Porsche models

Porsche was founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche as an engineering office in Stuttgart, before it ever sold a car under its own name. That consultancy DNA matters, because Porsche has always been a company of engineers solving the same problem over and over: how to make a fast car you can actually live with.

The answer, for more than sixty years, has been the 911. Its rear-engined layout should not work as well as it does, and Porsche's refusal to abandon it, refining the same basic idea across generations instead, is the clearest statement of the brand's character. The 911 anchors a range that also includes the Cayman, Panamera, and the Taycan electric sports car.

What keeps Porsche unusual among performance brands is that the cars are genuinely usable every day, and they hold their value better than almost anything. The company also quietly makes much of its money from SUVs like the Cayenne and Macan, which paid for the sports cars. For buyers, a Porsche is the rare exotic badge attached to something you could realistically drive to work.