2011 Porsche Panamera 4 Navi Bose Leather Park Assist Xenon Awd Low Miles Black on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2014 Porsche Panamera 4S Executive

If the idea of a Porsche sedan (or, long hatchback) is still off-putting to you, then you might want to look away now. For 2014, the polarizing Panamera has received a midcycle refresh bringing slightly different styling, as well as adding two new models to the lineup, the S E-Hybrid and the stretched-wheelbase Executive. Having focused most of my recent trip to Germany on a First Drive of the intriguing plug-in Panamera, I also got to spend some time with the roomier Executive model.
Offered in both 4S and Turbo guise, the Panamera Executive has been stretched by almost six inches for the sole purpose of improving rear passenger space. Although it's hard to imagine anyone would willingly buy a Porsche and opt to sit in the back seat, I'd have to say that if I'm going to be chauffeured around in a car, why not make it a Porsche? For the most part, though, I'm guessing that many Panamera Executive sedans will be owned by people who want to one-up their buddy driving a stretched BMW 7 Series or Mercedes-Benz S-Class.
Driving Notes:

Porsche has doubled US sales to women [w/videos]

Porsche is having a good sales year in the US, with 25,129 vehicles delivered year-to-date coming off the automaker's best July sales ever. That's a 31-percent increase over the same period last year (19,253 deliveries). With year-to-date Panamera sales a surprising 36 percent lower than last year, what possibly could be driving Porsche's sales surge? If you answered Cayman and Boxster sales, you're right. But dealerships are noticing another factor: more women are coming in to buy Porsches, CNBC reports, the bulk of whom picked up new Cayenne SUVs. The German automaker's sales to women in the US have more than doubled in the past two years, increasing from 7 percent to 15 percent. This has helped year-to-date Cayenne sales reach 11,082 - 31 percent higher than the same time last year.
Porsche executives have been trying to tap into the women's market, as evidenced in part by the company's move to pick professional tennis player Maria Sharapova as a brand ambassador. Porsche maintains it has not moved to dramatically change its brand image, but it has shown a number of ads in recent years that uncharacteristically emphasize its vehicles' practicality under the "Engineered for Magic. Everyday" banner - some featuring female drivers.
Be sure to watch CNBC's video report on Porsche's female movement below - you'll also find one of the aforementioned Engineered For Magic ads as well as an interesting case study video on the campaign from ad agency Cramer-Krasselt.

McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918 vs Ducati 1199 Superleggera in epic standing-mile drag race

We live in a high-tech supercar renaissance, with the Porsche 918 Spyder, McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari all duking it out for performance supremacy. All three members of this power trio place the engine behind the driver and use some kind of hybrid assist. However, each one finds a slightly different way to make that setup work. While all of the tech is insanely cool, let's just admit that we are all really wondering which one is the quickest and which is the fastest. Autocar aims to find out in a new video pitting two of them against a surprise challenger in the standing mile.
Unfortunately, the race is missing the Ferrari, despite Autocar's best efforts. So instead, it has another limited-edition, high-performance vehicle from Italy in the form of the Ducati 1199 Superleggera. The bike has just two cylinders, but at 1.2-liters of displacement, it makes over 200 horsepower, and all that gumption is packaged into a magnesium monocoque body with carbon fiber bodywork to keep weight low. Granted, the cycle is going up against the 875-hp Porsche and 903-hp McLaren, but traction, aerodynamics and gearing all play a part in this fascinating video.
There's no sense in ruining the winner before watching, but Autocar teases that the finish is one of its closest drag races ever. Check out the video to find out just what that means.