Porsche

There may be some debate as to whether the Cayenne saved Porsche, but there’s no denying its popularity. The growing number of powertrain and configuration options attest to that fact, and Porsche recently announced another. The Cayenne S E-Hybrid will land for the 2024 model year and will be available in coupe and SUV body styles. 

Large automakers save money by sharing platforms and engineering designs across individual brands, but the practice means that problems affecting one model tend to impact related vehicles. Porsche and Audi recently issued a recall that illustrates that point, as the vehicles share most of their underlying engineering and could have batteries with insufficient sealant.

Porsche is adding some neat features to its smartphone-mirroring systems -- which has me wondering, what else can be added?

While certain other companies (ahem, General Motors, ahem) are busy and inexplicably running away from Apple CarPlay, brands like Porsche are making a concerted effort to further integrate the tool into their vehicles.

Today's UCOTD is a fairly simple one -- a 2006 Porsche Boxster with a manual transmission.

President and CEO of Porsche Cars North America, Kjell Gruner, has left the company. The former Porsche AG chief marketing officer took the wheel to oversee our region less than three years ago and has reportedly made an abrupt exodus. 

Today's TTAC rewind takes us back to a piece Jack wrote about doctors, Porsches, and moderation.

Today's used car of the day is a manual-transmission 2010 Porsche Cayman S that comes to us from Dallas.

Porsche wasn’t the first to jump onto the Apple CarPlay train years ago, but the automaker has fully embraced the technology. The Taycan EV recently gained the ability to map charging locations in Apple Maps, rather than using its in-built navigation system, giving owners more options with Apple’s friendly interface.

A huge chunk of our recent UCOTD's have been, uh, reclamation projects. So for today, we're going high-end with a low-mileage 2019 Porsche Cayman S.

The Porsche 718 Spyder has always delivered a thrilling open-top driving experience, but there’s a new variant coming that promises to up the ante significantly. The 2024 718 Spyder RS borrows the 4.0-liter flat-six from the 718 Cayman GT4 RS and combines it with Porsche’s excellent seven-speed PDK transmission. Power output is prodigious, at 493 horsepower and 331 pound-feet of torque. 

Porsche will reportedly be raising prices between 4 and 8 percent on the European and U.S. markets during the second half of 2023 to cope with higher operating costs noted in its first-quarter earnings announcement. Even so, higher-end brands appear to be doing fairly well at present, and Porsche itself noted that operating profits rose to €1.84 billion ($2.03 billion USD) while revenue increased to €10.1 billion in Q1 — which is about 25 percent higher than they were last year.

We could debate whether the Cayenne saved Porsche until the cows come home, but there’s no denying the SUV’s appeal and popularity in the automaker’s lineup. The SUV’s getting a refresh for 2024, but it’s not the mild facelift we often see in the industry. Porsche’s giving the Cayenne better powertrains, a revised interior with more screens, and upgraded suspension.

The Carrera GT is one of the most sought-after Porsche models of all time, and its seven-digit sales price numbers reflect its exceeding rarity. Even so, the car, which was last produced 17 years ago, has a new recall. 

We’ve been hearing about Porsche’s electric ambitions for a while, and the automaker has confirmed that the Macan will be powered by electrons soon. A short while ago, there were strong rumors that the automaker would build an ultra-high-end EV to slot in above the Cayenne, and it recently clarified how its next few years would play out from a product perspective.

Porsche is going electric, shifting decades of motorsport and engineering knowledge to completely novel propulsion systems and platforms. The Taycan arrived in 2020 with mind-bending performance, and we’ve seen spy images of an electric 718, so it’s not a huge surprise to learn that the automaker is planning an electric seven-seat SUV to compete with the latest and greatest from Mercedes and BMW. 

The Porsche 911 Dakar is set to join the ranks of ultra-cool but ultra-expensive and difficult-to-find models in the automaker’s vast catalog, but that hasn’t stopped it from offering upgrades for the car. To celebrate the car’s rally roots, Porsche announced a series of retro wraps inspired by the brand’s run in the East African Safari Rally and the Paris-Dakar Rally in the 1970s and 80s.

