Don’t just go along with the crowd. Stand out. Stand out in a big way. Do it in the new Porsche Macan. Whatever challenges come your way in life, you’re always prepared in the Macan. Available in several models, there is a Macan for you and your lifestyle – Macan, Macan S, Macan GTS, Macan Turbo and Macan Turbo with Performance Package.  The standard 2.0-liter inline four-cylinder engine delivers an impressive 252 horsepower at 5,000-6,800 rpm. Now that gets you going places. And going places in no time. 0-60 mph in 6.3 seconds to be exact. Go in style with performance and efficiency in the new Porsche Macan.

Some of the Porsche Macan’s Standard Features:

• 18-inch Macan wheels
• 7-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK) with Auto Start Stop function
• Direct Fuel Injection (DFI)
• Porsche Traction Management (PTM) active all-wheel drive
• Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)
• SPORT button
• Porsche Communication Management (PCM)
• Daytime running lights
• Full-size airbags for the driver and front passenger

Some of the Porsche Macan’s Options:

• Panoramic roof system
• Dark-tinted privacy glass
• Roll-up sunblind
• Connect module
• Sport Chrono Package
• Sport tailpipes
• Sport exhaust system
• Navigation module
• Front seat heating

See the new Porsche Macan at Leith Porsche in Cary and learn more about this extraordinary vehicle. While you’re here, take it out for a test drive. Also go to www.leithporsche.com for even more information on new and pre-owned vehicles, special offers, our Porsche team, current news, dealership information and more.

The post The New Porsche Macan. Designed for the Road. appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

Join us at Leith Porsche in Cary, North Carolina, on Thursday, March 23, as we launch the arrival of the all-new Porsche Panamera Turbo. From 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm, you’ll have the perfect opportunity to see the Panamera up close. With it just now arriving, you’ll be one of the first to see this beauty. While you’re here, also enjoy food, drinks, music and the chance to win some exciting prizes.

Some standard features of this luxury vehicle include:

• All-new twin-turbo V8 engine
• 550 horsepower
• New 8-speed Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK)
• All wheel drive
• Panoramic sunroof
• High-resolution 12-inch touchscreen
• 20-inch Panamera Turbo wheels

Visit www.leithporsche.com and click on the All-New Panamera Launch Event tab under News-Blog & Events on the home page for more details and RSVP information. We look forward to seeing you there!

The post Leith Porsche Event Showcasing the All-New Porsche Panamera appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

What are your plans this weekend? One great way to start off the weekend is making your way to Leith Porsche in Cary for our monthly Cars & Coffee event. We’re having this month’s event tomorrow Saturday, November 12th. It will be 9:30 – 11:30 am, and we hope to see you there. Tomorrow’s event will be about Porsche Hybrid Technology. This is a great time to get together with other Porsche enthusiasts and Leith Porsche customers to learn new and exciting things about this luxury car brand. While you’re here enjoy fresh gourmet coffee. We hope you can join us! Be sure to go ahead and mark your calendar for next month’s Cars & Coffee event. It will be December 10th. Visit www.leithporsche.com for more information. We look forward to seeing you!

The post Cars & Coffee Event Tomorrow Morning! appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

Porsche’s newest Boxster is what you might call a black sheep. Instead of the flat-six that you’ll find in most Porsches, the new Boxster comes with a turbocharged 4-cylinder. It’s still a spectacular engine, but it’s lacking some of the flat-six’s fortissimo.

Don’t get us wrong, though. It’s still a Porsche, and that turbocharged 4-cylinder engine is far from slow. With a top speed of 170mph, and a 0-60 time of just 4.9 seconds, we’d pit it against the 2015 flat-six Boxster any day. Plus, the new 718 gets nearly 34mpg on the highway.

The name 718 Boxster pays homage to the 718 RSK; a two seat, 4-cylinder race car that was well known for blowing the doors off of V12s in competition. In fact, the 718 RSK finished first in its class and third overall at the 1958 24 Hours of LeMans. Any vehicle that can do that is legendary in our book, so we’re hoping the new 718 can live up to its predecessor.

The post Zero to 60 Presents the New 2017 Porsche 718 Boxster appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

Car magazines around the world have been sending their best spies out to the Porsche headquarters hoping to spy the new 2017 Porsche Panamera as it stretches its legs for the first time, and they’ve been pretty successful.

Although the 2017 Porsche Panamera hasn’t officially been released, we already have real-world photos. We thought it would be best to use those photos to show the differences between the 2016 Porsche Panamera, and the upcoming model. Out with the old, and in with the new.

