Auto News 5

Halfway around the world, crowds gather at the Shanghai auto show to examine the curiously shaped Porsche Panamera. The first sedan in Porsche's sixty-one-year history looks like a big, stretched, hand-blown 911 - and decidedly unlike anything else on the road. The mere existence of the Panamera is a blow to Porschephiles, proof that their beloved brand's focus is slipping away. Its awkward styling is salt rubbed deep into the wound, and naysayers vilify Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking, who, as the story goes, had the roofline raised so he could fit his egomaniacal - and very tall - self in the back seat. Oh, how those purists groan.