Porsche to acquire majority stake in Volkswagen
Porsche appears to be well on its way to becoming one of the world's biggest automakers. Porsche plans to up its 31% stake in the Volkswagen Group to over 50%, giving it control of the company. Volkswagen owns several brands we see here in the United States (Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti) as well as several we don't (SEAT, Skoda, and truckmakers MAN and Scania). Porsche's plan is to topple Toyota as the number-one selling automaker in the world.
I'm normally not a fan of mega-mergers -- I think they tend to have a negative affect on choice and quality. But with so many automotive brands straining to differentiate themselves from one another, that doesn't seem to be nearly as much of a problem for cars. Look at the Audi A3 and Volkswagen GTI -- two mechanically similar products, yet how many people would cross-shop them against one another? Same with the closely-related Volkswagen Touareg and Porsche Cayenne. And it's not as if Porsche is going to order VW to build a rear-engine six-cylinder sports car... though it would be kind of cool if they did. Anyway, that's my $0.02 on the whole merger thing -- what are your thoughts? Click the "comments" link below. -- Aaron Gold
I certainly wouldn’t be the one to complain if I was forced (darn!) to service my VW Rabbit at my local Porsche dealer
Go Porsche!
Uhhhh, Tyler? I think you *would* complain when you were hit with a $110 per hour labor rate at Porsche rather than $70/hr at VW !!!!
But that’s besides the point. I just hope Porsche is able to keep it’s independence, and not cave to the corporate platform-sharing that ultimately dilutes the product. Oh, and here’s just one more step in the inevitable “conglomerationization” of autodom. How long do you think it will be before there’s only one automaker on each continent? I also hope Porsche is being forthcoming with their countrymen — is it a “takeover” or a “merger of equals” vis-a-vis DaimlerChrysler?
“But wait, there’s more”: Can this mean I may soon be able to buy a Cayman quattro TDI ?? Oh, baby!!!!
My question is WHY Porsche would want this? Look at BMW’s purchase of the Rover group and Daimler Benz buying Chrysler. Both are luxury automakers who tried to break into the highly competitive, mainstream auto business. Neither worked. As a side-note, I firmly believe most mergers are about CEO egos and fat severence packages, not what is best for the companies, the employees or consumers. Porsche + Volkswagen is another likely example of this.
Mike is on target. VW’s troubles stem from lousy reliability, which is a rotten shame since their cars are so cool (we own two). I fail to see how this merger is going to address this core problem.
Will it be Porschewagen? Volkschewagen? What about the new VW/Chrysler van…you could own a Chryschelerwagen.
I think its great. They have been together since the beginning when Dr. Ferdinand Porsche agreed to the design the “People’ Car” for Hitler. There have been many collaborations between the 2 company including parts sharing on many platforms. Why is this so surprising? I’ve owned 5 VW’s from the 60’s-80’s and all had mfg stickers that said VW/Porsche.
Unless the reorganization plan is to create two separate Public companies, Under a Porsche holding company with Porsche, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti brands and aggregate VW, SEAT, Skoda, with truckmakers MAN and Scania in another Public company I believe the merger will be a serious failure. There is no evidence that the current management can operate the “common” man’s car company. Porsche is a PERFORMANCE luxury car; I think the brands placed under Porsche can thrive given cross technology transfers & benefits.
And also, it is pronounced ‘Por-scha’. A ‘Porsche’ is a thing connected to your house that has swings and possibly screen on it. Dr. Ferdinand rolls over in his grave every time his name is butchered. Bwaaahaaaahaaaa!!
But I’m not sure how to pronounce ‘Touareg’… (I don’t really think anyone does, those crafty Germans are keeping us gessing.) Toe-rag? Tour-reg? Torreg? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Sean exactly right! — as we used to remind everyone back in our Porsche autocrossing days “Porsche is a two syllable word”.
And when rebuilding those older 356s, it was always with VW parts, so the two companies already have along history together.
You may have to go to the tribe itself and ask them how they like it pronounced. But then you’d have to trek across Africa and not get killed. Cuz getting killed for a correct pronunciation would kinda suck.
I like some others like the idea of VW returning to it’s heritage. This is not really a major thing like some of the other takeovers/ mergers as Porsche’ has always thought about the family even when dating back to the original Veedubs. And since they have already been working together on so many platforms, you never know… Maybe the engineers at Porsche’ can lend a hand to help work out some of the most recent bugs on the well, bugs Ha-ha.
I suspect this merger smacks of others before it, where both gain symbiotically. Porsche gains access to the huge VW sales/service network, while VW gains performance credibity from that storied “brand” Porschaaaaah! After all, I consider VW one of the best performance “buys” in the world. Why not hook up with the most recognized high-end performance automobile.
Unless I’m reading something wrong, at least at this point Porsche has done nothing more than buy 30% of the stock of a publicly traded company which, because of the machinations of economics which people only pretend to understand, gives it operating control of the VW Group.
So far, there’s no “merger” or swallowing of the other company whole, as when General Motors was coagulated (or whatever they called it).
Still, I get the image of a boa constrictor who just swallowed something large (I was going to say a pig but I didn’t want to get into that, so to speak).
And whatever did happen to the cent sign anyway? I can’t find it on my keyboard anymore.
Makes sense to me. Industry needs more rationalization. Cultures are similar. And VW needs a healthy dose of Porsche quality and reliability.
I thought this was interesting because back in the early 1990’s Porsche was bleeding money and struggling to stay afloat. Now they are poised to take on Toyota. Way to go Porsche!