1989 Porsche 944 Turbo Coupe 2-door 2.5l on 2040-cars

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2015 Porsche 918 Spyder: Touring the factory

Willy Wonka granted just five lucky Golden Ticket holders access to his incredible chocolate factory, yet we consider ourselves just as fortunate, as Porsche invited us to be among the first of just four American journalists to see behind the closed doors of its 918 Spyder assembly plant in Zuffenhausen, Germany. Of course, there were no Oompa Loompas or flowing chocolate rivers, but the vast white hall tasked with producing only 918 examples of the automaker's limited-production flagship revealed details that make Wonka's Golden Egg sorting room seem rather mundane in comparison. Unlike a traditional automobile manufacturing plant, which often encompass all processes of making a vehicle (e.g., stamping steel panels, welding components and painting), the 918 Spyder is built in an assembly plant. This means that hundreds of already manufactured parts, each crafted by Porsche offsite suppliers, are brought under one roof to be assembled into a perfectly finished product that is much sweeter – and far more expensive – than any candy delicacy. Our tour guide was Michael Drolshagen, Porsche's Director of Production, Logistics and Quality - a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the engineering and assembly of the 918 Spyder. Drolshagen generously offered us unrestricted access to walk among the factory's 110 workers – and a couple-dozen vehicles in process – to photograph everything. This is a story best told with pictures, so we've put together a raft of our best images in a high-resolution gallery and captioned each with a detailed description. If you've still got questions, please voice them in Comments section and we'll do our best to answer.

Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid gets $3,400 price cut in Canada

It's about $2,560 to you and me, pilgrim. Porsche is cutting the price of its Panamera S E-Hybrid by $3,400 for our neighbors to the north. In US dollars, that's a haircut of about $2,560. Of course, the premium SUV plug-in hybrid is no bargain, even in Canadian dollars. The sticker price now comes in at C$106,000 for the parallel plug-in hybrid. Granted, the car is a beast, and represents one heck of an effort for the German luxury-vehicle maker to hop aboard the green-car train, however little sales they derive from it. The model delivers 416 horsepower from its V6 gas-powered engine and electric motor. So while that's good for a fuel-economy rating (here in the States, at least) of 50 miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe), the car also has a top speed of 167 miles per hour. Think Montreal to Toronto in two hours and change, if the roads are empty. And not frozen. And have no speed limit. Stateside, the plug-in Panamera has been selling in pretty low volumes. The model, including the gas-powered version, moved about 4,200 units through the first 10 months of the year, or about 10 percent of Porsche's total. Through October, sales of the plug-in only were down 55 percent from a year earlier to just 358 units, so one shouldn't expect a flood of them to be sold because of the three-percent discount. Still, a price cut certainly beats a snowshoe to the head. Take a look at Porsche's press release below. Porsche Canada realigns pricing of its plug-in premium sports sedan 2016 Panamera S E-Hybrid now starts at $106,600 MISSISSAUGA, ON, Nov. 9, 2015 /CNW/ - Porsche Canada announced today that it had lowered the starting price of the Panamera S E-Hybrid for 2016 model year, effective immediately. The first plug-in hybrid vehicle in the luxury segment will now be offered starting at $106,600 – a reduction of $3,400 compared to the 2015 model year. This adjustment effectively brings the price in alignment with that of the Panamera S. Now, the Panamera S E-Hybrid represents an even more compelling choice in the segment, offering such quintessential Porsche traits as style, performance, quality, and impressive efficiency of its advanced powertrain. The hybrid tradition at Porsche extends back to the year 1899 and to the Lohner Porsche – the world's first vehicle to have a battery-powered electric drive as well as a combustion engine, which was designed and built by Ferdinand Porsche.

Car owners getting more irritated with their repair experiences, study says

The J.D. Power U.S. Customer Service Index Study (CSI) is a barometer of a vehicle owner's happiness with the service experience. While it wasn't all bad in the 2023 study, the overall owner satisfaction score dropped. This year's tally of 846 out of 1,000 is two points down from 2022, the 43-year-old study's first decline in more than 28 years, and one point down from 2021. However, the overall score remains well up from the pre-pandemic scores of 821 in 2018 and 837 in 2020. The study claims the stumbling block is the horde of BEV launches. The flood into the new energy space has created a recall rate among EVs that's more than double the rate for ICE vehicles. Furthermore, dealership service department knowledge of EVs isn't on par with internal combustion engine expertise, leaving EV owners less satisfied with service advisors compared to ICE owners. Chris Sutton, VP of automotive retail at J.D. Power, said, "As training programs for service advisors and technicians evolve, EV service quality and customer experience must address both the vehicle and the unique customer needs. The EV segment has the potential to spur massive convenience improvements in how customers service their vehicles — but weÂ’re not seeing the benefits yet." Matters are slightly worse for all owners, though, with labor and parts shortages contributing to longer wait times for service appointments. The CSI study surveys owners and lessees of one- to three-year-old vehicles to gauge their happiness with service at franchised dealer or aftermarket service facilities for maintenance or repair work. The criteria in order of importance are service quality (32%); service advisor (19%); vehicle pick-up (19%); service facility (15%); and service initiation (15%). Lexus retains the top spot for luxury brands, giving it three wins in four years. The Japanese automaker won in 2020 as well, its run interrupted by Porsche in 2021. Cadillac, Infiniti and Acura complete the luxury top 5.  For mass-market cars, Mitsubishi wins again after a victory in 2021 and falling to fourth last year. It's followed by Mazda, Buick, Subaru and Mini.  Considering the different service needs and service experience of different body styles, the study has broken results out by segment for the first time. Lexus earned a second victory thanks to winning the premium SUV segment, and Mitsubishi earned a second victory by winning the mass-market SUV/minivan category.