Porsche a Hedge Fund?

[PK010]

interesting documentary/article from the BBC regarding Porsche's current model - seems manufacturing cars is but a sideline...

Documentary:

http://www.mininova.org/tor/2219795

Article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7843262.stm

[911nut]

I don't see this as a bad thing. Auto companies need lots of cash to survive cycles in the market. R & D and the launch of new products must continue through bad market conditions or auto manufacturers will not have appealing product to sell when conditions improve.
IMO, the things we don't like about the "new" Porsche are:

(1) Lack of support for older cars. I personally see the quality of O.E. parts for my car dropping dramatically with an equally dramatic increase in the price of those parts.

(2) Porsche has nothing competing in the top level of motorsport. Granted, for Porsche to design and build a P1 coupe in the Le Mans series would cost a lot of money but they need to be there in order to leverage their reputation as the premier performance car manufacturer in the world.

(3) Release of models like the Panamerica. Cars like this (and let's not forget the Cayenne) dilute the legacy and reputation of Porsche (see 2).

It will be interesting to see how this move into VW plays out and whether the German government bows to Porsche's wishes or throws their CEO in prison....