In the beginning, there was a Hyundai Palisade in Portland, Ore. In the end, there will be a Porsche Panamera in Agoura Hills, Calif. After almost exactly five years, this Luggage Test will be the 157th. It will also be the last.
I started doing luggage tests for a few key reasons. First, we’re a blog that needs a lot of content. The more the merrier. Second, I needed a secondary review format that wouldn’t require me to drive out into the country for two-plus hours and then write for two-plus hours. The acronym I’m looking for is “ROI.” Third, we get test cars so that we can test them. That may seem obvious, but too often in this industry, journalists treat them like weekly company cars. I usually did another type of review with the car in question, but a luggage test would always be a bare minimum. And you know what? That bare minimum actually attracted readers as well or better than various road tests and other review formats. I was as surprised by that as anyone else, but in retrospect, I had previously learned in my days at Edmunds Inside Line’s long-term test blog that people liked reading such recurring tests (such as “Will the bike fit?” or Dan Edmunds’ Suspension Walkarounds). The fact that the Luggage Tests provided practical information that people stumbled upon via Google have allowed them to keep performing long after disappearing from the Autoblog front page. The acronym I’m looking for is “SEO.”
One thing I did not set out to do was become a preeminent expert on cargo capacity, but after 157 of these things, that’s pretty much what I’ve become. I now say things like “No way that’s 23.3 cubic-feet” or “That was clearly measured to the roof instead of the seatbacks.” I’m sure my fellow editors got tired of getting a review back and finding the cargo capacity paragraph awash in red-highlighted edits. Well, not any more. I’m taking all the luggage from my garage elsewhere.
So let’s get on with the series finale, shall we? The Porsche Panamera received a mid-cycle update for 2024, and although it’s not entirely clear why, cargo capacity improved by a whopping 0.1 cubic-foot to 17.7 cubic-feet. That’s not the biggest cargo-related news for 2024, however: The Panamera’s standard, 911-shaped body style is now the only one available. The Sport Turismo wagon has been discontinued globally due to the lack of demand (although it sold better in Europe, duh, that still wasn’t enough to save it). As we’re about to see, that’s bad news for those trying to stuff luggage inside; although the Sport Turismo only had 18.3 cubic-feet on paper, the functional difference was in fact vast. Ah! And there’s another reason I did the luggage tests: They actually revealed helpful information!
Here is the cargo area of the Porsche Panamera. It’s obviously a hatchback, which always makes for easier loading. Take a look at the angle of that opening, however. That’s going to be a problem … for me and anyone who owns the car.
The Panamera has a huge, rigid cargo cover with sound deadening materials lining it. Per usual, I’ll be testing with and without it.
This particular car also had the “Power Sunblind for Rear Compartment and Rear Side Windows” package that goes for $1,140 (you can also get them separately, with the side sunshades going for $650 and rear shade going for $500, thereby saving you a cool $10 with the package). You can see the rear compartment one above right. It resides in a huge, heavy cartridge that can be removed. As such, I’ll be testing with and without that, too.
Note that this is specifically a sunshade, and not a cargo net like the one found in the Audi Allroads/Avants. It doesn’t secure into the roof as those do. I’m sure it would stop something lighter from flying forward without damaging the shade, and I doubt anything larger would be able to make it through the fixed head restraints anyway, but relying on the shade for cargo security is not recommended.
There’s a surprisingly deep space under the floor. It’s mostly filled with the battery and tire fixing kit, and the remaining space isn’t big enough for even the fancy bag, but I bet you could fit a 12 pack of something in there. As such, I think we have ourselves a hooch bin! Yay.
OK, let’s get on with it. As with every Luggage Test, I use two midsize roller suitcases that would need to be checked in at the airport (26 inches long, 16 wide, 11 deep), two black roll-aboard suitcases that just barely fit in the overhead (24L x 15W x 10D), and one smaller green roll-aboard that fits easily (23L x 15W x 10D). I also include my wife’s fancy overnight bag just to spruce things up a bit (21L x 12W x 12D).
It’s probably fitting that my last luggage test is probably one of the most difficult and annoying I’ve ever attempted. Quite simply, trying to squeeze rectangular boxes into a great big triangle is rather difficult. You end up with a lot of unused space and bags stopping the liftgate from closing. You can see above how my smallest roller extends beyond the liftgate line.
That said, here are the three tests.
Test 1: Cargo cover and sunshade cartridge in place
Option 1, above left, is the two biggest bags and one of the medium bags with some room left over for a small shopping bag and maybe(?) a flat garment bag.
Option 2, the other one, the biggest bag, a medium bag, the small roller and the fancy bag. Maybe you could add a garment bag here, too, but either way, there’s going to be questionably useful space remaining.
For comparison purposes, this was the dearly departed Sport Turismo. It had a roll-out cartridge cargo cover that could actually stay in the car AND fit all the bags.
Besides that, you can see here that the longer roof let me stack the bags atop each in a way that is impossible in the standard 911-shaped body style. The rearmost section of the cargo area is also taller, allowing for easier stacking of bags and more voluminous cutouts on each side of the cargo area for stuffing bags into the corners.
This is basically a prime example of why measuring cargo volumes in cubic-feet doesn’t tell the whole story. That measurement is one of volume, which speaks more to its ability to be filled with liquid or maybe ping-pong balls. While the Sport Turismo could only carry 0.6 cubic-foot of ping-pong balls more than the standard Panamera body style, it could carry way more luggage.
So let’s pour one out for the Sport Turismo, too, while we’re at it.
Test 2: Cargo cover out, sunshade in
Right, so I just plopped the other big bag on top of the last Tetris formation and called it a day. No way the other bag was fitting. You can really see all the wasted space here.
Onward!
One other note about these. They’re heavy! The sunshade it particular is a hefty piece (no wonder the Panamera weighs so much! Beefy, albeit well-engineered stuff like this, adds up), and not only that, I had to literally climb into the trunk to put it back in since the cargo area is so long. I’d say I’d skip this option as well as the dual sunshade packing, instead just paying $650 for the power side sunshades.
Test 3: Cargo cover and sunshade removed
You see, by removing the jumbo sunshade cartridge, I could now put the biggest bags on their sides AND push the bags right up to the seat backs. This allowed me to put the five biggest bags inside.
BUT! I still ran into the roofline slope issue.
Something could certainly fit in the remaining space, but it wasn’t going to be fancy bag. Whether I put it on top in the upper right corner or lower right corner, it was crushed to an unacceptable degree. It wouldn’t fit if packed with stuff.
As such, the Panamera could not fit all my bags. And that, my friends, is what we call a conclusion. In more ways than one.
