Porsche recalls £73,000 Panamera supercar over safety belt fears
Porsche’s long-awaited sports car, the Panamera, has been recalled over fears that its safety belts do not work.
Porsche said that it was recalling more than 11,300 of the Panamera models, which have been in production since September.
The car was introduced as Porsche’s attempt to take on the Aston Martin Rapide, Maserati Quattroporte and Mercedes-Benz CLS in the four-door, four-seater sports coupe market. The company had planned to build 20,000 a year.
Porsche said that it had ordered the recall due to possible problems with the seatbelt mounts when the front seats were adjusted in an extreme forward position.
Porsche confirmed that more than 400 of the cars are on the road in the UK, where they retail from £73,000.
The Panamera did not get the best of receptions in Britain at launch. An edition of Top Gear, the BBC motoring programme, likened the car to an Austin Maxi, a functional but unlovely family hatchback of the 1970 and 1980s.
Reviewing the model in The Sunday Times last year, Jeremy Clarkson dismissed the car’s design. “Porsche plainly gave the job to a janitor,” he said.
The recall follows months of model withdrawals by several motor manufacturers, notably Toyota, the world’s biggest carbuilder, which at one stage at 8.5 million cars worldwide on notice of recall.
From the Times 28/04/10