People have been building wild off-road Porsche models in garages and custom shops for years, so it wasn’t surprising to see the automaker get into the action with its own beefy 911 model late last year. The 911 Dakar is absolutely unobtainium, however, as the company is only making 2,500 of them. There is hope for people who missed out, as Porsche’s chairman told Car Magazine that more classic and rugged models are coming.

We’ve been hearing about Porsche’s eFuel program for a while, but the automaker only recently opened its first production facility for the innovative gasoline alternative. The facility will start with a modest 34,000-gallon annual output before ramping to a massive 14.5 million-gallon-per-year figure by the middle of the decade.

Porsche released a fairly impressive update for the Taycan EV this month, one that effectively halves the sport sedan’s charging time whilst using a Level 2 charger. 

Matrix headlights didn’t become legal in the United States until early in 2022 after automakers and enthusiasts waited almost a decade for the NHTSA decision. Europeans have enjoyed the technology for years, and automakers have had time to refine their designs. We’re starting to see second-generation LED matrix lighting systems hit the market, including a new one from Porsche. 

While digging up this week's rewind, I saw it surface from one of our own partner forums. So in the interest of corporate synergy, you can take a look over there.

Or you can, you know, just click the link below

Want to see a Porsche 911 Dakar tackle some rough terrain? Prefer to do it sans commentary and cheesy music? Boy, have we got the deal for you.

You won’t read about it on any automaker’s website or sales materials, but nearly every major car company buys and studies its competitors’ products. Spy photographers sometimes catch companies like Ford benchmarking a Chevy Camaro or new Silverado pickup truck to gain insights into how they compare to a Mustang or F-150. Electric vehicles have democratized performance and speed, making them more accessible across a broader range of cars, so it’s not surprising to see Polestar testing a Porsche 911 to prepare for its own sports car launch in 2026.

Sometimes, used-car prices cause one's eyes to pop. That is the case here, with this 2018 Porsche 718 Cayman GTS. It's certified pre-owned, and at $78,000, it's not cheap.

We’ve known that the Porsche Macan would be going electric for some time now, and the automaker has finally nailed down some details ahead of its official announcement.

If you’ve felt something is missing from your new Porsche 911 – say, an ability to blast dunes or conquer snow and ice – then a variant scheduled for the L.A. Auto Show should be right up your alley.

Porsche has already said the 718 Boxster and Cayman are going electric.

Now a prototype has been spotted out on the road.

Porsche is a brand for car nerds. There is no legitimate need for 1,700 variations on the 911 every year, but we get them, and people buy them before they even leave the factory. The 718 Cayman and Boxster have also had their fair share of special editions over the years. While they are nowhere near as common as “special” 911s, it’s not hard to find them, and Porsche just announced a new 718 variant to add to the stable. 

Porsche may have backed out of involving itself with Formula 1, but Volkswagen Group has other plans in store for its flagship sports car brand. The iconic German automaker debuted on the stock market yesterday, eventually amassing a valuation of 75 billion euros, or just over $73 billion.

Despite hardcore motorsport enthusiasts collectively proclaiming the 911 as Porsche’s greatest model of all time, it’s presently being outsold by the all-electric Taycan sedan. As a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, Porsche was already poised to electrify its entire lineup in anticipation of government restrictions on gasoline-powered models. But consumer interest in high-end EVs may be accelerating the process.

Despite Porsche transitioning to all-electric vehicles with the rest of Volkswagen Group, the brand believes that its customers will still want to drive around vintage gasoline models even after the European Union has banned them into oblivion. This is especially important for the iconic 911, which the company has repeatedly hinted would be one of the last models in its lineup to ditch internal combustion.

