S Suv 4.8l Cd Awd Power Steering 4-wheel Disc Brakes Aluminum Wheels Fog Lamps on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Your guide to vehicle subscription services

They might be extremely limited in scope because of location availability, but vehicle subscription services are a growing trend that most luxury manufacturers are jumping on. Plans are expensive, but you're paying for much more than just the car typically. We highlighted four of the larger plans with a few more listed at the end. Care by Volvo Volvo launched its subscription service last year with its brand-new XC40. It was the only vehicle available for a time, but subscribers can now get an S60 sedan as well. Subscriptions are for two years, with the monthly price including insurance, a concierge service, wear-and-tear item replacements and all maintenance. You'll be able to drive 15,000 miles per year with whichever Volvo you choose, and although there are no options to extend that mileage, you can swap cars after a year. Pricing for the XC40 is $650 per month in base trim, while an S60 can be as expensive as $850 for the R-Design. Volvo's plan is to offer more cars soon through the service, but it's relatively limited compared to others right now. Porsche Passport Porsche has two levels in its subscription service: Launch and Accelerate. Launch will cost $2,000 per month and give you access to the Cayman, Boxster, Macan and Cayenne. All of those but the Cayenne can be had in "S" trim as well. Accelerate is where the fun really starts. For $3,000 per month you can choose from a fleet of 911s, including the S, 4S, Cabriolet and Cabriolet S. If those aren't enough, you can also get the Panamera 4S, Macan GTS and Cayenne S. There are no mileage limits and you can change vehicles as often as you'd like. Also included in the price is insurance, repairs, detailing and any maintenance. It might be extremely expensive and limited to Atlanta only, but this subscription service is second-to-none for what you get. Audi Select Audi just launched its subscription car service, and it's offered in one version for a flat fee of $1,395 per month. For that you'll have access to five different cars including the A4, S5 Coupe, A5 Cabriolet, Q5, and Q7. Not a bad range of vehicles, but it would've been neat to see the recently updated A7 in there too. Maybe in time. Like the others, insurance and maintenance are wrapped up in the price. Audi is allowing for unlimited miles and two car swaps per month here. In addition to that, you'll get two days of free rentals through Audi's Silvercar rental agency should you go on a trip.

Motor Trend hits Laguna Seca with Ferrari F12, Chevy Corvette, Porsche 911

According to the crew at Motor Trend, we should think of the video below "as an addendum to Best Driver's Car," a test the magazine put together that elevated the 2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S above all others in the category of driving joy. It seems the brand-new 2014 Chevy Corvette Stingray wasn't able to take part in the magazine's official test, and neither was the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta.
And so Motor Trend did the only logical thing: It procured both the 'Vette and Prancing Horse as soon as it could, and put them both on track with the Driver's Car-winning 911. Of course, these cars don't actually compete against each other - the Ferrari offers up 731 horsepower and wears an asking price of $434,144 as tested, which means you could buy four loaded Corvettes for the price of one F12, and still have money left for a garage to store them in - but that's not the point of this particular test.
The point of this test isn't to listen to the beautiful sounds coming from the Porsche's flat-six-cylinder, the Corvette's pushrod V8 or the Ferrari's luscious V12, either, but the video below is worth watching for those three reasons alone. You know what to do.

Porsche acquires ANDIAL, will integrate with in-house motorsports

Porsche has purchased longtime motorsports and tuning house ANDIAL.
The Fountain Valley, California-based tuning house ANDIAL has been around since 1975, when it was formed by the Arnold Wagner, Dieter Inzenhofer and Alwin Springer (the company got its name by combining two letters from each of their names). The three men met while working in a Porsche dealership in Southern California and then left to start a business that would put Porsches in victory lane all over the country.
Porsches prepared by ANDIAL won IMSA GT and Supercar Series championships, the SCCA World Challenge, four Pikes Peak class titles and the 24 Hours of Daytona six times. Alwin Springer left the company in 1997 to run Porsche Motorsport North America until 2004 and remains a consultant with PMNA, Wagner passed away in 2011 and Inzenhofer plans to retire this year. ANDIAL is still a going concern, Inzenhofer presiding over a scaled-down engine parts and restoration business. But Inzenhofer is retiring at month's end, making it a good time for Porsche to step in and take over the company's operations.