NEIN sez Porsche: Roxster ain't going to happen

Posted May 25th 2007 6:28PM by John Neff
Filed under: Euro, Crossovers/CUVs, Porsche


Fughedaboudit. That's what Porsche is saying about German magazine Auto Bild's claim the sports car maker is going to build a smaller companion ute to the Cayenne called the Roxster that would share its DNA with the upcoming Q5 from Audi. The Stuttgart-based automaker issued a statement that was originally reported on the Dow Jones Newswires denying the Auto Bild report.

No reasons were given as to why the Roxster won't be built, which is odd since we imagine it would be an easy business case to make. Just like the Cayenne shares many components with the Audi Q7 and Volkswagen Touareg, the Roxster would also share parts with the soon-to-arrive Audi Q5, as well as other models in the Audi range like the A4 and A6.

And who is Porsche kidding? This is one automaker that can longer claim its brand is sacred. The Cayenne looks like the Bearded Lady wearing a ball gown and the Panamera also takes the Porsche identity and applies it to an odd form. The Porsche badge could be applied to a riding lawnmower at this point (and it would sell!). Regardless, the official word from Germany is that the Roxster is not going to happen, which will just leave more sales for the BMW X3, Acura RDX and Mercedes-Benz's new CUV, the GLK.

[Source: Road and Track]

The Porsche Roxster is a rumoured mid-size luxury crossover SUV to be released by German automaker Porsche for the 2009 or 2010 model year. It will be built with many components of the Audi Q5 SUV. As a mid-sizer, it will be the second Porsche SUV, after the full-size Porsche Cayenne.
This rumour was likely generated by the fact that Porsche copyrighted the "Roxster" name. However, Porsche has already denied that they would create a small SUV.