PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

Porsche Recalls All Panameras in Embarrassing Move
by Christiaan Hetzner and Hendrik Sackmann
Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Yahoo News Link


Performance sports car maker Porsche AG's sterling reputation for quality took a severe dent on Tuesday, when it recalled every Panamera it built only months after the model line was launched to much fanfare.

The announcement comes on the heels of a quality scandal at Toyota (NYSE: TM - News) and serves as a bitter pill for Michael Macht, who headed up production before being named the brand's chief executive late in July.

The Panamera grand tourer was supposed to catapult Porsche to new levels of growth and help the brand steal customers away from such four-door coupes as the Maserati Quattroporte or Mercedes-Benz CLS.

In recent years, Porsche has repeatedly received top marks from J.D. Power for its industry-leading quality benchmarked in the research and consulting firm's annual benchmark surveys.

Porsche said all 11,300 Panameras would be brought to the mechanic to fix possible faulty seatbelt tensioners.

European automotive holding Porsche SE controls 51 percent of Porsche AG, with the remainder held by Volkswagen.

The news could prompt VW to take action. Martin Winterkorn, who serves as CEO of both Volkswagen and Porsche SE has repeatedly said that the better a brand performs, the more autonomy it gains within the overall group.

Volkswagen's reputation is also indirectly at stake, since its Hanover plant supplies the Panamera's painted bodies-in-white for assembly in Porsche's Leipzig plant.

LexFather

Pic is werid to me..

The Panamera could have a recall for catching fire, giving you a rash, and accelerating into unicorns and I would still take a chance

LexLaw

.....You don't wanna know my thoughts on this.

IS-SV

No big deal, at least the pic is amusing.

mmarshall

If the rest of the seatbelt assembly is OK and undamaged, the seatbelt pre-tensioners are probably not that big a deal, unless you are traveling at very high speeds. Even if the pretensioners are not functioning, the belt/harness assembly will still provide at least some safe restraint if you are wearing it properly (around the hips instead of the waist), and the airbags, of course, will provide more. One should sit at least 12-18 inches away from the wheel.

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

I see too many drivers "hug" the steering wheel while they drive. I cringe when I think what will happen if the airbag goes off.

Sorta like this (very unsafe) driver:

Gojirra99

Measured from where, the head or the belly?
If it's belly, then there can be big variations, since there can be a big difference between a person with flat belly and one with a big pot belly

mmarshall

The way most drivers' side airbags are designed (and I don't see where Porsches would be any different), the bulk of the bag-inflation force hits you in the face and upper-torso, not down around the pot-belly.

That was actually a problem with early-production American bags, years ago. Euro-spec bags were set to go off with less force, because the average European was assumed to be wearing his/her seat belt correctly, and didn't need as much supplemantal airbag protection. American-spec bags were set to go off with more force, in a virtually explosive manner, because fewer Americans wore their belts (or wore them properly), and the bags had to do more of the work. Additionally, because of the weight of many large American males (yes, like me), even more emphasis was put on the bags having to do more of the actual restraint. So, the bags went off so violently that they often caused facial injuries. Since then, of course, many improvements have been made, such as weight-sensors for the front seats, variable-stage bags, safer child-seats, and confinement of small children, where possible, to rear seats.

Pre-tensioners (the thread topic) also help by eliminating slack and forcing the belt assembly to do more of its share of the work, but, as I mentioned above, probably don't make that much of a difference at lower speeds.

LIMS407

they should recall the car for ugly rear,,,

IS-SV

Let's see how soon and/or how many variations of this ugly butt surface over the next few years, kind of like the Bangle-butt on the 7 series being smoothed and tweaked several times before the complete redesign.

LexLaw

Hilarious!

LexFather

lmfao....it looks better in person to me but yeah its no beauty

rdgdawg

Might increase sales

But good call on recall, proactive manufacturers will rule these days with the public