MOST people probably think of the Porsche Panamera as a luxury performance car rather than a practical everyday motor.
And I'd have to confess that until recently I was one of them.
But having just employed one as a car to transport a family of four on holiday I was knocked out by its versatility and adaptability.
My wife's idea of a satisfactory holiday car would be a Range Rover, probably with a large trailer in tow and the ability to transport a shoe collection similar in size to Imelda Marcos's.
A Grand Tourer doesn't quite fit the bill. So it was with some trepidation I approached the good news/bad news scenario of what car we'd be travelling in for a trip to Ireland.
"It's a very nice car - but you might have to restrict the number of shoes you take," was my opening line.
While it didn't meet with a welcoming response we needn't have worried, the Panamera taking us somewhat by surprise when it came to practicality.
Remove its parcel shelf and the Panamera turns into a remarkably resourceful and surprisingly spacious hatchback.
With 445-litres of carrying capacity it's significantly larger than an average family hatchback and though its boot might not be the deepest it's long and cavernous in its own way.
It swallowed up a couple of large cases with relative ease and still there was space for lots more. Rather like some magic trick I continually thought I was getting close to capacity but there was room for more¦..and more¦.and even more!
Suffice to say we got everything in, even the slimmed-down shoe collection.
Not only that, but with everything on board the Panamera was also an exceptionally pleasant car to travel in.
That suitably stretched 911 styling sees enough room to transport four people in a considerable degree of comfort.
Our only compromise was having to use the rear footwells to place a couple of bags, though in truth they ended up acting as ad-hoc footrests for the younger travellers.
To describe the Panamera V6 as an entry-level model seems a bit disingenuous, but that's what it is.
Entry level or not it offers plenty of car too, even if it could perhaps be described as somewhat pedestrian compared to some of its more performance-focused stable mates.
This car had Porsche's semi-automatic seven-speed gearbox as an extra and though at £2,388 it's a fair slice on top it actually makes all the difference.
As well as offering all that ease of automatic motoring it also offers both improved performance and economy over the manual version.
The days when the convenience of automatic transmission meant sacrificing performance are long gone.
The PDK V6 Panamera will complete the 0-62mph sprint in just 6.3 seconds, a whole half a second quicker than the manual.
Not only that but its combined economy figure is a rather respectable 30mpg - 5mpg better than the manual.
Economy is aided by a stop-start system that has to be one of the most smoth and swiftly operating I've experienced.
The car featured the standard suspension rather than the upgraded adaptive air option but it certainly didn't feel like a compromise.
The standard mode offered a suitably comfortable ride, while sport mode toughened and sharpened things up noticeably. Bizarrely it actually proved preferable for navigating twisting country roads too, with a little less pitch and roll meaning occasionally queasy passengers didn't find the experience too unsettling.
As an important addition to Porsche's ever-expanding model range the Panamera met with a mixed response.
Not everyone likes it and some probably regard it as a dilution of the Porsche brand, though those kind of purists are probably the sort of people who would prefer Porsche just went on making the 911 and nothing else.
I've had something of a fondness for the Panamera from the word go and think it has more than enough Porsche DNA in its make-up to make it a worthy wearer of the legendary badge.
But perhaps it's also because I have two children, who are getting just a little bit too big to fit in the ‘compact and bijou' seats in the back of a 911.
While it isn't a cheap option as a family motor, it has to be said it does the job pretty well and with diesel and hybrid versions now an option too it has even more going for it in this regard than ever.