Victoryroad

After ~17,000 miles since I took delivery in April '17 I am pleased to report that this is the best car that I have owned as a daily driver--by far.

My perspective? Several Audi's including RS4, A8, A7, A6; several MB's including CLK, CL55 and SL 550, BMW 650i convertible and several Porsches, most recently a '16 Panamera GTS, '13 Panamera GTS and a '15 991 Turbo S factory ordered, delivered in three months and on the track three weeks after delivery. Yes, the allroad is awesome. I did not go for the Prestige, just the Premium, full paint Manhattan Grey, sport seats and that is about it. The sport seats are remarkably supportive, even more so than the 18 way Porsche sport seats in either my GTS's or my Turbo S, which had amazingly effective seat ventilation and cooling that was quite effective on 85 degree track days.

Aside from intermittent Pre-sense and parking brake malfunction warnings that clear on restart, the car has been bulletproof so far. Dealer techs claim to see no record of malfunction warnings. The Conti all season tires are fine, although obviously not optimal in warm or very cold weather. Usually drive in Dynamic mode in S, but in Comfort D on long highway stretches. Car has good range, even with smallish tank. I had it Opti-coated so finish is very low maintenance and flawless. Design is clean and purposeful, IMO. Not showy, which is why I got rid of the recent white GTS. Just want to blend in, although the allroad is quite distinctive and I see relatively few on the road around Boston. Oh yes, the exhaust note is surprisingly satisfying, but never intrusive.

Sure, the RS4 Avant would be nice, but a dream for us in the US. After a few very fast cars, I find that the ar is more than adequate for my driving needs. (I tried the '17 S5 SB before buying the ar and found it to be a thrashey engine so the additional power even with sport exhaust was not fun.) Dynamically the ar is well above average. One notable point is that for several hour highway drives it is easier and more comfortable than the last Panamera GTS I owned, probably because one can feel every inch of the road in the Porsche either with summer compound or winter compound tires so even in comfort mode the GTS can get tiring compared to the ar.

Only slight downside is that it could use another 10% hp and torque, but since I do not really have a need for speed or acceleration I am OK with the power.