Fluidplay

Wow!! you guys catch this? Check this out!

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...626666,00.html

coltin

Well this is very unfortunate to hear! I hope that Porsche is able to work this out and retain their independence as a car manufacturer...

Kool

Sounds like they are pretty close to where they were when he started.

bigdeano

They've been close to bankrupt before and they'll be close again. I have no worries that they'll pull through.

LFA951

What Porsche needs to do is what most have been doing the last five years to improve the enviroment and add more mpgs to fuel consumption. Look at how many 4 cylinder ricers there are out there pushin over 250 hp. BMW has the 135i, 335i and the Z4 with twin turbos and 300hp, and they are selling the like hot cakes starting at 40K with a six cylinder! Porsche should redesign a newer model 951/968 with a four cylinder turbocharged engine to compete with the rest of the lower priced market. It would help the enviroment, it would help us with the gas prices, and they could sell it for around the same or up to what a Boxster goes for, and they would fall far from being close to bankruptcy. Who needs a Panamera? Older rich guys. Porsche needs to market a car that will target the younger crowd, in the 30s and 40s who would be more than eager to get into a new age 944 turbo/ 968 turbo with today's awesome technology...

Animus

Maybe we should pool rennlist funds, setup a board and buy a share in Porsche....

Wipeout

Then maybe RL-owned Porsche can buy IB...

V2Rocket

putting a 4-cylinder into the 944 was the first mistake porsche made lol

should have gone with a I-6 IMO

LFA951

I disagree, I personally think that cutting half of the 928 engine in two and adding a turbocharger to it, was genius of them, considering that the 2.5 was almost as powerful and equally as fast as it's 5.0 counterpart!!

Kit_Chris

This is shocking news to me, for months I was under the impression that Porsche was the least affected of the makers because of its solid financial backers and the huge sums that have been accumulated through the industry's best profit margins (enough capital for Porsche to acquire a significant position in VW). No doubt luxury/sports car sales are going to be down for awhile, it seems to me like the entire car industry grew to unsustainable levels in the past decade with heavy use of leverage both on corporate and consumer levels. If all makers cut their production by 25%, I'm sure they would all survive, this would involve writing off just about as much debt, but we haven't yet accepted the simple notion that investors do take hits in a functioning economy, nationalization of debt is no good. Anyway, we'll always need cars, just not this many.

Could Porsche's business plan have been too aggressive in the past 10 years? The increase in vehicle production is impressive, introduction of new models, new markets, etc., all of which makes the company more vulnerable in tough economic times. It will survive, ownership structure may change, but the fundamental assets (engineers and accumulated experience/knowledge) will stay regardless of who owns it all.

Regards,
Chris

Rock

The 2011 Boxster is going to be have a 4 cylinder 2.0 and 2.4L turbo engine.

Kool

I still do not understand why all companies have to grow. I know that greed perpetuates it but come on all it does is creates this boom to bust yo yo.

Oh well.

Chris White

Porsche needs to stop screwing with business models and go back to screwing with race car models.
Business management types don't care for racing....

Whisper

+1

Porsche has been allowing business considerations to trump design considerations, and this may have paid off short-term, but in the long run it's hurting them, as the Japanese start to eat their lunch.

For example: The Cayman is one of the best cars ever made. But instead of rocking the boat by making it all it could be, Porsche engaged in 997 protectionism by putting in a low displacement engine, and no LSD.

Now the 350Z can complete with it.... at half the price. And Cayman sales have been stagnant.

And don't get me started on the SUV-thing, and the Panamera. Porsche is trying to rely on the prestige of its label, rather than the performance of its cars, to draw buyers. But it forgets that the former comes from the latter.

I still want a Cayman S. But I have to realize that I am an idiot for that. Sure, it's great, but if I wasn't a Porsche addict, I could get something equally nice for much less.

Porsche got where it is by growing and adapting, by taking risks, by letting engineering considerations rule. Stop that, and what's left?

chrly924s

Last winter when Porsche was making these moves on VW, several comments were made in the financial/auto news that they could end up being a division of VW.