Porsche: 928 S Coupe 2-door on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Porsche says turbo'd 911 engines will still be revvy

Porsche fans really, really don't like change. Remember when the 911 moved away from air-cooled engines? Now, as the company prepares to move the vast majority of the 911 line away from naturally aspirated powerplants, one of the brand's highest ranking officials is speaking out to prevent a similar outcry. Dr. Heinz-Jakob Neusser, the head of powertrain development for the Volkswagen Group and a board member of the VW brand, told Car that turbocharging won't take away from the rev-happy nature of Porsche's current engines. "Turbocharging is possible with higher revs – it's not true to say that turbocharged engines must stop at 6000rpm," Neusser told Car at the 2015 New York Auto Show. "That's not true... If you look at McLaren, they already have in production turbo engines with high revs." With turbocharged engines, Nuesser explains, there's no need to go for a super high redline, because engineers are trying to spread the torque over the entire rev range. "It makes no sense to go to 10,000 rpm with a turbocharged engine," Neusser told Car. The other big concern that comes with the switch to turbocharging focuses on the 911's iconic flat-six exhaust note. Maintaining the car's well-known acoustic character shouldn't be an issue, Neusser said. "Noise is not a problem," adding that the Volkswagen Group knows a thing or two about building sweet-sounding turbos. "Look at the 911 Turbo; it has an extremely expressive noise today – that is not a problem. At the other end of the scale, the Golf R has it too," Neusser told Car. "You won't miss character with turbos, I promise." According to Car, the new turbocharged engines will arrive later this year at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show, as part of the current 911's facelift. Featured Gallery Porsche 911 Coupe: Spy Shots View 9 Photos News Source: CarImage Credit: CarPix Frankfurt Motor Show Porsche Performance turbocharging volkswagen group

Porsche and Buick earn top honors in J.D. Power Sales Satisfaction Index Study

Customer satisfaction with car buying has been at a low point over the past few years, as price increases, inventory shortages, and COVID restrictions have complicated every part of the process. There are signs of improvement, however, as J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index Study showed that customer satisfaction has improved slightly from a year ago. J.D. Power rates satisfaction on a 1,000-point scale, finding that it improved seven points to 793 from last year. Improving inventory levels and a slow leveling off of prices have contributed to that improvement, and fewer people are paying above MSRP for new cars. Some auto brands performed better than others with sales satisfaction. Porsche ranked highest among premium brands, followed by Alfa Romeo. Buick took the top spot among mass-market brands, with GMC, Chevrolet, and Mitsubishi behind. J.D. Power also handed out segment-level awards: Premium Cars: Porsche Premium SUV: Porsche Mass-Market Car: Chevrolet Mass-Market SUV/Minivan: GMC Mass-Market Truck: GMC Despite the increase in sales satisfaction, thereÂ’s still room for improvement to reach pre-pandemic levels. J.D. Power noted gaps in salesperson knowledge as an area of improvement. Buyers rated salespeople much better during a gas vehicle purchase than with EVs, citing their expertise as a challenge. Pricing remains a challenge despite an improvement since 2022, and satisfaction is still below pre-pandemic levels. Mass-market buyers reported a slight bump in satisfaction, while premium buyers felt that pricing was less fair than a year before. ItÂ’s an interesting contrast, showing that dealer pricing tactics can significantly impact satisfaction with the sales process. Fewer people may be paying more than MSRP, but several premium models still list with significant markups. Even more interesting is PorscheÂ’s top spot on the satisfaction list, as its cars often sell with huge upcharges, and itÂ’s exceedingly tricky even to get a build allocation for some models. Buick Chevrolet GMC Porsche Car Buying Ownership

Tesla, Porsche and Genesis top Consumer Reports owner satisfaction survey

Tesla swept Consumer Reports' latest Ownership Satisfaction Survey results, notching the top spot among brands evaluated. Its Model S also netted the No. 1 spot among the top 10 most-satisfying cars. Porsche and Genesis, Hyundai's new luxury spinoff, rounded out the top three brands. The bottom of the rankings was anchored by Acura, while Mercedes-Benz notched the least-satisfying car in the survey with the GLA, proving that the results weren't equally kind to all luxury brands. Jake Fisher, director of automotive testing for Consumer Reports, told USA Today those brands suffered by introducing cheaper vehicles. The scores, on a 100-point scale, reflect whether owners say the vehicles from model years 2015 through 2018 met their expectations and whether they would buy the same car again. They measure ratings in six categories: driving experience, comfort, value, styling, audio and climate systems (what, no cupholders?). Effectively, it gauges how much people liked the car they bought. Reliability is not considered. The Honda Ridgeline outscored competitors in the compact pickup segment by a wide margin, while the Ford F-350 was among the top 10-ranked vehicles in the survey, the first time in at least five years that a pickup made it into the top 10, Consumer Reports said. In the brand survey, Chrysler rose four places to No. 4 on strong customer satisfaction with the Pacifica minivan, while Hyundai tumbled 11 spots to No. 24 and Lexus fell eight places to 18th. Rounding out the top 10 most satisfying cars were the Porsche 911, Chevrolet Corvette, Lincoln Continental, Mazda MX-5 Miata, Toyota Prius, Tesla Model X SUV, Honda Odyssey minivan and Dodge Challenger. Not surprisingly, most of those cars, and indeed most of the high-ranking brands, are those with strong brand loyalty, fan-like followings and/or those that strike a strong emotional chord with buyers. The full brand rankings are below. Tesla (90) Porsche (85) Genesis (81) Chrysler (78) Audi (76) Mazda (76) Subaru (76) Toyota (76) Honda (75) Lincoln (75) Mini (73) Ram (73) Kia (72) Chevrolet (72) BMW (72) GMC (72) Ford (70) Lexus (70) Volvo (69) Dodge (68) Jeep (68) Mercedes-Benz (67) Volkswagen (67) Hyundai (67) Buick (66) Cadillac (64) Infiniti (60) Mitsubishi (58) Nissan (58) Acura (58) Related Video: Green Genesis Porsche Tesla Ownership satisfaction