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KBB 2013 Brand Image Awards has some obvious and oddball winners

The sixth edition of the Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Awards have crowned a wide range of winners - in a couple of cases the recipient of the laurels might say more about KBB users than they do about the actual winner. Compiled from the responses of more than 12,000 shoppers on KBB.com over the past year, there are 13 categories broken into non-luxury, luxury and truck segments "representing the combined wisdom of the American car-buying public."
The award categories have been revamped this year, with some dropping off, some new ones appearing and at least one other given a new term. What isn't surprising is that Honda won Most Trusted Brand for the second year running, Best Value Brand for the third year in a row and took Best Overall Brand, which wasn't on last year's list of awards.
On our own shores, in the non-luxury categories Chrysler got Most Refined Brand and Buick took Best Value Luxury Brand. Neither one of those marques won anything in last year's Brand Image Awards, while Cadillac, which won Best Interior Design Brand and Best Comfort Brand last year - those awards disappeared this year - went home without a single accolade.

Porsche has doubled US sales to women [w/videos]

Porsche is having a good sales year in the US, with 25,129 vehicles delivered year-to-date coming off the automaker's best July sales ever. That's a 31-percent increase over the same period last year (19,253 deliveries). With year-to-date Panamera sales a surprising 36 percent lower than last year, what possibly could be driving Porsche's sales surge? If you answered Cayman and Boxster sales, you're right. But dealerships are noticing another factor: more women are coming in to buy Porsches, CNBC reports, the bulk of whom picked up new Cayenne SUVs. The German automaker's sales to women in the US have more than doubled in the past two years, increasing from 7 percent to 15 percent. This has helped year-to-date Cayenne sales reach 11,082 - 31 percent higher than the same time last year.
Porsche executives have been trying to tap into the women's market, as evidenced in part by the company's move to pick professional tennis player Maria Sharapova as a brand ambassador. Porsche maintains it has not moved to dramatically change its brand image, but it has shown a number of ads in recent years that uncharacteristically emphasize its vehicles' practicality under the "Engineered for Magic. Everyday" banner - some featuring female drivers.
Be sure to watch CNBC's video report on Porsche's female movement below - you'll also find one of the aforementioned Engineered For Magic ads as well as an interesting case study video on the campaign from ad agency Cramer-Krasselt.

2014 Porsche 911 GT3 and GT3 Cup step out early

Though Porsche won't be feeding us the full 911 enchilada until tomorrow's Geneva-based festivities, we have managed to scare up some official images of the 2014 911 GT3, as well as the all-new 911 GT3 Cup. As Porsche is celebrating 50 years of the 911, we anticipate a good day for great cars.
The new GT3 looks every bit the proper successor to the racy 911 nameplate, with a fixed rear wing large enough to serve cocktails on, a curvaceous body kit and 20-inch wheels that offer a dominating on-road stance. It's a good bet that Porsche will have coaxed something like 450 horsepower from the naturally aspirated, 3.8-liter flat-six engine that hangs over the car's rear axle. A seven-speed manual and Porsche's own PDK transmission are the likely gearbox offerings.
Should the mental quickness and imposing wingery of the standard GT3 not be enough for you, future racecar driver, Porsche is also bringing a GT3 Cup car to Geneva. The German automaker has given just a few scant details about this Cup car - 460 hp on tap, a production run of just 2,400 units - including three images of the kitted out racer. Certainly more and finer details will emerge, when Porsche shines the spotlights on its new 911s tomorrow.