Weekly Porsche Wrap

Porsche 959 vs. Ferrari F40 – Which one was the ultimate 80’s supercar? It doesn’t really matter. I have to admit to loving both cars, although each for different reasons. I saw both for the first time while living in Germany. Simply amazing machines. This article is a repost snipped into several forum posts. It’s a quick read and worthwhile. I love reading about these older supercars and reminiscing from the “good old days.” [Via Ultimatecarpage.com Forums]

Cash For Clunkers…Even for the rich – This one made me chuckle. It seems the UK has a Cash For Clunkers style program. Their scrappage scheme, much like ours, was designed to help revive the car market while also encouraging the average joe to upgrade to more environmentally friendly cars. That was the case until Porsche, Mercedes, Alfa Romeo, Roll-Royce and Bentley dealers signed on for the program. At last count 1,279 Mercedes and 24 Porsches had been sold under the scrappage scheme. No Rolls-Royce or Bentley takers…yet. I guess a couple thousand pounds is worth saving if you’re going to upgrade anyway, even if the money doesn’t really matter at that level. [Via People.co.uk]

A deal on a Porsche and fewer cars for 2010 – This isn’t something you see all too often at a Porsche dealership, at least not that I’m aware of. Porsche is offering a 1.9%, five-year loan on 911s just in time for Christmas. The offer is good on 2009 911s only, but if a 2010 911 is on your radar, you can get a 2.9% financing deal. That’s a pretty sweet deal and I’ll bet they would even throw in a big red bow to put on the car to cap off the whole presentation on Christmas Day. Also, one dealer is reporting supply is supposed to be smaller to the US for 2010. He claims more cars are going to other parts of the world. [Via Online.WSJ.com]

And Bloomberg’s first ever Car of the Year is… – Take a guess. Yep. The Porsche Panamera. Heck maybe the Porsche Panamera is what inspired them to start a Car of the Year award. This is a pretty interesting quote by Bloomberg columnist Jason H. Harper who handled testing for the awards “Like a lot of people I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect of the Panamera, but sometime between having a six-foot eight-inch buddy in the back seat and hauling into deep corners around the track, it became clear. It’s still a Porsche — just a really versatile one.” [Via Motorcrave.com]

A Porsche on the taxpayers’ dime – Don’t you wonder sometimes what some people in charge of taxpayer money are thinking with some of the decisions they make? Yeah, I know we all do, but this one takes the cake as of late for me. It seems a deputy minister in Cape Town, South Africa bought herself a brand new Porsche Cayenne as her official vehicle. I’m guessing people will be, or perhaps already are, in an outrage over this. It’s a crazy time to be buying a Porsche with state funds, no matter the country. [Via News24.com]