“Fire the chauffeur” was the punchline of a popular 1980s Porsche commercial, in which a proud owner enjoys driving his new 928 S4 so much that he asks his butler, Charles, to terminate the employment of his chauffeur. But here’s a new Porsche that is designed for those who’d rather be driven.
The 2018 Porsche Panamera Executive is a long-wheelbase version of the Panamera, targeting customers who like to be chauffeured around. It’s available with all engines and represents the second of three Panamera body variations. (The third will be a station wagon, to be called a shooting brake, built using the regular wheelbase?but it will be another year before that derivative hits the market.)

Porsche’s new, second-generation Panamera family also is expanding in the opposite direction. Marking the new port of entrance is the base Panamera, which is powered by a 330-hp 3.0-liter turbocharged V-6 and slots neatly under the Panamera 4S. The base car will be called simply the Panamera when fitted with rear-wheel drive, or the Panamera 4 with all-wheel drive. The new single-turbo engine is closely related to the 440-hp 2.9-liter biturbo offered in the Panamera 4S. In essence, this is the engine offered in the new Audi S4 and S5, but here, it’s mated to an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. In the rear-wheel-drive model, zero to 60 mph takes just 5.4 seconds (according to Porsche), and it tops out at an ungoverned 164 mph; the Sport...