NY Times: Can Porsche Shine at VW?

[Nine17]

The New York Times Business page has weighed in on the merger between Porsche and Volkswagen. The piece is (in my opinion) pretty superficial and fails to find the roots of what has made people passionate about the brand over the years. While touching on VAG's success with the Lamborghini brand and failure with the Bentley brand, it also fails to adequately address the simple fact that we live in a world of enormous global markets which cannot be served by the kind of tiny artisanal makers of cuckoo clocks that Porsche once was.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/bu...agewanted=1&hp

I suspect that most here will agree with me that the Porsche mystique changed forever when Ferry banished Beurly and Butzi from Zuffenhausen in the same moment that Volkswagen lost interest in subsidizing air-cooled racing cars...

[NV Stig]

Thanks for posting the article. It sounds like VW is really trying to make a move to streamline the modern day Porsche line by bringing in Mr. Muller from VW, who they claim is a company man. It seems like Porsche was under way with the mainstream by starting up the Cayanne line in 03, and the Panamera trying to become the family car (granted a $100K family car.)

I really do see the 997 RS Hybrid/ 918 flywheel generator technology becoming the way of the future, and I seeVW really capitalizing on it. I wouldn't be surprised if the Audi RS5 to the next generation Lamborghinis and Bugatti's showing up with that technology.

I think that Porsche is going to lose a large portion of their distinctiveness (sell out) but if the keep those geniuses locked away that come up with these cutting edge ideas, they will still stay ahead of the curve.

At the end of the day, the world will be owned by Wal Mart anyways, ha ha.