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Robb Report chooses Porsche 911 as its Car of the Year

Robb Report has picked the seventh-generation Porsche 911 Carrera S as its 2013 Car of the Year, saying the two-door captivated its judges with "agility, driving dynamics and balance." The German coupe bested 12 others who were also in the running - the impressive list of nominees included the BMW M5, Audi S8, Ferrari FF, Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG and the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse.
Judging involved more than just throwing darts at pictures on the wall, as the publication enlisted a panel of automotive experts to test drive each vehicle for close evaluation. The panelists included 100 members of the Robb Report Club (comprised of top corporate executives and influential readers), Editor-in-Chief Brett Anderson and automotive consultant Robert Ross. Full results of the competition will be revealed in the luxury magazine's March issue, hitting newsstands in about a week. For more information, visit Robb Report online or check out the full press release from Porsche below.

Porsche offering short-term loans to Macan waitlisters

Walk into a Porsche dealer today, place an order for a Macan and you'll be looking at a waiting period of six months or more before you can expect delivery. That may be common enough for high-end European automakers, but the Macan is meant to lure new buyers to the brand, and the waitlist could be enough to deter them from sticking around.
The solution? Offer to lease them a Boxster or Cayman until their new Macan arrives. Shorter in term that the usual new-car lease, these six-month terms are designed to keep buyers from turning their backs, all the while experiencing the kind of vehicle Porsche does best.
Of course it doesn't hurt that the dealer then gets a used sports car to sell again once the short-term lease is up. And we wouldn't be surprised to see some buyers asking to hold on to their mid-engined sports car for a little longer, either.

Porsche's baby Panamera delayed until 2019 or later

If you're enticed by the idea of a Porsche sedan but find the Panamera to be too big, your hopes may have been raised by the development of the so-called Pajun. But don't get those hopes up too much, because the latest word coming in from the Old World has it that the Panamera Junior has been delayed.
The Pajun was (and theoretically still is, despite tardiness) a project to apply to the Panamera the same winning formula that Porsche used to transmute the Cayenne into the smaller Macan. Its size would be closer to the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class than the larger Panamera, and employ an array of six-cylinder engines.
The smaller five-door was set to be the cornerstone of Porsche Product Strategy 2018, a plan that included several new models to be launched within the next four years. However, reports now indicate that the Volkswagen Group is counting on Porsche to help bolster its profits and is not keen on investing in new products at this time, pushing the Pajun and other projects back until 2019 at the earliest. Although much of the strategy remains undisclosed, it is believed to include (or have included) a sub-Boxster sports car and a supercar to slot in between the 911 and the 918 Spyder. There was also talk of a shooting brake version of the Panamera based on the Sport Turismo concept pictured above. What will become of those projects, however, remains to be seen.