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USA TODAY Porsche Cayenne to Put Pep in SUV Market; Mercedes Unveils High-End Luxury Sedan, New E-Class (David Kiley) Sport-utility vehicles are in such demand that even Porsche, standard-bearer for performance sports coupes, has to have one. Porsche showed photos of its Cayenne SUV at the Geneva auto show, which runs through Thursday. CEO Wendelin Wiedeking says the SUV will attract new customers and offer current Porsche owners something besides a zippy two-seater. The Cayenne is intended to increase Porsche sales by 50 percent over the next 18 months, Wiedeking said. Porsche also is building a version of the SUV for Volkswagen, which will be sold globally as Tuareg. Both vehicles will be unveiled in September at the Paris auto show, but already VW is having to rethink the name. VW's U.S. management is trying to get it changed for the USA.

BMW now has marketing rights to Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen owns Bentley, but DaimlerChrysler isn't about to sit around and watch all the super-premium car business go to its German rivals. At Geneva, Daimler unveiled a super-premium sedan, the Maybach, that it thinks will give the British-born marques a run for the Grey Poupon set. The Maybach, priced at $250,000-$300,000, will be sold only at some company-owned Mercedes stores. Sales are expected at around 1,000 a year, mostly in North America, the Middle East and Asia. Like Rolls-Royce customers, Maybach buyers will visit Mercedes' Center of Excellence in Sindelfingen, Germany, choosing interior and exterior colors, trims and other custom features. Reclining rear seats with leg supports, flat-panel monitors, humidors and four-zone climate controls are just a few of the myriad choices.

Mercedes also is getting its first big-audience exposure to its all-new E Class at Geneva. The E Class, Mercedes' biggest profit-maker, begins selling in Germany later this month and in the USA in the fall. The company has invested more than $2 billion in its most important model. The design changes are evolutionary, but not nearly as dramatic a departure as the current model was from the one that preceded it. Pricing is expected to be near the current $40,000 to $50,000.