- YouTuber Kordare bought a $30K Panamera Turbo to fix its rear.
- He fitted aftermarket LED taillights styled after newer Panamera.
- The swap looks convincing and required no bodywork changes ever.
Often ridiculed for its unfortunate rear design, the first-generation Porsche Panamera is finding new life on the used market as a high-performance bargain. Though its awkward tail was toned down in the facelift and eliminated entirely in later versions, early models are still stigmatized for their styling.
That hasn’t stopped a certain YouTuber from picking one up and trying to fix what Porsche once got wrong.
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The channel behind the effort is Kordare, which started with the facelifted first-generation Panamera Turbo introduced in 2013. That refresh already softened some of the car’s harsher angles, and in this case, the base car is a 2016 model, the final year before the full redesign.
It’s logged a respectable 106,000 miles (170,600 km) under the care of a single owner, who, judging by the condition, treated it better than most people treat their pets.
Taillight Surgery
Kordare / YouTube
Kordare calls the Panamera Turbo the “fastest and ugliest car under $30k” and was genuinely impressed by the interior’s shape after all those miles. But the rounded rear still didn’t sit right. So, he sourced a set of aftermarket LED taillights that mimic the cleaner look of the second-generation Panamera.
The kit came with two slimmer LED units, body-colored panels to mask the gaping voids left by the original lights, and a light bar for the tailgate. Somewhat surprisingly, it didn’t require any reshaping of the metal, aside from removing the factory Porsche lettering.
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From a few paces back, the results hold up well. The full-width taillight strip even features a startup sequence that animates the LED graphics, giving the big Porsche a far more current vibe.
Does It Hold Up Close?
A closer look, though, exposes a few fit and finish issues, with the new taillights jutting out slightly from the bodywork, almost acting as a makeshift rear spoiler. The tight-fitting body-colored trim also blurs the shut lines of the hatch, making them nearly vanish. Even so, it doesn’t interfere with the rear hatch’s functionality.
The second- and third-generation Panameras, launched in 2016 and 2024 respectively, brought cleaner proportions and rear-end designs that echo the 911. Kordare’s version doesn’t quite match their appeal, but it gets surprisingly close, at a fraction of the price.
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Beyond the visual upgrades, Kordare also tackled the Panamera Turbo’s sound. The stock exhaust, he found, was “extremely quiet”, not a trait he wanted in a twin-turbo V8 sedan.
His first attempt was a side-exit system, which delivered a soundtrack somewhere between agricultural equipment and old-school diesel, while also scraping the ground and ruining the car’s aero. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t last. A fully reworked exhaust setup is now in development and will be featured in upcoming videos.