Just out of curiosity, which one do you think is the 2017? We’ll give you a hint, it’s got four wheels, four doors, two headlights, and blue paint.

The 2017 Porsche Panamera’s design is only slightly different, but those small changes give the car a much sleeker look. The car’s A-line (the line running over the car, from headlight to tail light) has been smoothed out, to produce a continuous curve across the top of the car. The tail lights now extend further around the rear, and the side walls have also been improved with an updated side-vent, and a crease that guides the eyes across the side of the vehicle.

The 2017 Porsche Panamera has already been paired with a powerful twin-turbocharged V-8 engine, that will produce approximately 542 horsepower and 568 pound-feet of torque. Not only is this engine more powerful than its V-8 predecessor, it’s also more efficient. The engine will be compatible with hybrid technology (V-8 hybrids?!) and will also use cylinder deactivation to reduce the number of cylinders used during normal driving.

Rumor has it that the 2017 Porsche Panamera will debut at the Paris Auto Show this September. If you can’t wait until then to see more of the Porsche Panamera, check out all the spy-videos on YouTube. If you like the Porsche Panamera, but see yourself in something a little sportier, take a look at our inventory. We love our Porsches as much as you do.

The post The 2017 Porsche Panamera is the Sexiest Sedan on Earth appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

Photo credit: oppositelock.kinja.com

We’re on the transmission-impossible: Getting Americans to switch to manual. We know, we know: Traffic. But if traffic is your only reason for not driving a manual, we think you’re seriously missing out. Here’s why:

1. Better gas mileage

While this is no longer an absolute truth for all manual vehicles, it is still the norm. Most automatic transmissions can’t keep up with manuals in terms of efficiency. And as an added bonus, most manual versions of cars cost less than the automatics. Investing in a manual means you’re saving money upfront and as you drive.

2. Less distracted driving

It may seem counter-intuitive, but giving someone a harder task to focus on might help the problem of distracted driving. Driving stick shift requires the use of all four limbs simultaneously, and a fairly consistent level of road awareness. That extra focus might lead to safer roads.

Photo credit: http://nstsa.ca

Take this into consideration: In 2014, only 25% of vehicles sold in the United Kingdom were automatics, compared to 94.5% for the United States. In 2013, the United Kingdom reported 5 fatal car accidents for every 100,000 cars on the road, compared to America’s 13 fatal car accidents for every 100,000 cars on the road. Of course, these two statistics could be completely unrelated. It’s just an interesting thought.

3. Manuals are more fun

Regular driving can be pretty boring. Manuals, on the other hand, can be great fun. Manual transmissions give you more control over the car and engage you in the driving process. There’s no rush like shifting through the gearbox as you test your car’s 0-60mph time.

4. You can drive anything

Just being able to drive a manual is a skill everyone should have. There are plenty of worst-case scenarios we could dream up where knowing how to drive a manual might come in handy (meteor strikes the earth and you only have a manual car to escape the blast), but here’s a likely one: your friend had too much to drink at the bar and needs you to drive them (and their manual car) home.

Photo credit: www.automobilesreview.com

5. It’s a new skill

Who doesn’t like to learn!? You don’t? Oh. Well what if we told you learning a new skill is the best way to keep your brain in sharp? That’s right – if you want to keep your brain in tip-top shape, you’ve got to use it. Learning to drive stick shift requires new motor skills, and it’ll change the way you react to certain driving situations. Putting that kind of stress on the brain requires it to grow and adapt, which is good.

So what are you waiting for?

Go find a friend who drives stick, and get them to teach you! If you like it, make sure your next vehicle comes with a clutch. Even in stop-and-go traffic, you won’t regret it.

The post Going Clutch: Top 5 Reasons to Stop Driving Automatic appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

Online shopping has become a massive industry in the last decade. In 2014, Adweek reported that the world of e-commerce generates just over $1.2 million dollars every 30 seconds – and that stat is almost two years old.

The changing times

It wasn’t too long ago that people wouldn’t have dared to purchase cellphones, t-shirts, or shoes online. Now, those items make up the bulk of all e-commerce. As a car dealership, we have to wonder if one day this trend will extend to our products.

Luckily, Car and Driver released a study that may provide some insight to that question.

Let’s look at the numbers

Car and Driver reports that 68% of their respondents would not buy or lease a vehicle without visiting a dealership, and 84% would not buy or lease without taking a test drive. Personally, we’d never buy a car before test driving it either, so that’s not too surprising.

