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With five hybrid models on the market now and at least four more coming before the end of the year, General Motors' hybrid sales are looking less ugly than they did in the first three months of 2008. GM is still no threat to Toyota or even Ford, but sales have been steady (if slow) for the last couple of months. For the first time in their monthly sales report for June, GM has explicitly said how many hybrids were sold. Amidst truck sales that were down 39 percent compared to June 2007, GM declared that it sold 1,149 hybrids in June for a total of 4,376 during the first half of the year.

Out of that total, the Tahoe and Yukon Two-mode hybrids accounted for 547 sales, with the Malibu and Vue mild hybrids taking 295 and 277 respectively. A grand total of thirty buyers opted for the Saturn Aura hybrid. The last time that hybrid sales were mentioned for April, about the same number of Two-mode and mild hybrid models were sold. So far, in a market where hybrids are flying off the lots of most dealers who offer them, GM's pricey two-mode trucks and tepid mild hybrids have been also rans. It will be interesting to watch and see if the significantly cheaper Chrysler hybrid SUVs can draw more interest when they appear at dealers this summer followed by the smaller Saturn Vue Two-mode later this fall.

[Source: General Motors]

Filed under: Sports/GTs, Porsche

Click above higih-res image gallery of the Porsche Panamera

Thanks for the heads-up to our friends at Supercars.net, where a forum poster has uploaded more official shots of the Porsche Panamera (apparently lifted from Autoweek.nl) ahead of its official reveal extravaganza scheduled for Monday. The first photo and technical details trickled out last night, and the new batch gives you a better view of the car's controversial rump, which is already polarizing enthusiasts the world over. It's not so much that we think a round booty is a bad thing -- it's just that Porsche has done it better before. Or have you guys already forgotten about the awesomeness that's spelled 9-2-8? Anyway. Have a look at the gallery, and stand by for more on Monday (or whenever the next group of pics gets leaked).

Gallery: Porsche Panamera Gran Turismo