2012 Panamera Turbo S Certified on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Porsche celebrates 50 years of 911 with some excellent pics

The Porsche 911 is one of the most iconic sports cars of all time, and to celebrate the car's first 50 years, Porsche has released a stunning set of photos showing how far the 911 has come from the original back in 1963 to its current 991 generation. Unlike the recent 60-year photo spread that Chevrolet put together for the Corvette, though, Porsche's gallery only shows the original 911 and the current car.
Each time the 911 is redesigned, the car's front fenders, roofline and the shape of the side windows are key focal points. Even some of the interior cues have remained the same over the years, including the positioning of the ignition key on the left of the steering column and the five-gauge instrument cluster layout.
Scroll down for Porsche's press release breaking down the seven generations of the 911, and be sure to check out our gallery with plenty of high-res pics for you to download as a desktop wallpaper. In fact, we're providing these at 1920-pixels-wide instead of our usual 1280 wide. Enjoy!

Porsche 911 Cabriolet refresh may hide new engine

If we learned nothing else from our recent frolic through Porsche's secret museum, it's that the automaker goes to incredible lengths to disguise future products during initial testing. Just as a number of cars in that Stuttgart bunker hid the true identity of developmental mules (like the Audi-V8-powered 911), such could very well be the case with these spy shots showing what, on the surface, appears to be simply a facelifted 991 911 Cabriolet.
Similar to what we saw last month on a 911 coupe, this Cabriolet has obvious styling modifications made to the front and rear fascias suggesting that the 911's still-fresh appearance is already set to get a few tweaks. The big news here is at the rear of the car. The additional vents on the lower edge of the fascia and the mocked-up vent above the engine leads our spy photographer to believe that a new engine could be tucked under the body work - likely a smaller-displacement, turbocharged flat-six focusing more on improving fuel efficiency and reducing exhaust emissions rather than performance.
We last heard rumblings of such a detuned 911 back in August, but could this be our first look at said new model? Have a look for yourself, and let us know what you think - either about this mule specifically or the idea of a "green" 911, in Comments below.

Despite premium carmakers going downmarket, luxury auto sales stick at 10-11%

According to research conducted by global information company IHS Automotive, the leporine birthing of new models by luxury manufacturers over the past six years hasn't increased their market share in the US. Even as car sales reached 15.6 million units, IHS says what's happened instead is that luxury buyers are merely moving from one brand to another, moving from larger luxury vehicles into hot segments like compact luxury crossovers or leaving the market at the same rate as other buyers enter.
Whether broken out by makes or by segment, market share has rollercoastered inside a narrow band from 10.5 to 11.5 percent since "at least" 2008. Closer investigation reveals the shifting boundaries in the aspirational pond, with brands like Mercedes-Benz and Audi gaining territory as Lexus and Lincoln lost it, and Saab and Hummer were buried, dead, under it. One neat note is that Tesla has gone from a share of zip to .12 percent.
The subcompact and compact crossover segments show growth, with those little high-riders jumping from .3 percent to 1.16 percent of overall industry sales. Their rise, though, is concomitant with the decline of four other segments: compact and midsize cars and fullsize cars and SUVs. We think the next few years that will tell if the small-car expansion can overcome the large-car retraction, with a phalanx of smaller offerings like the CLA only recently hitting the market and others like the GLA, Macan and Q1 doing so in the near future.