But when the study turned to the question of online shopping, we see some interesting results. 54% of car enthusiasts would consider buying a car online, while only 34% of non-enthusiasts would.

This seems slightly backwards to us. We would assume that a car-enthusiast would be more concerned about coming into a dealership, sitting in the car they were thinking of buying, and taking it for a spin on the open road.

Which, we think you should do

Because the dealership experience is like no other. We combine great prices on our vehicles, state-of-the-art service centers, and most importantly, knowledgeable people who you can rely on. Which is something buying a car online can never give you – a personal, face-to-face interaction, and the opportunity to build a relationship.

Here at Leith Porsche, our goal is to satisfy 100% of our customers 100% of the time, and we don’t think that’s unrealistic. We look out for you, and do everything in our power to ensure your car-buying experience is memorable and enjoyable.

But just out of curiosity, would you ever consider buying a car solely online? Leave us a comment on Facebook and let us know!

The post Are You Part of the 32% Who Would Buy a Car Online? appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

Do you own a mobile Apple product? If so, get ready. Apple is beta-testing iOS 9.3, which means before long all your iPhones and iPads are going to ask you to agree to their terms and conditions again. Except this time, we’ll be too excited about iOS 9.3’s features to read the agreement.

Just kidding, we’d never read it. Not even if we were anthropologists from the future, and it was the only remaining literature from our lost civilization. Anyway, the point is that iOS 9.3 is coming and it’s good. Here’s what you can expect:

Apple CarPlay

Apple CarPlay is nothing new, but it will be receiving some updates in 9.3. The Apple Music section will now feature a “New” section that showcases new songs, artists, and albums; it will also include a “For You” section that will recommend music based on your data-mined preferences.

Maps will also now include a “Nearby” feature which easily locates nearby gas, parking, restaurants, and more, while you drive. We can see this feature coming in handy when you can’t decide what you want to eat, or have no idea what food is around you.

Health and Notes

These two updates are consolidated into one since they’re pretty small. Apple’s Health app now displays your move, stand, and exercise data from Apple Watch, and contrasts these metrics alongside your goals. To help you achieve those goals, Health will now also suggest third-party health-apps that integrate directly to your Health dashboard. This includes apps that can track your sleep, your meals, or show how many calories you’ve burned throughout the day.

Notes will now feature a security system that allows you to protect any note you write with a password or touch identification.

Finally, Night Shift

This is the part of iOS 9.3 we’re most excited about. Night Shift is an app that is long-overdue. Back in 2012, Harvard Medical School published a Health Letter detailing the negative affect that blue light (the kind emitted by our iPhone LCD screens) has on our circadian rhythm.

In short, circadian rhythms dictate the eating and sleeping patterns of all animals; human beings included. Research has shown that while any light can disrupt this rhythm by suppressing melatonin (the chemical that helps us fall asleep), blue light has the strongest effect. Here’s an interesting quote from Harvard’s article:

“Study after study has linked working the night shift and exposure to light at night to several types of cancer (breast, prostate), diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. It’s not exactly clear why nighttime light exposure seems to be so bad for us. But we do know that exposure to light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that influences circadian rhythms, and there’s some experimental evidence (it’s very preliminary) that lower melatonin levels might explain the association with cancer.”

So every night when you set your alarm for the next morning on your phone, or browse the web until you feel tired, you’re actually suppressing the chemical trying to help you fall asleep. Now you know what we mean when we say Night Shift is long-overdue.

So will you hit “Agree” when prompted by iOS 9.3? We certainly will – and we’ll sleep well knowing we made the right call.

The post Apple iOS 9.3 Updates CarPlay, and Gets Night Shift appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

We at Leith Porsche make it our mission to connect people with their perfect car. We believe that the more you know about cars, the more you’ll love them, and that’s why we’re here to tell you all about brakes.

We step on our brakes every time we get into our car (hopefully) and people seem to be very well acquainted with their use – especially in free flow lanes. However, few know much about the actual hardware behind the braking process.

Rather than cover what we hope is the obvious importance of brakes, we’re going to outline the two most common types of brakes. We’ll examine their strengths and weaknesses in everyday use, show you how they work, and then compare the two.

Drum Brakes

Drum brakes are the original in-tire braking system. Before their introduction, brakes were essentially a block of wood on a lever that pressed against the tire (also known as a handbrake). The first drum brakes were released in the year 1900 on a Maybach, and were patented two years later by legendary automotive engineer, Louis Renault.

