2001 Porsche Boxter S Convertible Prime Condition on 2040-cars

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VW could fight Uber Black with Porsche and Audi vehicles

Last week, the Volkswagen group dumped $300 million into Gett, a taxi hailing-cum-ride sharing app that's big outside of the US. Now, the company has revealed that it's pondering a rival to Uber Black by offering private drivers access to its higher-end vehicles. Details are scarce since it's a single line reference in a very long press release, but VW says that it's looking at a "special chauffeur service" that features "premium brands, such as Audi and Porsche." What that looks like in reality is anyone's guess, although the idea of getting ferried around in an Audi RS 7 does have some appeal. The deal with Gett will concentrate on getting Volkswagen cars into the hands of Gett's drivers with the promise of juicy discounts. For instance, the firm will offer a special package that'll bundle car insurance and servicing with the purchase price, which can be paid by a would-be operator in installments. It's a similar deal to the one that Uber offers would-be drivers, letting them buy cars from manufacturers like Volkswagen, Ford and Toyota at a discount. Uber, however, also lets prospective cabbies rent their vehicle on a monthly basis, thanks to a deal with Enterprise. Both of which will likely become more muscular now that Uber has a further $3.5 billion in its back pocket. The troubling fact for the auto industry is that people will still need cars, but it's likely that they won't need as many as they do right now. On-demand services and self-driving vehicles are, after all, intended to shuttle around cities like an ersatz taxi-cum-metro system rather than sitting in parking lots. The concepts of ownership that we currently hold dear (and the profits that car companies get from them) are likely to fade away in the next, say, fifty years time. As such, conglomerates like VW will have to reinvent themselves as both manufacturer and transport company in one. But these changes are never easy, especially when the biggest car firms have tons of baggage that slows down their progress. Many are still devoting time and resources to producing thousands of new cars with combustion engines that will be on the roads for years to come. Looming in the shadow, however, is the emissions scandal, with the financial and reputational penalties likely to be felt for years to come. Younger, more nimble rivals without legacy businesses, like Tesla, are working on mass-producing electric cars for mass-market prices.

eBay Find of the Day: Your choice of new, unregistered mid-2000s supercars

If you didn't quite find what you were hoping to see under the tree this year, maybe it's about time you buy yourself something nice. Something like an unregistered 2005 Porsche Carrera GT. The car has never been titled and has just 83 miles on the odometer. With one owner since new, the Carrera GT is likely to be as nice an example as you're likely to find outside of a museum. Porsche only built 340 of these machines back in 2005, and with a 610 horsepower V10 kicking at your spine, you can lap Santa's sleigh next year. Currently, the Carrera GT has a buy it now price of $457,325 with around six days left on the auction.
Not flashy enough for your tastes? Stroll on down to West Hollywood and you'll find a similarly untitled 2004 Ferrari Enzo up for grabs with a sticker of $1.8 million. Technically a Euro-spec car, the Enzo isn't legal to operate on US roads, but could be modified to satisfy Uncle Sam with a little effort. The seller calls this car the "last brand-new Enzo in existence" and with 175 miles on the clock, that may be a true statement. You can head over to eBay Motors for a closer look if you're feeling spendy.

This is how the new turbo Porsche 911 Carrera sounds

We have our first audio sample of the turbocharged flat-six engine in the standard Porsche 911 Carrera. By way of reminder, the boosted 3.0-liter engines will put out 370 horsepower and 331 pound-feet of torque in entry-level guise, 420 ponies and 368 lb-ft in the S models. To our ears, it sounds good. Yes, it's a commercial, true, we don't know what audio trickery the agency whipped up during post-production. But the sound in the commercial is good. Besides, Porsche knows what it's doing. Every time the brand breaks one of the purist's laws, the 911 accelerates through the wailing and gnashing of teeth to sell better than ever. Heck, the company's own engineers tried to beat the 911 with the introduction of the arguably much better 928, and we see how that turned out. So no matter what we think of the commercial, we have a feeling the sound of the turbocharged standard 911 will remain the same mythical siren to enthusiast ears around the world. On top of that, the new coupe and convertible are quicker, faster, more powerful, and still come with a seven-speed manual transmission if you choose. Porsche might taketh away, but to make up for it they giveth and giveth and giveth. Check out the noises in the video above, and some more of the advanced features on the new 911 in the video below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.