CGX car nut:
Whoopsy:
RC:

You have many good points but the R8 "mess" is more of an Audi thing I think, they insisted on having a holy grail model to push their Audi Sport (Quattro) line and yes, the R8 should have been a Porsche and it would have been an amazing product from Porsche because Audi couldn't care less about the R8 after they introduced the second generation. So many people were waiting for the 960 as an alternative to the more exotic Huracan. The major reason I left Porsche is the lack of the 960. I was still hoping but when the GT2 RS showed up and the signal from Porsche was clearly "friss or stirb" (freely translated: take this one because there won't be a 960), I said good-bye. Smiley It was a tough thing for me to do because I knew a lot of people and always had an open ear if I had an issue or needed something, kudos to Porsche for that. I just was fed up with the 911, can't help it. Smiley

 

Audi IS Piech's baby. He is always trying to promote HIS brand to shit on the Porsche side of the family. 

 

Piëch is so evil he is able to continue his work from the other side?  

Why shouldn't he have supported Audi?  He was unceremoniously dumped from the family business and constantly reminded that he was an under-named member of the family.  Piëch then successfully developed Audi into an international brand and contender in the premium automobile space with innovations like alloy construction, aerodynamics, and all-wheel drive systems; advances that were novel when first introduced and now almost commonplace.  

He then was tapped to succeed Carl Hahn at Volkswagen were he was able to duplicate his success, transforming Volkswagen from an also-run into an industrial juggernaut.  When he assumed command of Volkswagen, the company was near bankruptcy.   Halle 54 in Wolfsburg, for example, needed a facility utilization of over 105% to even reach breakeven and that assembly faculty was the most important for the group.   

Under his guidance, Volkswagen returned to ruddy profitability and began the task of consolidation because he understood that 10 million units annual production was required to sustain financial success in the rapidly expanding world economy.  Perhaps he was a bit egomaniacal, but that source of ambition was needed to keep the company afloat.  

Cars like the Phaeton, while not viewed as financial successes, did make the business case for the Bentley Continental financially viable.  Without the Continental, Bentley would not exist today.  Likewise, the Audi R8 was a required halo product to thrust the company into the ranks of the premium brands.  At that time, Audi needed to mitigate its development costs at Lamborghini and no one envisioned Porsche becoming part of the Volkswagen Group.  

Piëch did help out the family business when he worked with Wiedeking to expanded Porsche's product portfolio by cost and risk sharing development of the Cayenne with its Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q7 twins.  Wiedeking, with the blessings of the Porsche familyand flush with the increased profits from the Cayenne, then attempted a takeover of Volkswagen.  Unfortunately, he didn't anticipate the margin calls as the financial crisis of 2008 took place.  Piëch then engineered the rescue of his family's business.  

Finally, while Piëch's personal life was a bit unsavory including the twelve year relationship with the former wife of his cousin, he didn't exactly kidnap the woman.  She was a willing participant in that relationship.  Unfortunately, human behavior is complex with Abraham Lincoln quipping about, "the better angels of our nature," as a sign that we don't always live a virtuous and pure life.  The Porsche and Piëch family turmoil is not that much different than what happens in a number of families; however, this one is rather public and large fortunes are involved.  

 

Exactly. He moved over to Audi and taken it under his wings. From there he got to the top of VW.

He is part of the Porsche clan by bloodline but he was never part of the 'family'. His bad blood pretty much spilled over during the war when the "Porsche" was saved over the 'Piech", specifically, Anton. 

He had bene scheming since forever to take over and ride over the Porsche side. The affair was part of it, he gets to 'steal' 5% of the shares the way. 

During the failed takeover attempt, he could have sided with his cousins and made the deal work, but he remained on the sideline to see to it fails, then engineered a 'rescue', a coup in reality to takeover the whole thing himself. He is not even close to being a saint to 'rescue' the family, he is just a ruthless piece of work that pounce on opportunity, especially to spat on the Porsche side of the family.

Even towards the end, he still want to exert more influence from his side of the family by trying to install Ursula to the board. 

Seriously, Bentley doesn't need Phaeton to build on. Audi already have a perfectly capable A8 platform. Phaeton is just a pathetic attempt by him to move VW the brand up market.

And Audi doesn't need a halo car like the R8 to be thrusted upwards, before the R8 appears, they were already mentioned in the same breath with Mercedes and BMW as pretty much equals. The R8 was just a ego car for Piech, pure and simple. He is an insider, he knows what product paths each brand is planning, by pushing through the R8, he blocked the path for Porsche to do a mid engine car outside of the Boxster/Cayman.

 


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