In-Depth Photos of the 2018 Porsche Panamera 4 and 4S Sport Turismo

"Excellence" is a word that Porsche regularly uses in reference to itself. It's also a word Porsche owners like to throw around like one-dollar chips in a high-stakes poker game. It's even the name of an entire magazine dedicated to Porsche worship. Excellence may be a given when it comes to Porsches, but the question that arises with the Porsche Panamera 4 and 4S Sport Turismo is relevance.

In our SUV-crazed, crossover-loving, tall-car-addicted world, what is the point of this low-slung longroof thing?

Now, the second generation of the broad-shouldered bruiser is available in neo-wagon form, and the world's reaction to it teeters on the hyphen in ho-hum.

The 4 means these particular Sport Turismos have all-wheel drive. (The digit is somewhat superfluous in that all Sport Turismos have all-wheel drive, but there's a rear-drive version of the standard Panamera, so wearing the 4 keeps the naming convention parallel between the two.)

The 4 employs the base Panamera's 330-hp turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6, while the 4S is powered by a twin-turbo 2.9-liter V-6 rated at 440 horsepower.

The Sport Turismo, like the sedan, stretches 198.8 inches long over a 116.1-inch wheelbase. That's not only a lot larger than a 911, it's also longer than the Cayenne SUV-which is 193.6 inches long over a 114.0-inch wheelbase.

Porsche doesn't call the Sport Turismo a station wagon, but that's kinda sorta what it is. Add some vinyl woodgrain and it could be the Panamera Country Squire. And frankly, that would be awesome.

The revised interior of the second-generation Panamera is a step forward from the inscrutable blizzard of buttons that plagued the previous version, although it's still no exemplar of ergonomic excellence.

The cabin is comfortable for four (five is a pinch), and there's room for a couple of medium-size dogs in the wayback.

The digital displays of the dash seem destined to set the paradigm for all Porsches as they evolve into their next iterations.

Using the launch-control system and letting the eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission handle the shifting, the Panamera 4S Sport Turismo took off as if it were being catapulted off the deck of an aircraft carrier. It ripped from zero to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 12.0 seconds at 116 mph.

The Panamera Sport Turismo, in 4 or 4S form, is a Porsche that's easy to respect but not easy to love.

With rear-wheel steering, Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM), adaptive air springs, and the optional active anti-roll bars in the 4S, there's as much computerized wizardry built into the chassis as there is in the drivetrain.

The trailing portions of the rear door frames are slightly taller than those of the sedan, and that makes getting into and out of the back slightly easier.

Given that, it would be nice if it were prettier. Like the standard Panamera, the Sport Turismo is a little anodyne and lacks a sense of delight, although we'd say it's the better-looking of the two.

The all-wheel-drive system never allows the 275/35ZR-21 front and 315/30ZR-21 rear Pirelli P Zero PZ4 tires to emit even a chirp.

Like the Panamera sedan, the Sport Turismo has an intimidating countenance. It's built for bold masters of the universe, not for meek apparatchiks; for veterans who have already been through free agency and know any NFL team would trade high draft picks to get them; for senior equity partners.

The altered roofline doesn't radically expand cargo capacity-the 49 cubic feet with the rear seats folded isn't even two cubes greater than that of the regular Panamera-but it's accompanied by a larger rear hatch that extends down to the rear bumper and a flat load floor that makes the space somewhat more useful.

There's plenty of excellence here, but one wonders about the relevance. Porsche's reputation rides on its sports cars, and its profits come from the SUVs.

The V-6 in the 4S is making as much as 405 lb-ft of torque at only 1750 rpm. It's computerized to the point that it's probably smarter than the engineers who programmed it, and it feeds a PDK transmission that keeps up with it, IQ point for IQ point.