VW buys Porsche
This has been a long and dragged out battle. Though Porsche made some impressive numbers in a couple of moves with VW stock, it also spent a ton of money trying to buy up a lot of stock when it was very highly valued.
In a great reversal of fortune Porsche almost collapsed under the weight of debt from trying to buy VW - and VW was in great shape through the last couple years partly because the incredibly high price of its stock due to the Porsche purchases and takeover bid. Now the VW board has approved the purchase of Porsche in order to save their upper crust older brother. Oh the irony.
To be perfectly honest, it wont mean anything to the rest of us. VW/Audi/Porsche already operated like siblings and have been long tied together. There is a lot of crossover and sharing between models, a trend that is likely to continue. It is possible that there will be more sharing between Porsche and Lamborghini though - traditionally Lambo has shared a lot of parts/engines/everything with Audi. It will also be interesting to see how Bentley and Porsche get along as bedfellows, as the Conti and the 911 pretty much chase the same crowd.
The best part of the deal would be if Porsche designed a coupe for VW, ended up using it itself, and then tuning it to be one of the top performance bargains (a rare thing from Porsche). What would really suck though is if Porsche ended up rebadging a big VW SUV and putting in slightly stiffer suspension and more power and then all the rich soccer moms and most of the population of Park City could drive around thinking they were in a Porsche but sitting high above the ground where they feel safe from the fact they have not a frickin clue how to drive.
Oh wait, both of these already happened.
In a great reversal of fortune Porsche almost collapsed under the weight of debt from trying to buy VW - and VW was in great shape through the last couple years partly because the incredibly high price of its stock due to the Porsche purchases and takeover bid. Now the VW board has approved the purchase of Porsche in order to save their upper crust older brother. Oh the irony.
To be perfectly honest, it wont mean anything to the rest of us. VW/Audi/Porsche already operated like siblings and have been long tied together. There is a lot of crossover and sharing between models, a trend that is likely to continue. It is possible that there will be more sharing between Porsche and Lamborghini though - traditionally Lambo has shared a lot of parts/engines/everything with Audi. It will also be interesting to see how Bentley and Porsche get along as bedfellows, as the Conti and the 911 pretty much chase the same crowd.
The best part of the deal would be if Porsche designed a coupe for VW, ended up using it itself, and then tuning it to be one of the top performance bargains (a rare thing from Porsche). What would really suck though is if Porsche ended up rebadging a big VW SUV and putting in slightly stiffer suspension and more power and then all the rich soccer moms and most of the population of Park City could drive around thinking they were in a Porsche but sitting high above the ground where they feel safe from the fact they have not a frickin clue how to drive.
Oh wait, both of these already happened.
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