How about a more recent collaboration?
Posted on 07/23/2009 12:24:34 PM PDT by Pyro7480
The best thing Volkswagen AG can do when it carries through its proposed merger with Porsche is this: Leave Porsche alone and reap the revenue from a glossy brand with loyal, rich customers, analysts say.
Having emerged Thursday atop a power struggle among members of the Piech and Porsche families — who control Porsche Autombil Holding SE — and cost Wendelin Wiedeking his job as chief executive, Volkswagen is left to gather the spoils, namely the marquee Porsche name that will soon be counted with Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini, already among its stable of luxury brands.
"I don't think Volkswagen will change it much, Porsche is such a brand," Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners told The Associated Press. "There's huge value in just the brand, it'd be best to leave it alone."
Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn, who ran luxury brand Audi under VW ownership, said that is just what Europe's biggest automaker by sales plans to do.
"Like Audi today, Porsche can also continue its independent development under the aegis of Volkswagen and preserve its own identity," he said after announcing plans to put the luxury sports car maker under VW's umbrella through a merger....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Sad to see Porsche lose it’s independence.
The Porsche 911 is the greatest exotic car of all time, because...it still works after you drive it.
Makes sense to me that they don’t want to talk about that because that would bring in the question of who he designed the bug for and what the name “Volkswagen” means.
How about a more recent collaboration?
The key word is "rich".
The new company could be called Karman Ghia motors in memory of ‘the poor man’s Porsche.’
Nice engine, Ferdinand, can we get a tank sized one?
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Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it!
www.AnySoldier.com
...hope this all works out for Porshe but I have my doubts....the USA is their biggest market...when our economy stagnates, their sales suffer....I think it’s going to be a while before things get turned around.
I had a dream once that I took possession of a sleek, shiny black Porsche 911 Carrera. Gad, it was beautiful! I climbed in, turned the key, and heard “Vrooom, tweedle, tweedle!”, the unmistakable sound of a single-port 1600 Volkswagen engine.
Does it mention that he was once tight with Uncle Adolph?
Are we supposed to care?
The whole ownership structure confuses me. It is the Porsche family and the Piechs. Ferdinand Piech is the grandson of Ferdie Porsche and the son of Louise Piech - the sister of Ferry Porsche. He owns 13% of Porsche. The two clans AFAIK are Austrians. Old man Porsche actually started VW or was it the German govt?
VW’s Ferdinand Piech chap was the one who almost bet the whole company when Porsche built the 917 race car in the late 1960s to first race in 1970 (?). The 917 and it’s variants - 917-30, 962, 956 etc etc became probably the most successful sports car in history. The cars were essentially unbeatable.
The only thing probably faster on a sports car type track may have been the Brabham BT 54 Formula 1 car which had a 4 cylinder BMW twin-turbocharged engine that put out around 1200-1400 bhp! The car would only last 2 hours while a 917 could easily win the 24 hours of LeMans.
I think maybe you’re a tad too close to this story. Why would a business article about a business merger need to mention an extremely minor historical note such as this?
It’s like suggesting that every time two cell phone companies merge that the story mention that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
Business news and business history are not the same.
Having said that, until I read your comment, I had no idea that it was Porsche who designed the original bug. But it is not cogent to the story about the merger.
Um, yeah. We all have a moral obligation to not aid government inhumanity at the very minimum. Yes Porsche was not stuffing people into ovens, but he still made Hitler's job easier in many ways. Meanwhile, in this country hospitals will close and thousands of nurses and doctor's will find new jobs if President Obama's policies try to compel the to participate in abortions.
It was 60 years ago. Nobody involved with VW or Porsche now had anything to do with the Nazi regime. Are you in favor of slavery reparations, too?
Porsche actually did most of the design of the Tiger 1 and Tiger 2 tanks plus the Elefant tank killer. The huge Maus was never built or at least put in production.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elefant
My cousin had one of those. The base model with the VW bus engine. The gas tank was made large enough to feed the 6-cylinder Porshe engine so the 4-cylinder VW engine would go over 500 miles on a tank of gas. He filled up at his fathers farm on Sunday (with reduced tax fuel), drove it a couple of hours to college, drove around all week, and drove it back home on Friday on a single tank of gas.
It was supposed to be a collaboration between VW and Porshe. Use the production capacity of VW to lower the cost of a Porshe. However, from what I have read in the enthusiast magazines, VW reneged on the deal and wanted more money for the part they made than it was worth. It made the 914 cost as much as a 912 would have.
I love that ad.
I break it out every so often for my New England brother in law.
Dr. Porsche was co-designer of the “Bug”. His fellow contributor was one Adolf Hitler.
Porsche DID dersign one of the worst tanks in history, the Tiger ‘Ferdinand’, in reality an assault gun with NO machineguns. Didn’t do real well on the north flank during ZITADELLE. It was renamed the ‘Elefant’ after that oversight was corrected, and sent west. Only 90 were built.
Porsche also lost out on the turret design of the ‘King Tiger’ to Henschel. Their design was easier to fabricate.
I had a ‘75, but with dual Weber carbs - so it sucked gas pretty hard. Also had an aftermarket exhaust, and sounded like a chainsaw on steroids.
With wide sticky tires it was a blast on curves, but if you did get it to break free... just stick your arms in the air and enjoy the ride, there was no getting it back.
It’s their own fault - they overreached trying to buy Volkswagen. Took on way too much debt to do so, making their own company vulnerable.
Nope. The closest I come to this story is that my Dad owned one when I was a toddler, and my good friend in high school had one. I understand where you’re coming from, but I still think it’s too interesting an anecdote to omit.
I'm not sure where you get any of that from? My point was an offhand respose to the comment that the article failed to mention that Porsche had designed cars for both brands. Take a deep breath.
Germans were pretty stupid to send an AFV like the Ferdinand in a tactical offensive situation.
At different times, I had a ‘59, ‘61, and a ‘60 VDub. Then came the ‘62 912 Porsche (my first “fast” Vdub. Then a ‘66 912 and 2 914’s (a ‘70 and ‘72 2.0).
Yep, all 4 bangers, all fun. There were many interchangeable parts.
So exactly what were you trying to say with your comment about how we have an obligation to not aid government inhumanity? I agree with that, but what does it have to do with VW/Porsche now?
The heaters work great. In the wintertime, it’s like an oven in my VW.
My wife and I drove Volkswagens for quite a few years and gave up on them because of quality problems, not only experienced by us but by many people I know who I talked about the problems with. I might be persuaded to come back if their quality has improved.
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