Is Porsche Still Going To Be Able To Thrive Under Volkswagen Control?

A very good article. Unfortunately I believe that VW will destroy Porsche by not letting it be the independent star and maker of wonderful cars that it is. I don't want to see a Porsche Passat, a Nissan Juke like Porsche Roxster or a 356 successor made from a Beetle convertible. I hope VW doesn't mess up a good thing.
T

i think Porsche's presence will definitely be felt throughout VW's list of subsidiaries. But as Porsche "lends a hand" to the development of other vehicle programs, there will be additional pressure for the sports car maker to continue to produce models that are much better than their contributions to VW's brands.

Porsche can effectively remain "small" while benefiting from their services to a wider range of vehicle programs.

That depends on how you define 'thrive'. I'm pretty sure there'll be a lot more Porsche on the roads, like BMW does with 1 series and GT, all that.

We will wait and see but I have a feeling that VW will dilute the crap out of Porsche. Sad day. Greed got the best of Porsche. If they focused all their efforts and money on R&D instead of trying to take over VW they would be in a much better place today. The only brand that can even come close to Porsche that VW has is Audi and even at that its nearly as strong as Porsche is.

If I am BMW executive I am feeling pretty good knowing that they are the last truly independent German car company.

maybe, but you'd be shortsighted, because at the end of the day the goal of any company is to be as profitable as possible. I can promise you if you're a BMW (or Benz) executive right now you're not thumping your chest about how you're independent, you're nervous about the fact that Audi will be building cars with a chassis from Porsche, an engine from Lamborghini, components from VW, etc. Why? Because they'll be subsidizing the cost of development across the different brands that are sharing components. The economies of scale here are massively in Audi's favor, and that leads to enormous profits while still using the best engineering.

Just ask Lexus or Infinity or Caddie how well being owned by a high volume, lower class carmaker has helped them "thrive" through the sharing of engineering, drivetrains, and platforms ...

The answer is that it doesn't help at all.

Lexus, Infinity, and Cadillac barely exist outside the U.S., and the two Japanese brands were (relatively) recent marketing inventions created almost solely for the U.S. market. Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, etc. have been around awhile and actually sell successfully in markets other than here. They're going to continue to sell successfully in markets other than here. Sharing engineering, drivetrains, platforms, etc. DOES reduce cost, so as long as you're sharing GOOD engineering, drivetrains, platforms, etc. you're going to make good vehicles, at a lower cost than your competition, while charging similar money. That translates to "higher profits". The key is sharing the good stuff while hiding the downmarket bits (hello, GM/Caddy), and actually making efficient use of the advantage economies of scale offers (hello Daimler/Chrysler). I don't know how much the merger will help Porsche, but it sure has the potential to help Audi and VW.

Porsche will thrive, its already monstrous $20,000 average per vehicle profits will grow even more as VW dilutes Porsche's engineering and heritage. I would hope that people would eventually realize that Porsche would be nothing more then very expensive badging, but seeing how many parts Audi is picking from the vw parts bin and still being successful at it... I highly doubt that will happen to any major extent.

Dilution it seems gives the manufacturer new targets thereby increasing their income. In todays day and age, its almost a sure thing for them to maximize profit as well as claiming exclusivity. We all know those two things can rarely co-exist. Porsche charges unnecessary amounts for options that other manufacturers give standard. People dont care because they are already paying a large amount of money to begin with so they somehow rationalize spec'ing up the car.

Sharing development costs is a good thing. Makes parts cheaper if they can interchange between a vw and an audi. There is a market for that and why not be in it? Its good 'DNA' anyway.

While the image may be tarnished a bit the quality certainly won't. Their cars will still be spectacular but lets hope the family wars won't force Porsche to step out of their realm. It's not a VW-Porsche thing. It's the two families making money and competing with each other.

I rep. Porsche as they are great cars. I will only hate VW for limiting them. I don't care if they are manufacturing plants. Audi's, Porsche's, VW's, Lamborghini's, etc are all fine built vehicles.

Well I beleive if Lamborghini can thrive then Porsche will thrive. VW is not stupid. They also have to realize what Porsche is and what Porsche means to a lot of people. Porsche does need to grow a bit to be more profitable. However I doubt seriously if Porsche will be making 500,000 cars ever. However 150,000 cars with ALL the engineering development by Porsche should not hurt them. The key thing will be keeping Porsches identitity in tact by making sure enough parts are Porsche derived. For example the shared small mid engined sports car will share the same chassis with VW and Audi but should have a Porsche derived engine and Porsche derived interior and exterior styling. If they do this the car will sell and will justify the higher price over Audi and VW versions. This can be done with proper thought.