory sentence, nothing, that would indicate that this is a press release. I am not into legal stuff, but it is probably fine to reproduce press releases, after all they are published by the manufacturer for this purpose. But as a reader I would rather know this at the beginning than at the very end, where there is a link to bmwusanews.com.
Sure, by now I can discern original content from press releases, but I have a feeling that occasional readers might not see the difference.
On another note, I really like BMW blog, it is nice to have all kinds of BMW news coming together at one place, so keep up the work!
BMW FTW :)
Tough crowd here. Yes, made a mistake in the title and it showed up in the tags since I did a copy and paste from the title so hence why it carried the extra “T”. Clearly, I know it’s Maserati since I wrote that word about 6 times inside the article.
As far as linking we ALWAYS link to the source and more, but sometimes we don’t link within the first sentence, not because we don’t want to, just didn’t always find it relevant. But if that makes you happy, sure. we’ll link right in the first sentence.
Plagiarism? Slow down….we pretty much summarized some of the things they said, SOME…
Its a porsche! enough said, it will always top…german precision!
Maserati…shoddy workmanship…it’ll break the moment you b uy it off the lot.
7 is a good comparison, I believe price ranges are close (within 15 K)
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I’d take the Panamera
panamera’s body with 750 engine in, and maserati interior , the total package
Horatiu, I can tell you have a tough crowd on your hands. I personally visit the site everday and I think you guys do a great job and have a well put together/easy to navigate site, and most of all it is extremely informative and keeps me up to date. As a BMW client advisor I like to keep up with BMW news and this is the place I come to most! I appreciate all the hard work you (and others) put in to keep this site up to date and informative. Don’t let the debbie downers get to you. Keep up the good work Horatiu I appreciate it!!
I
BTW, I’m a big fan or Porsche, but the Panamera goes against everything that that company stands for. I like them for their extreme performance cars, not for their luxo cruiser/coupe/sedan thingy’s. 750i FTW!!
I fully agree. A lot of hard work goes into this site and Horatiu does a great job.
It’s also nice to see a BMW client advisor taking the time to keep up to date with the industry and current BMW news and events. The world needs more client advisors like yourself!
Thank you, I appreciate it, glad to see we provide value. And yes, tough crowd, sometimes it’s okay since they keep me, us, straight, and yes, we do make some mistakes sometimes, but we’re not afraid to admit that. Glad to see the design is appealing :) Lots of thought went into that.
Thank you again and let me know if you need anything.
Thanks for the kind words Jordan
Let you know if I need anything? A job doing car reviews would be nice :-D
I love the BMW and the Porsche! I think that the Panamera is an extremely capable car! To read other articles about BMWs please click my name or my link below! Thanks! Please click!
http://1bmw1.blogspot.com/
Point taken, we’ll make it more clear in the future.