Can't say I'm sad to see him go personally. He took the company in hard times and took some tough desitions in order to make it profitable again, but once it has profitable he kept on the same line and moving away from the Porsche's philosophy and identity which made many of us fans of Porsche since young. Up to the point of using a profitable sportcar company as collateral for gambling in the stock market giving rise to the irony of a very profitable and succesfull sportcar maker finding itself in backrupt.
I for one have gone from a pesimistic initial reaction of the loss of independance of Porsche to an optimistic one. For me, the price Porsche was paying (and more so, us the sportcar fans) to independant in these last years, was to high to pay and was leading Porsche in a direction that, as a Porsche and sportcar fan, didn't like (motorsport is a part of the past, underpowered diesel engines, etc). Porsche has lost too much "Porschiness" in the process and the only part that was still inpired my passion was the 911, but no longer the brand. Now those responsible are gone and that a guy like Piech will have a bigger grip on the reins I think it will be for the better, Piech inspite his faults is a sportcar fan, and is not 100% profit driven as WW and the like (ex: Veyron project).
Also there is the fact that being a part of the VW group will decrease the need for diesel engines, decrease the need widening the model lineup to more and more non-sportcar vehicles, likely more funding and interest for motorracing (it couldn't get worse that now), etc ... all those sacrifices that the "independence" needed.
But most of all, there is a difference between an small car company that had gone bankrupt being eaten by the larger fish and Porsche's unique situation/merger, and is the fact that Porsche is very profitable as a car company!, the reason for bankrupcy was other, and this dictates a very different future after the merger than a non-profitable company that gets swallowed, and big changes need to be made, philosofies need to change, etc. Porsche as a sportcar company is the chicken of the golden eggs and its relationship with VW will benefit everybody if its symbiotic. Afraid of a VW engine in a Porsche? then what do you think the Cayenne's V6 are? they are Tuaregs assembled at Leipzig from its chasis to the engines, all Porsche does it puts those two together and a Porsche badge on the hood. And in iconic vehicles like the 911 are so unique that little part sharing can be made except for interior gadgets which can be a good thing. Not to mention that Porsche can build excellent engines like the V8 and trannies like the PDK for VW group sportcar models and not necesarily the other way around, Porsche is very profitable inspite of building most of its own engines, its not like a bankrupt company that needs engine sharing to make it cost-effective like Lambo or Bentley, at least not in its important models like the 911, Boxster, and top of the line Cayenne, and Panamera, and in the lower ones there is already engine sharing with VW (and even chassis and tranny in the cayenne).
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