panamera

The most reliable cars are... Plus, the Nissan Leaf spawns a plug-in cousin, Ford stops your teen from texting while driving, a scathing report on red-light cameras, and we drive the Porsche Panamera Turbo S.

Turns out that Porsche made its first hybrid in 1900. This year, it adds its second modern hybrid with the Panamera S Hybrid. Brian Cooley finds it lifts the power train from the Cayenne Hybrid and should deliver miles per gallon in the 30s, which is a substantial improvement.

(CNET's full coverage of the 2011 Geneva auto show)

Once you get past the Panamera's ungainly looks, it's a damned capable car. And without the purists' baggage that comes with the 911, it makes an obvious platform for a hybrid. Brian Cooley was at the Panamera S Hybrid's debut in Geneva.

Check out CNET's full coverage of the 2011 Geneva auto show.

Porsche just revealed the Panamera S Hybrid, the company's second production hybrid. The new model, which will be shown at the 2011 Geneva auto show, promises to be elegant, sporty, but not hold back on power.

According to the specs Porsche released, the Panamera S Hybrid produces 380 horsepower with fuel consumption of only 6.8 L/100 km on the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC).

The Panamera S Hybrid uses same gasoline engine/electric motor combination as in the Cayenne S Hybrid. A 3.0-liter supercharged V6 engine delivering 333 horsepower is supported by a 47-horsepower (34 kW) … Read more

After more than 5,200 miles of driving Porsche's new Panamera around the East Coast this summer on Road Trip 2010, I think I've developed a pretty good sense of what it's like to hang out with a celebrity.

Everywhere I went in the Panamera, Porsche's first-ever four-door coupe, people wanted to talk about it. From tollbooth workers to folks in big box store parking lots to blue bloods in fancy neighborhoods to guys hawking water on the hot streets of Baltimore, everyone had a question or a comment about the car, or a thumbs-up as … Read more

If 500 horsepower seems a little miserly of Porsche for its Panamera Turbo, don't worry--the carmaker released its personalization program that bumps up the horsepower to 540. But the additional 40 ponies over the standard Turbo model don't come cheap--the Panamera Turbo Powerkit runs about $21,730.

For the money, you'll get two new turbochargers with titanium aluminum turbines, engine management modifications that improve engine response, and increased torque. The option will be available next month, but if you've already pulled the trigger on your Panamera Turbo, retrofit kits will be available in November.

Paying the … Read more

The competition for the luxury coupe-style sedan market just got a little thicker, as BMW gave its Gran Coupe concept the nod.

The sedan will go head-to-head with other four-door vehicles with coupe styling, such as the Mercedes CLS, Audi's upcoming A7, and the Porsche Panamera, according to AutoWeek. The Gran Coupe, which is slated for production in 2012, will use the same power train as the 5, 6, and 7 series, which opens the door to a hybrid option. However, that has yet to be confirmed.

(Source: AutoWeek)

The 25,000th Panamera Gran Turismo just rolled out of the Porsche assembly plant in Leipzig, Germany, the company said in a statement.

The milestone-setting vehicle is a Ruby Red Panamera sporting a 300-horsepower 3.6-liter six-cylinder engine. It will be delivered to a customer in the USA, the company said.

"The benchmark performance of our Panamera V6 models wins over our customers worldwide," said Bernhard Maier, Porsche's Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing. "Even in the USA, a country with a preference for V8 engines, they impress with their efficiency and sportiness. The Panamera combines … Read more

BRENTWOOD, N.H.--Road Trip 2010 has officially covered enough miles to make it from one coast of America to the other.

Of course, that's not what's really happened. Instead, I've driven 3,000 miles up and down--and up and down, and up and down, following a truly inefficient path--the East Coast in search of great destinations to report on.

And that's what has brought me here, to this town of population 4,200 in the southeastern corner of the Granite State--that quest for great things to write about. It's not that I had … Read more