prvoking comments from autoextremist, and as an ex-brand marketer, i agree:

"And who would have thought that five years ago Porsche would now be the world's fastest growing truck company? Completely turning its back on its heritage and its founder's mission, Porsche - led by Wendelin Wiedeking, yet another German automotive executive who has been literally canonized by the German automotive media - stopped entering factory teams at Le Mans for five years in order to focus all of its energies on developing an SUV in conjunction with VW. Think about that statement for a moment. The company that was founded on the notion of building lithe sports cars that were meant to be raced - stopped racing to build a sport utility vehicle. And no, this wasn't an SUV that redefined the category or somehow transformed the genre as only the old Porsche engineering philosophy could and would do - this was an ungainly, overwrought and overweight monster of a truck that weighed well over 5,000 pounds. We watched as Porsche tried to wax eloquently about its tank-like SUV called the Cayenne, even winced when they brought back one of their more famous ad themes - "There is no substitute" - slapped it on the truck and tried to convince enthusiasts that this 5,000+ pound monster truck would have the chops of a 911 on their favorite winding road. Hands down, this has been the most revolting development in the automobile business of the last five years, in my estimation. Wendelin Wiedeking has exposed the "new" Porsche for what it has become - a once-proud company that turned its back on its founder's raison d'etre in order to chase a segment that it had no business playing in. Porsche loyalists will tell you that Wiedeking's genius ensured the long-term health of Porsche as an independent automaker. I vehemently disagree. What Wiedeking's genius has unleashed is a death spiral of diminishing returns. Yes, Porsche is giddy with short-term profitability now, but in the process of gaining that, they have watched as sales of their core franchise products - its sports cars - have plummeted to an alarming degree. Why is that, exactly? Wiedeking's acolytes will tell you that it's just a small blip because the 911 and Boxster need freshening, which the Cayenne's lavish profits will allow them do to. But I will tell you that in the process of chasing short-term profitability, Porsche has set into motion the inexorable erosion of one of the world's greatest and most unsullied (up until now) brands. When you see SUVs with the Porsche crest on them littering suburbia, you have the beginnings of a long-term problem. When you have consumers out there whose only exposure to the Porsche brand is a truck - then what, exactly, does the Porsche brand stand for anymore? Is it their used-to-be-famous sports cars? Why would that be? Why would Porsche's new buyers go out of their way to associate the brand with their once-famous sports cars, when the Cayenne looks like a lot of other SUVs out there - especially their neighbor's VW Touareg? I've preached repeatedly over the last five years that the integrity of an automotive brand must be vigilantly protected at all costs. A lot of automakers have ignored that rule to perilous effect. But none have done so to the degree that Porsche has. In one fell swoop, Porsche sports cars are no longer special because of the Cayenne - and worse, Porsche is no longer an exclusive maker of sports cars. And that is something that no amount of boasting from Wendelin Wiedeking - or accolades to his genius - can overcome. The word is that Porsche is gearing up to go racing again and they believe that once that happens, everything will be right with the world. But this brand image thing is a fragile, fickle business - and Porsche is about to find that out the hard way. There are competitors out there right now who don't really care about Porsche's reputation, some who are perfectly capable of defeating Porsche at what used to be their game. Competitors who will deliver faster, high-performance sports cars to market, with better quality and value - and then they will go out and beat Porsche on the race track to boot. And when Porsche has to jump up and down and scream to high heaven when their sports car sales don't rebound ("Wait a minute, folks - this is a Porsche we're talking about here!"), and suggest that enthusiasts out there should all bow down and genuflect to Zuffenhausen and smile when they pay through the nose for a Porsche, only then will they will realize what this brand erosion thing really means - as enthusiasts let out a collective yawn and keep right on walking by."

 

Porsche. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Applied Sciences in Gelsenkirchen claims to have conducted the most comprehensive quality study ever done in Germany, and the results say that vehicles made by Porsche had 15.7 problems per 1,000 cars last year, with Porsche cars breaking down twice as often as the Japanese mass-market automobiles made by Mazda, which had the top rating in the study. The Porsche Cayenne has suffered from two recalls already so far this year. Where does Porsche begin? They need to fix their quality problems, but they also need to set about repairing the damage done to their image in the U.S. too - before it's too late. Word that Toyota is building an authentic, high-performance sports car branded as a Lexus has to have at least some in Zuffenhausen seriously concerned, especially with Toyota making such dramatic inroads into the European market. But then again, with Cayenne profits rolling in, it will still be a while before Porsche realizes they're in trouble, and besides, there's no way Toyota could build a sports car that could threaten Porsche, right? Right.

 

Watt, I think that a key issue that you failed to mention in your eloquent expose is that the "racing" that Porsche is getting back into is with the Cayenne in the Nascar Craftsman Truck series! The return to LeMans is merely a ruse. Where did it all go wrong?

