Lars997:
wantone:

Without the SUVs Porsche would have been history. 

I would say this is not true.

There would have been other ways to safe the company. The moment the SUVs been planned Porsche already was kind of financially stable. The problem was that the egocentric CEO tried to become the highest paid and most powerful automotive manager of the world.

1st - Porsche could have stayed small and financially stable. Growth would have been much smaller but the spirit might have been survived

2nd - Porsche could have actively gave up its independence - meaning, instead of planning an unfriendly take over of VW they could have actively managed to go underneath VW

Either way would have made Porsche surviving, too. 

Nevertheless: Out of shareholder view everything went right. The share went sky rocket, the company grows and grows. Again.... they build cars to make shareholders and their own pockets happy. It is not because the spirit of building fine cars.

And btw.... have a look at Ferrari or at Lamborghini. Both managed to stay supercar builders in more or less a mixture of the above mentioned 1./2. steps. 

I agree. Porsche would have survived even without the Cayenne or Panamera but they would have evolved differently and with a much lower profit per car.

This is actually what angers me most: Porsche tries to keep the profit margin per car at the current level and this also means that the improvements are always limited according to budget because they want to keep the profit margin at a high level.

I do not know how Ferrari does it  and I do not know how high their profit margin is but the new 488 is really a benchmark in its class, a very impressive product.

When I look at the new Huracan, the new R8 V10 Plus and the 488, I feel cheated by Porsche with the 991 Turbo S. I can't help it.

Also, when I compare the new BMW X5M with the Cayenne Turbo S, I get the same feeling. 

On the other hand, I am not sure if Porsche would have been able to keep up the quality improvements over years without the profits they made. Even if I still think that there is a lot of room for improvements and the next 911 generation will prove me right (according to rumors, the interior will have the highest quality standard in its class).


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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche 991 Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet, Porsche Macan Turbo, Ford Mustang GT500 Shelby SVT (2014), Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT (2014)