Yesterday, Porsche went through more mood swings in a single day than a manic depressive in three months. In the morning, Munich’s Süddeutsche Zeitung, usually well clued into high level auto gossip in Germany, had the good news that the public prosecutor in Stuttgart had dropped most of the investigation into former Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and former CFO Holger Härter. Supposedly, no evidence of share price manipulation was found. With that out of the way, the formal amalgamation of Porsche into Volkswagen could now progress at full speed, said the paper. However, they were misinformed. (Read More…)
No interview with a leader of the automotive industry is complete without the requisite question about electric plans. Porsche CEO Matthias Müller engineered a trick answer: (Read More…)
Porsche’s Wolfsburg-raised Porsche CEO Matthias Müller knows how to fan the flames. He’s not afraid of playing China against the U.S.A. A month ago, he dropped a hint to German media that Porsche could start production in China, or if that doesn’t work out, somewhere in “North America”. Chinese press went monkeyexcrement over the possibility of a Made in China Porsche. When they were all hot and bothered, tease Müller told China’s First Financial Daily that “Porsche currently has no such plans.” How do they put it so succinctly in China? “Aiya!”
Don’t cry for Porsche, China, Müller is at it again. (Read More…)
I just replaced the engine in my 2005 Porsche 911 due to the failure of the INTERMEDIATE SHAFT. I would like to know just how widespread the problem is with 911’s and other Porsche models too. Why?
I am considering filing a lawsuit against Porsche to recover the costs associated with replacing the engine. If you have had an INTERMEDIATE SHAFT failure and have an interest in joining in my lawsuit or simply sharing your experience please contact me: westsidetravelmedicineATgmail.com
End of the 60s, Volkswagen and Porsche cooperated on a budget sportscar called the 914. Soon, one of the many feuds erupted between Wolfsburg and Zuffenhausen, and the mid-engined twoseater was sold as a “VW-Porsche” in Europe. Memories of the boxy, targa-topped car flash through my mind as I read in Germany’s AUTOBILD that Volkswagen might bring back a new Volksporsche. (Read More…)
Porschephiles: How do you like the marvelous scent of diesel? You know, the stuff they sell at the big truck stops to those people with the big Mack trucks? Automotive News gives Porsche lovers heart palpitations with the news that Porsche is considering selling diesel versions in the United States. (Read More…)
One of the few automakers that are not manufacturing in China yet is Porsche. This could change. Porsche will decide this year whether they will build the new Cajun in China, Porsche CEO Matthias Müller told Focus Magazine.(Read More…)
How’s this for a way to kick off a car show? The Porsche 918 RSR looks tastier than the complimentary breakfast that preceded its launch this morning, all gullwings and gleaming sidepipes. Its direct-injected V8 makes 563 HP at a dizzying 10,300 RPM, and electric torque-vectoring motors on the front wheels add a combined 150 kW, for a total power output of 767 HP. Porsche says the interior is more “gentleman’s racer”-oriented than the 918 Concept… but what gentleman makes his consort sit atop the energy-storing flywheel that replaces the passenger seat? And don’t get us (specifically Jack Baruth) started on the copious 917 references in Porsche’s promotional literature. Still, this Porsche is hard not to like… right down to the giant orange “Hybrid” splashed across its rear wing.
Did you hear that? That was a sigh of relief, emanating from the few souls that are still holding the fort at Volkswagen in Wolfsburg and Porsche in Zuffenhausen. The sudden release of long held breath was caused by U.S. District Judge Harold Baer, who dismissed a lawsuit by 10 hedge funds who accused Porsche of securities fraud during the Wiedeking/Härter hijinx. The hedgies claimed more than $2 billion in damages, which gave Volkswagen pause in fully absorbing Porsche. Now, they can floor it.
Having been cut off the lucrative (and in the end deadly) derivatives business, Porsche looks for other sidelines. And it seems very much like they have found one: Consulting.
“Just as car enthusiasts envy Porsche drivers,” reports Automotive News [sub] “company executives salivate over the carmaker’s profit margins, the highest in the industry.” Said salivation generates juicy business at Porsche. (Read More…)
Audi will be developing all future larger SUVs offered by the many Volkswagen brands: The Porsche Cayenne, the Volkswagen Touareg, the Audi Q7 and whatever other larger 4x4s the other brands might offer (fat chance.) Audi was just handed the “Entwicklungshoheit” (design supremacy) for the brutes. Heretofore, they were designed by Porsche. Don’t cry Porsche, they received another job as a trade. (Read More…)
Yesterday’s discussion of Porsche’s identity as a pure sports car company (compared to an SUV-peddling luxury brand) was predictably emotional, so here’s the cold, hard truth. The Cayenne has been Porsche’s best seller in the US since its introduction, excepting a 911-happy 2006. Oh, and this year it’s on track to come in second… to the Panamera. Meanwhile, Porsche’s Boxster/Cayman duo has been dropping off since before the most recent recession even began, and 911 sales are approaching a 15-year low. Now that we know the facts, is there any debate about what would happen to Porsche if it stuck to its sports car knitting?
When Porsche introduced the world to its first production SUV in 2003, it set off an intense, polarized debate that continues to this day. For some, the Cayenne was a crossing of the Rubicon (no pun intended) leading to the dumbing-down of a proud marque… for others, it was a new, more accessible way to experience the brand. Sure enough, sales of the Cayenne have been good (significantly better than the Cayman and Boxster combined), but Porsche seems to have let passion for its brand run out of control.
Since the Cayenne controversy, every V6 Panamera and Cayman S has given the anti-Cayenne faction evidence of the slippery slope of brand destruction they saw coming with Porsche’s first SUV (and which Jack Baruth traces back as far as the 914). And now, as if to confirm the worst fears of even some of its own executives, Porsche is throwing rocket fuel on the fire in the form of a new, smaller SUV. The question this time: after the Cayenne, Pana V6, and various sins against the fanbase (some more deadly than others), are the purists still fired up enough to rage against the Cajun?
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