Porsche Panamera vs Mercedes-AMG E63

What's the difference?

Australia hasn't had what you'd call a love affair with the Porsche Panamera. Especially compared to the on-going romance with its iconic sibling, the 911 and even its SUV stablemates. 

The Panamera straddles the fence between high-performance sports car and family sedan and it's a position rivals like the BMW 740i, Maserati Quattroporte and Mercedes-Benz S450 have sometimes found difficult to balance.

This new-generation 'base' Panamera model is on test to see if this sedan's 2025 redesign will launch an arrow from Cupid's bow for Australian families?

Feels like lately all the Mercedes-AMG buzz has been at the smaller end of the scale.

Most recently, the screaming GLA 45 S has arrived in Australia, pumping out more kilowatts and newton-metres than any compact SUV has a right to.

But here, we're doubling the cylinder count to eight, arranging them in a vee, and lighting the wick on AMG's powerhouse mid-size sedan, the recently upgraded E 63 S.

While the ferocious twin-turbo V8 and the rest of this beast's powertrain are unchanged, the car has been brought up to speed with some aero-focused styling tweaks, Merc's latest 'Widescreen' digital cockpit, as well as the MBUX multimedia system, and a tricky new multi-function sports steering wheel.