I'm with the nay-sayers on this one. In my opinion, Porsche doesn't need this (or the Cayenne, for that matter) in order to survive. And in any case, they've done just fine with their Euro-corporate shenanigans with massive hedging and VW. The Cayenne might have helped the bottom line in the short run, but so did the Boxster -- and the Boxster did it without turning a sports car company into just another regular car company. And both the Cayenne and the Panamera are going to face
serious trouble generating revenue for Porsche over time. Novelty is just novelty. These non-sports-car models are slowly devaluing the brand, which is a ridiculously expensive mistake in the long run (consider that the only valuable assets in the entire Chrysler world are 1) the fading Mopar legacy and 2) Jeep, the one line in the entire company that actually has some brand-identification value).
In a world already overflowing with high-priced four door European GT cars, Porsche has come to the party right at the end with the ugliest car of the bunch. That interior already looks dated to me, and it hasn't even been released yet.
Sorry to say it, but I'm a hater on this issue. If Porsche needs to make sedans and SUVs to survive, then it's already pretty much gone.