With countless racing series already devoted to classic examples of the car, Porsche wants to ensure there’s a solution for motorists who want to do more than pet theirs in a silent garage should the government introduce even stricter standards for automobiles than what’s already coming down the pike. So it’s revisiting alternative fuels — specifically a carbon-neutral alternative to gasoline that would work in traditional engines — from Chilean e-fuel producer Highly Innovative Fuels, with whom it’s already investing.

Volkswagen Group is apparently in talks with Porsche Automobil Holding SE about a potential initial public offering (IPO) for the Porsche luxury/sports brand. According to a statement from VW, the duo has already negotiated the agreed-upon frameworks and is in final discussions as to when they want to move forward.

Weeks of rumor preceded corporate confirmation, making it seem like the proposed deal was already a shoo-in. But any final decisions will still need to be approved by the management and supervisory boards — something Volkswagen Group said has yet to happen.

Carscoops is reporting that following spy shots that suggested the Porsche Panamera is in line for a facelift, new snaps might indicate that a full redesign is on the way.

While it may not be on the cusp of supplanting Toyota in terms of sales, the Porsche brand has enjoyed relatively consistent growth since 2009. Despite 2020 representing a poor sales year for just about everyone who wasn’t producing vaccines, the German manufacturer weathered the storm better than most and came back to break a few records the following year.

By the end of 2021, Porsche had sold nearly 302,000 vehicles globally. It also managed to break its previous sales records in China and the United States. Considering that global production volumes have remained suppressed by supply chain problems, it was an impressive accomplishment. However, Detlev von Platen, Executive Board Member Sales & Marketing at Porsche AG, believes the automaker can still outdo itself in 2022.

In 1921, there were more than 25 million horses in a United States populated by less than 110 million humans. I’m not a mathematographer, by any means, but I think that puts us at a ratio of about one horse for every four-ish people out there. And, just like there are many kinds of people, there are many kinds of horses, too. There are Quarter Horses, paints, Arabians, Appaloosas, and – of course – Thoroughbred racing horses.

Something strange has happened in the last hundred years, though. There are a lot more people and a lot fewer horses, for one thing – just 3 million horses for a whopping 330 million Americans – but it’s a curious thing that there are a lot more Thoroughbreds in 2021 than there were in 1921. What’s more, it’s almost certain that the meticulously bred horses spending their 21st Century days in luxurious stables are serving a vastly different purpose than their hard-working forbears.

You see where I’m going with this, right?

Despite being the target of a German lawsuit accusing the manufacturer of not being green enough, Volkswagen Group is probably the legacy automaker touting the merits of electrification with the most enthusiasm. While undoubtedly influenced by the diesel emissions catastrophe that cheesed off every regulator in the Western world, its brand has actively been delivering EVs and praising alternative energy automobiles whenever possible.

There was more of that this week. Porsche has reportedly decided to make the 718 to be an all-electric model by 2025 and Audi recently announced that it’s employing rally icon and Hoonigan founder Ken Block (who broke with the Ford Motor Co. earlier this year) to develop EVs.

Today’s Rare Ride is the second vehicle in the series designed by French coachbuilder Heuliez, and was a one-off as part of a Porsche 914 styling competition.

While Audi, Mercedes-AMG, and other luxury automakers hold performance driving programs at various race tracks across the U.S. and abroad, years ago Porsche decided to take a different tack. Now operating in seven different locations around the world, its Porsche Experience Centers are basically automotive playgrounds that showcase the brand’s performance heritage and contemporary racing efforts while also providing a facility for customers to build out custom specifications in the Personal Design Studio. The most interesting feature of the PECs, though, is the Driver Development Tracks. These purpose-built proving grounds allow drivers to put the capabilities of Porsche’s various vehicles to the test – whether that’s the at-limit handling of a Cayman or the off-road prowess of a Cayenne.

The 2022 Porsche Macan is getting updated with more power, tweaked styling, and more tech features.

