Porsche News

This is the list that's most fun to write but it’s sometimes hard to pick winners when you review as many cars as I do!This year has proven (once again) that the market is ruled by SUVs and Australia’s love affair with them isn’t slowing down any time soon. So, you may be surprised that only a few of them made the cut.Out of all of the cars I’ve been cruising in this year, these were my favourites (in no particular order).The LandCruiser got me good. There are enough old-school elements mixed in with premium tech and features to satisfy everyone (it has a CD/DVD player!). Rear passengers enjoy the same luxurious comforts as front rowers and you get one of the most practical shaped boots I’ve sampled. For adventuring families, it has great off-road and towing capabilities with effortless power and grunt. It also drives like a dream and is a comfortable road tripper. I love it and miss it.Station wagons are my favourite type of family-hauler. Technically this sits in the same category as a Toyota Prado (ahem) but it looks and behaves like a wagon. This is one of the smoothest driving experiences you can have. It has AWD and the old-school elements are seamlessly blended with easy-to-use tech. High comfort for longer journeys and its only downside was being a bit thirsty.It hurt my soul to hand the keys back. The driving experience is finely tuned with great power delivery and on-road comfort. The sedan/wagon hybrid style took a little while to get used to, but the practicality was a big win for my little family of three. It could fit the hubby’s golf clubs, do a big grocery haul and carry all the junk my eight-year-old seems to accumulate over a week. The boosted sound experience on the engine is one you simply have to hear once in your life.The Touareg is a great looking family SUV that caters to everyone with comfort and tech. It’s smooth to drive with power that is promptly delivered. The on-road experience is also a lesson in refinement, which a few other European brands can take notes on. Efficiency and ongoing costs are also good – what’s not to like?It made the list last year and the updated model won my heart again. Just a solid all-rounder that delivers great on-road comfort, steers well, has decent power and good features for a base model. The hybrid efficiency is hard to question and it’s a smart-looking sedan thanks to the substantial facelift. Annoyingly, it is heavily associated with ride-share and taxis but I’d have one in a heartbeat.It’s only fair to include my eight-year-old's top-five cars, as he tests them with me and is very loud with his opinions on them.He loves the ambient lighting in Mercs and whooped with joy whenever I had to get up to speed. The engine sounded cool and there were enough comforts in the rear.He loved all of the features in the second and third rows, including cupholders that are well-positioned on the doors.He loves a good ute and the manly internal styling won him (and my husband) over. The tray was the winning feature and acted as a cubby house.His nickname for it was the Batmobile. That really sums up how much he liked it.

Many so-called “all-new” models aren’t all that new. In fact, a sizeable chunk are reskinned versions of what came before, with fresh sheetmetal over the same general hard points.

Porsche might have just made its biggest gamble ever, vowing its new and all-electric Macan will remain its best-selling vehicle in Australia and around the world, despite it consigning its internal combustion engines to the history books.

After the launch of the Taycan facelift in August, Porsche has brought two more lower-spec variants into the fray in the Taycan GTS and Taycan 4. 

There’s a reason why McDonald’s sells Big Macs and cheeseburgers and not salads and protein shakes — that’s what people want.The car industry is learning this lesson now, but in a more expensive way with brands that had committed to electric futures forced to backpedal as internal combustion remains the overwhelming choice for consumers.In a recent conference call, Porsche chief financial officer Lutz Meschke explained why the company has completely rethought its future model line-up with plans to have all but the 911 electric by the end of the decade scrapped.Instead, the Cayenne and Panamera will carry on with petrol power for the foreseeable future in the wake of softening demand for the Taycan electric sports sedan and a seemingly disappointing reception for the new electric Macan.“A lot of customers in the premium and luxury segment are looking in the direction of combustion-engined cars, there’s a clear trend,” Meschke said.While plug-in hybrids will continue to be invested in, Meschke made it clear that Porsche will be keeping its options open to adjust to the preferences of the market. He also appeared to indicate that the Taycan and new Macan could be reverse engineered for an internal combustion engine. “As for our electrified line-up, we are very flexible when it comes to our production footprint,” he explained. “We can produce combustion engine, plug-in hybrids and electrified cars in one production line in Leipzig. When it comes to research and development, you’ll see more flexibility in the upcoming years. We will develop new combustion-engined derivatives in order to give the right answer to customer demand.”Porsche is hardly alone in this situation either. Mercedes-Benz has also said it will have what it’s calling ‘tactical flexibility’ with vehicle platforms, creating architectures that can accommodate both ICE and EV powertrains in order to give itself a better chance in these changing times.At the other end of the market, Fiat is re-engineering its 500e to take a hybrid engine as sales of the electric city car have been well below expectations.While EV sales continue to grow in Australia they still make up only a small portion of the market, so car makers operating here will likely remain focused on ICE, hybrid and plug-in hybrid models in order to balance consumer demand and in the incoming New Vehicle Efficiency Standards.

Porsche has released its most driver focused non-GT series 911 in facelifted ‘992.2’ trim, proving there’s life left in the purist sports car yet. 

A brand new hybrid Porsche 911 Turbo variant is on the way.

The formula stays the same, but the specifics have been tweaked for one of Porsche’s most-loved cars, the 911 GT3.

Is the small sports car the latest victim of the cost-of-living crisis?

There's a reason why some nameplates have been around for so long. Many are the pioneering vehicle's in their respective segments, still dominating sales as they did 50, 60, and in some cases, even 70 years ago.