With all the intrigue around the Porsche-takes-over-Volkswagen and Volkswagen-takes-over-Porsche, there are the expected ups and downs. Recently, there have been voices it might not happen. Reason given: The lawsuits. I believe, this is just propaganda to demoralize the opposition and to force them to settle. In the meantime, facts are being created. And here is another fact: Volkswagen officially acquired the auto trading business of the Porsche Holding in Salzburg, Austria. The company changes hands for €3.3b ($4.5b), a sign that this is not your ordinary car dealership. (Read More…)
According to Auto Motor und Sport, the next-generation Porsche 911 (991) will have its wheelbase extended by ten centimeters compared to the current model, a concession to US emissions standards which are categorized by footprint. The new elfer will also lose about 88 pounds and gain stop-start technology, in yet another nod to tightening global emissions standards. Oh yes, and the handbrake will become an electrically-controlled switch similar to the unit in the Panamera. Otherwise… has anything changed? These Erlkönig spy shots reveal the biggest non-story in all of automotive-dom: the 911’s styling really won’t change all that much for its newest iteration. Yes, the most consistently-styled car of the modern era will get slightly steeper front headlights, a more tapered rear end, and fewer vestigal cooling vents that survived the switch from air-cooled to water-cooled engines, thanks to the Porsche’s legendarily stubborn styling department. Otherwise, the updates are incredibly subtle (those side vents are taped-on camo, according to AM und S).
Can the Carrera continue like this forever? Will faithfulness to its classical form ever wear thin? A quick comparison of 911 sales to Boxster/Cayman sales (4,751 to 3,036 in the US, year-to-date) suggests that’s not going to be a problem anytime soon…
The folks at the F1 circus are getting desperate. Car makers are evacuating F1 as if it’s about to be wiped out by a hurricane. Honda gone. BMW gone. Toyota gone. Hyundai said “are you kidding us?” (Or Korean words to that effect.) And now someone, obviously on serious mind altering substances, thought they could get Volkswagen to come and play. (Read More…)
The Sixth Sense. The “Saw” movies. The Vanishing (Original Dutch version). The Fight Club. What do all these films have in common? They are like the “Porsche-Volkswagen” saga. Always an unexpected twist. Let’s start at the beginning. When Porsche tried to takeover Volkswagen, it really was a case of the mouse biting the lion. The reality set in, the credit markets collapsed, and Volkswagen went from being the takeovee to the takeover…er (how I managed to pass English is a complete mystery to me). [ED. Takeoveror?] But like any good saga, there’s got to be a final bite and there’s a 30 percent chance this one will happen. (Read More…)
A lot of people assume Porsche and Volkswagen have long been united. Well they kind of are. They make cars together. They share management. Winterkorn is also Boss of Porsche SE. Former Volkswagen strategist Matthias Müller is now CEO of Porsche. Go to any tradeshow: Porsche is where Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Bugatti etc. are. Porsche and Volkswagen are united in everything but the final signature. And that may wait a little longer. (Read More…)
Porsche has made much of its hybrid drivetrain development efforts, pointing out that its founder helped create the world’s first hybrid drivetrain one hundred years ago. But thus far, the talk has centered on Porsche’s “rolling hybrid laboratory,” the 911 GT3R Hybrid, and the Hybrid Cayenne, with the plug-in 918 Hypercar lurking across the horizon. But, Porsche’s development chief Wolfgang Duerheimer tells Automotive News [sub]
In the future, we will have hybrid drive in every model line
First up will be a Panamera with the Cayenne’s hybrid V6 drivetrain, arriving sometime next year. Duerheimer won’t give a timeline for hybrid versions of the 911, Boxster and Cayman, but he does admit that hybrid drivetrains aren’t the only way for a sportscar firm to shave off the 41 grams of C02 per kilometer that Porsche needs gone by 2015. (Read More…)