We could write a long explanation of how drum brakes work, but you can’t beat an informative video:

Problems with Drum Brakes

Since the components of a drum brake are all housed within a metal drum, they tend to heat up very quickly. When drum brakes heat up, they fail because hot brakes produce less friction. The less friction they produce, the less effective they are at slowing the wheels. This is often referred to as brake fade.

While modern drum brakes have come a long way in terms of design, brake fade is still a major drawback to their use. For this reason, drum brakes are typically found on either the back wheels of a car, or nowhere at all. Their replacement? Disc brakes.

Disc Brakes

Disc brakes were patented by Frederick William Lanchester in 1902, the same year Louis Renault patented drum brakes. Although they were the superior design, it would take half a century before the technology could successful manufacture the necessary parts.

In 1953, Jaguar – a small company at the time – developed the first reliable caliper disc brakes for their C-Type racing car. They entered the C-Type into the 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans, and took home first place. Later that year, Austin-Healey’s 100S would be the first production car sold with all disc brakes.

Since that time, disc brakes have become the standard for performance vehicles. They function upon the same friction principle as drum brakes, but are less prone to failure from overheating and dry quicker when wet. This is because of their open-air design, as opposed to being housed in a metal enclosure, like drum brakes.

Again, here’s a fancy video detailing how disc brakes work:

Drum vs Disc

So which brake type is better? As with most things in life, the answer is rarely clear-cut. Drum brakes have some major design flaws: they overheat too quickly, take longer to dry off, and are typically heavier than disc brakes.

At the same time, disc brakes cannot be used as a parking brake because they expand when hot and contract when cold. If we relied on them for a parking brake after using them, they would eventually cool off, shrink, and lose contact with the brake disc. Obviously we’d have a problem here.

The two brakes are just different. Disc brakes are the more effective and reliable choice, but they have their limitations. Drum brakes are not very practical, but they are crucial to parking a car – unless of course you’d like to go back to wooden blocks on sticks.

Therefore, drum brakes are often still found in modern cars. Manufacturers will usually outfit the front wheels with disc brakes since they have to work the hardest, and drum brakes in the rear. Some sports cars will use disc brakes on all four wheels, but have one additional drum brake for parking purposes.

Speaking of Brakes

Could you use a new set? It might be time if you’re starting to hear some squeals when you brake. Feel free to come by the Leith Porsche service center and we’ll take a look for you. Sometimes that brake-noise could just be debris on your brake pads, but it can also indicate they need replacing.

The post Which Are Better: Drum or Disc Brakes? appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.

Classic cars are great – they’re great to look at, better to drive, and reminiscent of simpler times. Classics transport us back to the year they were built and are charged with an ambiance you won’t find inside a brand new vehicle.

We find it incredibly interesting which cars become classics, and which disappear with time – Which got us thinking: What makes a car a classic, and how can we pick out a car today that will be a classic down the road?

Let’s look to the past

The past is always your ally when predicting the future. Cars that are now classics were some of the best in their time; these are cars that everyone wanted to have. They were usually known for some distinct quality, whether it be their off-beat style, their speed on the track, or their unbeatable reliability.

So we’re looking for cars that really make a statement for their time – they don’t have to be expensive (although it can help), they just have to be exceptional at what they were built for.

Looking to the future

Now we have to contrast that information with what we think is coming. While we can’t be completely certain, there are some changes we can clearly see heading our way.

Driverless cars are on their way, and with them will come a few changes to how we view driving. Before long, we’ll have a generation of people who have never put their hands on a steering wheel. Those poor saps will never be exposed to the rush you get when accelerating through the gearbox. Those who do remember that rush, though, will be itching to relive their glory years behind the wheel of an automotive beast.

So what kind of cars will be classics?

Performance vehicles that exude style, such as a Porsche 911. In the future, classic cars will be for those who remember what it’s like to grip a steering wheel, feather a clutch, and get pulled over for speeding.

So first and foremost: look for cars that are creating a buzz for their performance ability. If that car is also distinctly styled, incredibly reliable, or the first car to have a coffee maker inside (mostly kidding), you may have a classic on your hands. Any vehicle that is standing out amongst the crowd today is likely to do the same a few years down the road.

Need help finding your way into one of Leith Porsche’s future-classics? Give us a call or come by the dealership!

The post Which Cars Will Be Classic Cars in the Future? appeared first on Leith Porsche Blog.