mmarshall

I'm not sure I follow you here. How can a Porsche product have "fake" Porsche styling?

IS-SV

Another way to better explain it is to look at the functional styling of the classic rear engine and mid engine cars (911/Boxster/Caymen), with engines mounted behind the driver.

. The sloping front end/hood and bug eye lights are a functional shape that a car with no engine in front allows, or aerodynamic before the days of wind tunnels.

. The sloping/tapered rear ends are also the result of mid and rear mounted engines mounted low (flat 6's that are very compact), again the shape follows the mechanical configuration of the car. Since this is the classic Porsche style from the begininning and the low rear end does not do well in the wind tunnel, electric rear spoilers are standard equipment on all of these cars for good reason.

The styling of the Cayenne and Panamera seeks to copy or immitate this style mentioned above, despite a conventional front engine configuration. I don't care for it, many Porsche purists don't, but it's just a personal preference.

IS-SV

I agree.

TwiBlueG35

It all depends on how much profits these two vehicles are going to bring to the company. I doubt it they would kill them if they sell very well. Nothing in the VW group is similar to Panamera, so shouldn't overlap with anything Bentley or Audi are offering, let alone Volkswagen itself. By the way, VW is getting too big, too many automakers belong to it now.

bruce van

It will be interesting to see how VW will market its vehicles in the coming years. They seem to have their hands in every cookie jar imaginable. Will they have too many products which will cannibalize sales of their own products? Will VW become the new GM?

Ice350

iTrader: (1)

Just cause you don't like it makes it fake.
Porsche can change some of their design themes if they want. That isn't fake, it's evolution, innovation...or whatever but not fake.
If not for the Cayenne they would be out of business. WHat sense does it make to not change if it means death. That's like a lung cancer patient continuing to smoke.

IS-SV

Like fake is a serious word, who cares.

Not true, Cayenne didn't keep Porsche in busines, the successful launch of the water cooled Boxster in 1998 had a much greater impact, followed by the new 911's. Sure Cayenne was easy money for a mediocre product, good for the business at the time. Now sales of this SUV have tailed off to very low numbers.

DASHOCKER

iTrader: (2)

This gives VW an opportunity to create mild & wild "R" versions of the Toureg.

PAULGS430

I remember 3 years ago, the Ferrari ceo said "Porsche was in a great financial position & was doing a great job. He respected their marketing & development teams for consistenly producing world class race cars." Seems like the recession is hitting Porsche really hard.
I don't think VW would be that stupid to get rid of their best seller.

LexFather

This is why I wanted Porsche in control and not VW

mmarshall

With the Cayenne, though, you can't even seriously imitate the sloped-rear styling, because you have to fit in passengers and a cargo area in the rear in place of where the engine and drivetrain are on other Porsches.

The Infiniti EX35, which tried to do exactly that, turned out to be a claustrophobic disaster behind the rear seat.....I think you and I can both agree on that.

Ice350

iTrader: (1)

I can't speak for what you heard but I've read in several publications that it was the Cayenne that saved Porsche. Sales were slumping and the water cooled 911 bought new buyers but they just made up for the previous owners that left because they were air-cooled purists.
Even if the overall total improved with the water-cooled 911, apparently that one single model was not enough to carry an entire company on it's back. They needed another model. The Boxter being just a smaller, weaker 911 certainly couldn't do it but the widely appealing SUV could.....and did.
The Cayenne is not a fake Porsche. It's made by Porsche so that makes it a Porsche.
Any car they make is a Porsche....even if it's name is something other than 911.

IS-SV

Agreed on both observations. And the EX35 is even more of a sales disaster since inception.

IS-SV

I read several publications that said different things about company, not claiming that Cayenne saved Porsche. But I agree with you that the Cayenne at it's peak contributed major revenue and profit during the best years. But the Boxster had a bigger impact in the years 1997/1998/1999 when the cars were sold by the tens of thousands to eager buyers on waiting lists.

Cayenne has "fake" Porsche styling to many Porsche purists/past owners like myself, but that's just a styling opinion, nothing more. Porsche doesn't produce any fake Porsches.

Byprodrive

iTrader: (1)

I think IS-SV means that Porsche tried to style the SUV to resemble a 911, while basically impossible to do yet critical to gain acceptance from the "aircooled" Porsche majority with the end result being a compromise in many respects