Approximately two weeks ago, I reported how Volkswagen CEO, Martin Winterkorn, confirmed that Porsche was going to bring us a new, smaller SUV. A sort of younger brother to the Cayenne called the “Cajun”. Well, it appears that the “Cajun” and few other things aren’t so clear cut. Either that or someone doesn’t value their career at Volkswagen. Or rather Porsche. (Read More…)
If you work at Porsche, you get a sweetheart deal on a 911 or whatever your heart desires. But it comes at a steep price: You will not be able to use Facebook, or any other social networks. Blocked by Porsche’s firewall. About 25 percent of the nearly 13,000 Porsche employees used to use social networks (that sounds like just about everybody at the office) – no more. Aus. Vorbei. HTTP Error 401. (Read More…)
Now that Volkswagen is the de facto owner of Porsche, after Porsche’s audacious bid to take over Wolfsburg ended in utter defeat, one has to ask oneself: “Is Volkswagen going to embarrass Porsche any further?” The answer appears to be “yes”. Let me explain… (Read More…)
Porsche just announced something highly unusual: Record full-year revenues from selling Porsches. No more option plays with attached sheet metal bending operation. Revenues rose 17.9 percent to a record €7.79b ($10.5b), and Porsche said it expects to see the positive trend continue in the current business year, reports Reuters.
And where do all these sales come from? Definitely not from Porsche’s core markets, the U.S.A. and Germany. (Read More…)
No, not the silly humpbacked 911. That’s just Porsche’s latest wallet-lightening technology. Porsche’s nod to heritage is in the fact that it’s building only 356 of these 911 “Speedsters.” Because, you see, the first Porsche Speedsters were based on the Porsche 356. Oh yes, and by limiting an “exclusive” to a few hundred units means Porsche can charge $204,000 for a 408 HP 911. Which, after all, is actually the more significant nod to Porsche heritage: the 911-based Speedsters, which arose in the cocaine and yuppie-fueled 80s, have long been a high point in Porsche’s proud tradition of charging silly money for ever-so garish “special editions.” Doesn’t heritage just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?
If you are one of the richest car executives of the world, if you have “about twelve children. You never can tell for sure”, if those children are from four different women (I did not say wives), and if you are 73, you slowly start doing some estate planning. That’s exactly what Ferdinand Piech, Emperor of Volkswagen and Porsche, did. His heirs are livid. (Read More…)
At $103,100, the just-announced Porsche 911 Carrera GTS costs $12,600 more than a Carrera S. With only 23 horsepower more than the S, the GTS’s premium works out to about $548 per horsepower. Or $6,300 per letter on the badge. Sure, you get a rear-drive version of the Carrera 4 body, an option that’s only been made recently available on the über-priced 911 Sport Classic, but other than that (and a claim to the title of fastest Carrera-badged 911 ever built), the GTS doesn’t appear to bring all that much to the table. And though the lightened, more powerful GT3 costs $25k more than the Carrera S, its extra power brings the per-horsepower premium to a more value-oriented $503. On the other hand, a Corvette ZR1 offers 200 hp more than even the GT3 for less money. As has always been the case, if dollars per horsepower is your game, you’ve still got to go to Detroit.
While reading the responses to a recent BMWBLOG posting by Josh Lewis, I noted that one of the posters had put together a very interesting comparison of the BMW M3 and the Porsche 911. To put it mildly, somebody’s gone Kirstie Alley while somebody else has stayed Goldie Hawn:
Those of you steeped in traditional Catholicism know that we have just one of Porsche’s Deadly Sins left to go before the end of the series. What better time, then, to take a moment to talk about just why people do choose to become Porsche owners. Time and time again in my “Porsche’s Deadly Sins” series, people have asked me basically the same question, to wit:
If Porsche is such a terrible company, and they make such terrible products, why do you have three of them?
It’s a simple question with a not-so-simple group of answers. Buckle up and let’s talk about it.
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