While Porsche provided the (relatively) inexpensive 914 and 924 to American buyers during the 1970s and into the early 1980s, the debut of the 944 here in the 1983 model year resulted in the price tag on the cheapest possible Porsche starting at $18,980 (about $52,240 in 2021 dollars). While the white-powder-dusted 928 S listed at $43,000 that year (about $118,360 today), it must have pained the suits in Stuttgart to have nothing to compete for sales with the likes of the affordable Mitsubishi Starion and Nissan 280ZX. So, for the 1987 and 1988 model years, American Porsche shoppers could buy a 924 with a detuned version of the 944’s engine, keeping the cheap(-ish) price tag of the 924 while ditching the VW engine that— humiliatingly— went into American Motors economy cars and even DJ-5 mail Jeeps. This car was known as the 924S, and I’ve found this one in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard.

Porsche is asking its 1,300 suppliers to only use renewable energy as they manufacture Porsche parts, starting this month.

The German automaker is doing so in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

We reported last fall how Volkswagen-owned Bugatti had its future products on hold, given the financially turbulent and awful year which was 2020. In addition to the global pandemic cutting production, sales, profits, and everything else, VW was pouring lots of development money into its I.D. electric vehicle lineup.

At the time, there were mumblings that EV startup Rimac was in talks to purchase the brand from VW. News broke yesterday of a merger, where Volkswagen and Porsche are not entirely out of the picture.

It’s a headline that sounds ready-made for outrage-clicks from both the #savethemanuals crowd and those who dislike too much regulation of autos: “Porsche 911 GT3 Manual Can’t be Sold in California.”

Some outlets used some variation of that wording when reporting the story. A story that sounds like a case of overbearing regulators killing the fun by meddling in the free market. Add in the California factor — remember, it’s the only state that can set its own emissions standards — and feel the blood boil.

Truth is, the story is a bit more mundane than all that.

As the 911 has continued to expand in size and skillset over recent years, the line between its sporting and grand touring intentions has started to blur.

Versatility is certainly a virtue for any road-going performance vehicle, but for those looking for a dyed-in-the-wool sportscar, the platform shared between the Boxster and Cayman has always made more sense, offering better weight distribution thanks to its mid-engined layout and dimensions that harken back to the 911’s air-cooled days.

A VIN decoder that has hit one of our parent company’s forums suggests that Porsche has prolific plans for 2021.

Ten Porsche drivers with leaden feet were stopped for doubling the speed limit in Gilpin County, Colorado, and one may have been a press-fleet car.

Or at least, had manufacturer tags.

According to a police officer quoted in The Denver Post, one of the vehicles stopped was being used as a pace car.

Sick and tired of paying through the nose to swap out Porsches all month, wowing your friends and coworkers with your revolving door of high-end rides? Your prayers have been answered.

Porsche Drive, the German automaker’s limited-market, all-in subscription service, has added something new: one- or three-month access to a single Porsche vehicle, rather than a multi-vehicle plan costing significantly more.

If you’re in town for only a short contract or just can’t stand the commitment that comes with leasing, this could be for you.

Officially, the word is “manipulated.”

That’s what Porsche suspects, and the ominous presence in this plot is apparently calling from inside the house. According to a German newspaper, the automaker has launched an internal investigation into possible manipulation of its gasoline engines.

TTAC’s own Sajeev Mehta gets the credit for discovering today’s Rare Ride. It’s the most special version of the Porsche 924, and it’s for sale in his hometown in the tiny republic of Texas.

Rare Rides featured one of Porsche’s 924s a couple of years ago, with the Martini Championship Edition (a steal at $7,000). This 924 is much more obscure — and much more expensive. Is this one-of-17 car worth the cool $925,000 asking price?

Perhaps it’s both. After four long years of teasing, Porsche pulled the wraps off its Taycan electric car on Wednesday, lifting the sheet at a glitzy affair overlooking Niagara Falls.

The four-door EV is sleek, sensuous, fast, expensive, and without a doubt Tesla’s worst nightmare. Why mention the chief rival of Porsche’s new offering? Well, because Tesla’s Model S 100D came first, and it’s still a significant money-maker for the hard-pressed automaker. But Porsche is Porsche — status comes standard with each purchase, and the Taycan brings that desirable badge into the growing realm of hot electrics.