 

I'm starting to feel very Ferrari-esque as of late.

T

 

Larry!!!

truck racing????!!!! R U SERIOUS?????

we can all buy winnebagos, get drunk on the roof and spit tobacco -- the new P customers!!!

new AM V8 a major threat and when/if lexus gets a sports car right.... the brand will collapse

i'll take my new babe to the P truck races:

 

Aw Watt, why did you have to go and post that? You just F'd up my whole weekend. Those chains are screaming louder than the one on my VFR 800 Interceptor!

 

whips, chains and Porsche trux Larry -- your perfect weekend!!!!

 

Porsche has overbuilt the TT....back in the days of the 993TT it was special to have one as they were rare...The TT reslae market speaks for itself. Sad when a used TT is worth less than a new 4S cab...And now with the new TT S, they screwed ALL current 996TT owners

 

NASCAR Truck series?????? Say it isn't so!

 

Unfortunately Porsche will have to deal with Toyota in the CTS, which is on the verge of dominating that series, and soon the Nextel Cup...

 

Toyota now competes in the NASCAR truck series and it may not be too long before they race cup cars nascar style.

I think the most salient point here is that while in the process of designing a truck, Porsche has neglected its high end performance models and now there are already US and Japanese cars on the market that will seriously put a frown on porsche drivers.

I think the turbo S is a good idea -- it gives all the top end goodies in a package deal. There are two problems. 1) these cars are overpriced by about 20-30k (o/w we wouldn't see the 04 TT hardtops and gt3 sit on dealer's floors). 2) as Mr Sindi noted the current TT has been grossly overproduced.

So what is the answer. 1) produce less than 500 TT S and perhaps less than 1000 c2S, c4S models and release a new 997 gt2 and gt3 (no more than 300 each and thats being generous) with more performance. 2) give customers a price break on these cars -- IMHO all 996 cars are overpriced. 3) Return to racing -- I'm ok with nascar, but they need to retake Europe via the F1 series et.al. 4) wait a few years and the interest will pick up.

 

As mentioned in an old thread, I met the good doctor when I worked for Porsche in Canada in 1992. From what he was telling us then, we all new Porsche was screwed. Screwed in the sense that as he stated, " Porsche is going to seek different directions in the next decade." Little that we knew, he was f@#king right !!

An old friend of mine e-mail me the day he was told to pack his tool box from the Weissach Race Engine Program he completed. Audi R8 sound familier ?? And prepare for something that was radical for the companies future business survival.

Just resently, he was relieved from the his Leipzig supervision of the V8 project to prepare for another " suprize " as he put it.

Being a purist , as most of us are, he feels very bitter and hurt working for Porsche right now. Too bad. As he said to me last, "if the head ARSLOCH will go where Porsche SHOULD, then the company will be stable for quite along time."

He said that Lemans will bring alot of talk and gossip this weekend where Porsche is concerned. But warned since 1998, untill you see the car, don't hld your breath for something new from Zuffenhasenn.


Theo

 

It is mind boggling to me that the current Porsche management went the way of the Cayenne. So the company was in need of profit and had to come up with a solution. How the hell did they come up with building SUV's as a solution?! Personally, I don't understand why they didn't just bring out newer 968 and 928 type FR config sports cars or design some other new sports car. That would have been far better an idea than an SUV.

I feel cheated, I feel abused, I feel violated. Porsche isn't just a company to me, it is a large part of my life. I love the company, it's history, it's racing history, etc etc but Mr. Wiedeking is running this company into the ground. I wish there was something I or we, as Porsche enthusiasts, could do. Now, with the announcement of Porsche making a 4dr sedan, I'm getting a sick feeling in my stomach that this is the end of this once great company. At least the CGT is a step in the right direction, although I would have personally preferred it to be a F10 instead of a v10 to keep with the history of Porsche and flat engines. I am also glad to see the gt3/gt3rs/gt3rsr. However, Porsche better start entering factory cars into professional racing soon.

 

porschephile,

i concur with your sentiments... it's sad but things must change and the small scale of porsche makes it hard to survive. i think the family thinks they can keep a portion of volume more true to porsche by staying independent, although ferraris are still ferrari whilst part of fiat..

the true competitive answer would be for porsche to be a division of a broader line company... but to stay independent while subscale, they need to chase volume as they have... as long as they're independent they have no choice financially.. so from a business perspective the "wide-king" is right.

 

They are also into building motorcycles. That new H-D V Rod has a lot of Porsche in it. Just think the ultimate P Car racing weekend. Jump into your new Porsche Truck/SUV and tow your Porsche Bike (VRod) to the races (NASCAR TRUCKS) not Le Mans , and park next to your new peers in their WinneBagos and muse about the days when Earnhardt was still the man to beat.