2012 Porsche Boxster Base Convertible 2.9l on 2040-cars

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Porsche CEO Oliver Blume will be installed as head of the VW brand

Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess is planning to promote Porsche CEO Oliver Blume to take over as the head of the VW brand, according to a report from Auto Motor und Sport. Citing company sources, the German site said Bernhard Maier, who currently sits at the head of VW's Skoda brand, will lead Porsche in Blume's place. A shuffle at VW isn't surprising. The last thing Volkswagen needs as it transitions away from its long-running "clean diesel" TDI fiasco and into a clean electric ID future is negative press surrounding its burgeoning electrified lineup. Unfortunately, the ID.3 launch has been marred by software issues, with Manager magazine citing company engineers saying "the basic architecture was developed too hastily." Because of that underlying issue, various modules "often do not understand each other" and suffer dropouts. The brand-new eighth-generation Golf launch was also troubled and pushed back due to software problems. And more recently, Volkswagen was forced to pull an advertisement after admitting it was racist and insulting. That marketing misstep, according to the report, will lead to the firing of Chief Marketing Officer Jochen Sengpiehl. Related Video:

Roger Rodas' Widow Suing Porsche Over Carrera GT Crash

Investigations undertaken by local law enforcement may have vindicated Porsche from any wrongdoing in the crash that killed actor Paul Walker and racing driver Roger Rodas last year, but the latter's widow is apparently not convinced. According to emerging reports, Kristine Rodas has filed a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages from Porsche Cars North America. In her suit filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court, Rodas' attorney Mark Geragos reportedly disputes the findings of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which asserted that the vehicle was traveling at an unsafe speed of 90 miles per hour on city streets, identifying the speed as the cause of the accident. Instead the lawsuit claims that the vehicle was only going 55 mph and that the cause of the crash was improper equipment – namely a faulty right rear suspension and the lack of a crash cage and proper fuel tank. "The Carrera GT was unsafe for its intended use by reason of defects in its manufacture, design, testing, component and constituents, so that it would not safely serve its purpose," according to the specifics of the suit obtained by the Los Angeles Times. When reached for comment, Porsche Cars North America spokesman Nick Twork told Autoblog: We are very sorry for the Rodas and Walker family's loss. The crash was the subject of a detailed investigation by the proper authorities (L.A. County Sheriff and California Highway Patrol), and their investigation disproves the allegations in the lawsuit. The investigation found that driving at a high speed in a negligent manner caused the crash and concluded that there was no mechanical defect. The Carrera GT is known as a difficult car to drive. As the LA Times report points out, Jay Leno spun one at Talladega in 2005, and the following year, Porsche paid part of a multi-million-dollar settlement after two were killed on a track when their Carrera GT struck a slower-moving Ferrari. The Rodas lawsuit could very well point to that previous suit from San Diego Superior Court. Whether the court in LA will hand down a similar ruling remains to be seen.

Porsche Macan configurator lets you build $110k crossover

Part of the idea behind the new Porsche Macan is that it's less expensive than its larger sibling, the Cayenne. But with a starting MSRP of $49,900, the base Macan S is actually $300 more expensive than the cheapest Cayenne. That, however, is just the start, as you can see from the online configurator.
As is often the case with German cars in general (Porsches especially), tick the right boxes and you'll soon be leaving that base price behind in a cloud of tire smoke. Start off with the Macan Turbo and you're looking at a base MSRP of $72,300, which is already over twenty grand more than the naturally-aspirated version. But even that soon escalates as the options pile on.
Aurum Metallic paint will set you back $3,120. 21-inch wheels, another $3,300. You'll probably want the air suspension, torque vectoring, the Sport Chrono package, adaptive cruise control and lane-change systems, and those each add over a grand to the price. A Burmester surround sound system is the single most expensive option at $4,290. And if you choose them all - and choose all the optional trim packages - you'll soon be looking at a price in excess of $110,000. That's enough to get you into a Cayenne Turbo... assuming you don't tag on all the options to that one, too.