Thursday, November 27, 2008

PANAMERA

Porsche has unveiled the first official photos of its new model Panamera in its final look.
In its design, profile and silhouette, Porsche’s unique four-seater stands out clearly as a new member of the Porsche family, said a company official.
Conceived and designed as a four-door grand touring sports car, the Panamera combines numerous talents in typical Porsche style: sporting driving dynamics, a generous and variable interior, and the supreme driving comfort of a Gran Turismo.
Joining the 911, Boxster and Cayman sports cars as well as the Cayenne Sports Utility, the Panamera is Porsche’s fourth model series.
The designers of the Panamera have succeeded in positioning this unique car as a brand-new and truly different model while nevertheless retaining the looks of a typical Porsche.
Through its proportions alone, the Panamera stands out clearly in its market segment: measuring 1931 mm or 76.0” in width, the Panamera is wider, and measuring 1418 mm or 55.8” in height, lower than comparable four-door models.
The unmistakable, sleek GT silhouette is created by the car’s overall length of 4970 mm or 195.7” and short, sporting overhangs front and rear. In its styling and details, the Panamera follows the design philosophy refined over decades on the 911 and successfully implemented also on the Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne.
The elegant roof arch extends stylishly over the generous interior, simply begging the beholder to get inside. Like all Porsche models, the Panamera is oriented in every respect to the needs and wishes of the driver.
But now, thanks to the new concept of space and the sporting architecture of the interior, the car’s occupants are also able to experience this special “pilot feeling” on all four seats.
All four occupants enjoy supreme ergonomic comfort on both the front seats and the two firmly contoured single seats at the rear. The luggage compartment easily takes up all the passengers’ luggage, the variable space concept with its folding rear seat backrests enabling the driver and passengers to adjust the luggage space individually to their personal requirements.
And last but not least, the coupé tailgate in the sporting rear end combines superior suitability for daily use with stylish elegance.
The Porsche Panamera will be built at Porsche’s Leipzig Plant, where a production hall measuring some 22,000 square metres or almost 237,000 square feet and a logistics centre are currently under construction.
While the engines featured in the Panamera are built at Porsche’s main plant in Zuffenhausen, the painted bodyshells will be supplied by the Volkswagen Plant in Hanover.
The Leipzig plant will then assemble the Panamera for final delivery, with an annual sales target of some 20,000 units. Porsche is once again cooperating largely with German suppliers in the production of the Panamera, with some 70 per cent of the car’s overall value being created domestically.
The Panamera will be making its world debut in spring 2009 and the first models will be at dealers worldwide in late summer of next year.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Banks rejecting more car loans in Gulf

Acc to press reports quoting 'a General Motors official', the number of vehicle loan applications being rejected by banks in the Middle East has risen from 5% to more than 20% due to the global financial crisis, Gulf News has reported. The UAE and Qatar are among the markets that have seen a significant rise in these cases. The situation is different in Saudi Arabia, where there are more cash buyers than customers purchasing cars through bank financing, General Motors Middle East operations president Mike Devereux said.

We live in a wired world. People are waiting for an update on the bail-out request by the Big 3 from Detroit. This will be more so for GMC, a popular brand in GCC and as such more focus on the status of the bail out specific to GM.

On a lifghter note, let me share : Imagine the Middle East Without General Motors

http://wiki.gmnext.com/wiki/index.php/Imagine_the_Middle_East_Without_General_Motors