Wiedeking resigns

[jonnyw]

I was just poking a little fun at the entire situation! I Love a TDI especially in a VW.

Garth I hope your right! VW, Audi , Porsche were pretty good together back in the day. I hope VW can manage properly all these high end brands!!

Porsche being independent brought on the Cayanne and the Pano they built those cars so they " Could Still Focus on their Core Sportscars".

Now with big backing pockets Porsche might not need these Cash Cars like it did in recent years.

[LA964R]

Resigns???.....He was "fired!"

[Bummler]

Now with big backing pockets Porsche might not need these Cash Cars like it did in recent years.

Has not seemed to hurt Ferrari having Fiat as a sugar daddy... Now will Porsche take on F1?

[MarkH]

[Quote]
Has not seemed to hurt Ferrari having Fiat as a sugar daddy... Now will Porsche take on F1?

My thoughts exactly. I think Piech has always been a racer at heart.

[Tom F.]

My take on the story of Wiedeking resigning is like my thought about the Porsche Christophorus magazine. If you've ever had the pleasure of flipping thru a Christo issue of the 50's, 60's or 70's, it is great to read. The articles include pic's of the cars, how the cars were built and tested and raced. They also occasionally included little known facts about production. In comparison, pick up the new Christo mag's and all you see are photos of parties had at various Porsche headquarters with business executives and their bejeweled wives standing around talking about the new Beaujolais Nouveau while the next sport sedan with idiot proof braking and foot warmers is unveiled - that's if you don't mind flipping thru 8 ads of various Swiss watch brands being pitched at you.
Porsche is just like any car company. They need to make money to survive. But they used to be exclusively a sports car company up until the 80's. Now they are not much different than any other car manufacturer trying to continue a story line whose reputation for building high quality no nonsense down and dirty teutonic sports cars manufacturer back in the day has now been muddied by SUV's and family cars, executive power plays, stock options and swaps,etc.. If you look at what the company produces these days, how much different is it from VW or AUDI?
Piech was one of the best things to happen to Porsche back in the 70's. Maybe he will be again. With VW's deep pockets and the Piech and Porsche families all on the same page again, and the respect for the world renowned cars the family created, maybe there is a chance for the company to be reborn into its previous carnation. Maybe the company will even get back into sponsoring racing teams.

Well said. I recently let my Christophorus subscription go. Much as I like the Cayenne, the company really needs to stick to its roots. For instance, the abandonment of dry sump lubrication in the normal 996 and 997 models was a sign that the company forgot about its roots, IMHO. What is the old saying? Shoemaker, stick to your last!

[RennTyp]

If you look past the Wiedeking and Piech battle of egos then this is actually a great result for the future of Porsche. With the Porsche / Piech families now the largest shareholders in VW, the Qataris soon to join them and Lower Saxony still with their blocking minority the are part of a pretty impregnable fortress that should survive the worst the global recession can throw at them. And as others have pointed out with some old fashioned engineers in charge rather than the money men they might even go back to racing...

By the way am I the only one who hadn't understood that the reason Wiedeking got paid €80m last year was because his contract guaranteed him personally 1% of pretax profits? Any wonder he started running the company like a hedge fund?

[denson]

I recently read that the thought was that the family was pushing him out. They all denied that, but it seems.......

[BAPhotowerks]

I don't agree that he resigned either, as I understood it he had his a$$ handed to him.

[Sandwich Boy]

"Porsche said Mr. Wiedeking accepted a compensation package of €50 million"

Wait, I thought it said he resigned. I don't recall ever being offered a compensation package when I told my employer I was quitting.

Resigned, my a$$.

[NV Stig]

The whole thing sucks for Porsche, seems like a real rope a dope that VW pulled. When we look back it will be a hiccup in the whole Porsche history. I mean these companies have been so integrated and incestral through the years. I mean Prof. Porsche got his big break through VW. In the 70's it was Porsche/ Audi, and then there was VW/ Audi. I think there was a VW/ Porsche in there too.
It will all work out in the wash. It's all about whose logo is in the little corner of the window and what arder it's in anyways, ha ha. Maybe VW will have a positive balance sheet for a little while.
Just remember, in the end, everything will be owned by Wal Mart anyways.