So, what does the Taycan offer?

Think of it as a swan song for gasoline propulsion, not the Macan itself. For the 2020 model year, the hottest version of Porsche’s entry-level ute returns with more power and less displacement on tap, but the Macan Turbo sings its siren song against a funeral dirge backdrop.

This vehicle is a get-one-while-you-still-can proposition.

Porsche’s new 718 Boxster and Cayman T are following a trail blazed by the 911 Carrera T by becoming the value option for enthusiasts. Equipped with the entry-level engine, T-trimmed models receive swathes of standard equipment that focus exclusively on expanding the “joy of dynamic driving.”

For the 718, that bundles the Sport Chrono Package, Porsche Active Suspension Management (lowing the car by almost an inch), torque vectoring (with a locking rear differential), 20-inch wheels, and a short-throw shifter with the standard 2.0-liter, turbo flat-four. That leaves buyers to make do with 295 horsepower and 285 pound-feet of torque, resulting in a car that’s not really any quicker in a straight line but superior in the corners. Of course, speed hunters can still ditch the six-speed manual for the PDK.

Any measure of change to the 911 reliably sends Porsche purists into a tailspin worthy of the car’s legendary snap-oversteer thirty years ago. It has been suggested that the 911 was the leading cause of death of doctors, lawyers, and – erm – entrepreneurs in the ‘70s and ‘80s than anything else, including cocaine.

Those diabolically catastrophic handling traits have long been exorcised, of course, along with air cooling and church pew seating. With each change, anoraks have wailed into their Porsche Design espresso cups.

What will be said about a hybrid 911? Well, according to one source, they’ll at least be able to say it’s the most powerful 911 ever made.

If you want a Porsche Taycan EV, you may end up waiting even longer than planned.

Unless you’ve already raised your hand, that is.

Production is a year or more away, but Porsche USA’s top boss is already saying that if all preorders are turned into sales, the car is already sold out for year one. This, despite the company’s CEO saying that production will increase to account for the number of preorders.

Outside of a Nissan-hosted panel preceding the first media day, the typically mobility discussion was muted at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show (and even that panel wasn’t nearly as eye-roll inducing as the usual Ford pronouncements — at least this panel included actual experts making reasonable points, even if I disagree with some of them.)

L.A. was all about the cars – cars you’ll soon be able to buy, should you have the means.

Porsche is in an interesting position. While it remains an enthusiast brand par excellence, adding SUVs and sedans has left the automaker with one foot in the upper-crust portion of a more mainstream market. Fortunately, this has worked out incredibly well for the company. Porsche has broken its own sales record every year since 2012.

This week at the LA Auto Show, the German manufacturer paid service to its most ardent fans by unveiling the new 911. While not Porsche’s best-selling model, it’s easily the most iconic. But what if the brand tried to bridge the gap between adrenaline-seeking Carrera owners and the well-heeled soccer moms who drive the Macan crossover?

Apparently, that’s a concept the company’s staff is currently mulling over — when they aren’t sorting and cleaning their wrenches. A specific member of Porsche’s Executive Board feels it might be a good idea.

Allow me that one, as I’ve always wanted to use it in a headline. Porsche has taken the wraps off its new 911, showing the eight-generation model to a fawning crowd in Los Angeles on the eve of this week’s auto show.

The exterior, well, that’s an unmistakably Porsche 911 profile at which to gaze. Hanging out behind the rear axle of the S and 4S models is a flat-six now making 443 horsepower.

Party, indeed.

What do you get when you combine the sporty personality of Porsche with all the comfort and luxury of a Mercedes-Benz sedan?

The answer is this E500.

The votes are in, and out of the 20 nominees for best vehicle, here are the winners.

It was a difficult campaign full of mudslinging, negative ads, and scandal – oh wait, that’s that other election campaign that ended earlier this month. Sorry, my bad.