Porsche now bankrupt

[rob justice]

Not looking good:-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/5383921/Porsche-on-the-financial-brink.html

[89911]

"Porsche's travails are largely due to financial acrobatics, not falling sales. "

That statement sums it up nicely.

[GothingNC]

Will VW be pulled down with Porsche?

[Neilk]

I hope the German gov't lets them fall so VW can take them over. Such hubris to attempt a take-over of VW that is many times larger than them shouldn't be rewarded with a bail-out.

[Dennis Kalma]

The term " too clever by half" comes to mind...and after what they did to the short sellers a few months ago, you can bet your bottom dollar (euro) that there are no keen financial minds who are eager to help them.

As much as I hate to say it, they deserve to be toasted, the lot of them. Wendel Wunderkind and his peers took a bet that they could not fulfil....they lost. Game over. MOve on.

I just hope that Piech remember that Porsche is a premium brand, with long history and loyal owners and he is prepared let it be "Porsche" and not Volkswagen by Porsche.

I fear not though....at that level every one of them has an ego the size of a small planet....it will be all about Power. Now having said that, Porsche DOES own half of Volkswagen, albeit with a big debt to contend with..

Ought to be interesting.

Dennis

[m21sniper]

So Porsche basically shot themself in the foot, and now they're on the brink.

Let them fall. Idiocy and greed should never be rewarded.

And let's be honest, they haven't come up with an exciting car design since the Boxster. Really, how long can a company stay in business making 60+ yo VW beetle derivitaves and rebadged VW SUV's?

[HardDrive]

I'm not convinced that a VW/Porsche merger would be bad.

But the day Porsche starts making cars in Mexico is the day I take down the 911 posters and head for the Nissan dealer and pick up a 370Z.

Mexican made VW's are pieces of CRAP.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

I'm not convinced that a VW/Porsche merger would be bad.

Neither am I. But you know it's not going to go in the direction you would hope for.

[Dennis Kalma]

Originally Posted by milt

Neither am I. But you know it's not going to go in the direction you would hope for.

I suspect you are right, now what worries me is that you may well be as cynical as me.....

I subscribe to the aphorism that an optimist is just an ill informed pessimist....


Dennis

[RKC]

Unfortunate, but it might not wind up badly. Ferrari hasn't been independent for 40 years, and people still seem interested in their automobiles.

[Zeke]

Ferrari independent in what way? The way I see it, they do racing and build cars they want to build. Where is Fiat in all this? I think Fiat provides stability and pretty much leaves day to day Ferrari stuff to Ferrari.

Will this be the case at VW/Porsche? They already have their hands in each others pockets, and I don't necessarily mean strictly financially.

[RKC]

Ferrari independent in what way? The way I see it, they do racing and build cars they want to build. Where is Fiat in all this? I think Fiat provides stability and pretty much leaves day to day Ferrari stuff to Ferrari.

That is a lovely fiction that I'm sure Fiat is all too happy to have us believe. And, truth be told, Fiat knows what they have in an asset like Ferrari and have used it well for these past 4 decades. But to think that any huge corporation with international reach feels that any one of its subsidiaries is independent, or can build whatever it wants without a whole bunch of planning and/or red tape is beyond naive.

[RKC]

And, though I would have loved for Porsche to remain independent, I am surprised it was able to do so for so long. Further, it seems that Piech made large contributions to the 911 and 917 during the eras when they became the icons they are now, and that he's done pretty well with Lamborghini and Buggati.

I don't like that Porsche has failed, and VW's products, fine as they are to drive, have very poor reliability scores, so that worries me too. But Piech is quite an interesting, driven man, and might not be a bad person to have in charge.

So, like I said, even though I don't like it, a large company like Fiat (VW) that knows what it has in an asset like Ferrari (Porsche) seems likely to produce some fairly good cars.

[tabs]

When Enzo was alive he built what he wanted and raced what he wanted...

The proof are cars that won..cars by commitee don't run...

[widebody911]

Back in October, the short squeeze looked like a brilliant move

[RKC]

Tabs - in general I agree with you. Ferrari's, Porsches, Hondas, Buggatis before WWII, Ford's Model T & A, all seemed superior to those cars designed by committees.

But Enzo was dead decades already when Michael Schumacher gave them their longest streak of constructor victories.

And that just reinforces my point that a powerful, dictatorial man like Piech might be a good thing. I don't think the Cayenne and sedan would have distracted Porsche had they been under his watchful eye at the time....

[Vintage Racer]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

I'm not convinced that a VW/Porsche merger would be bad.

With the time coming that a manufacturer's fleet gas mileage will be dictated by the government, Porsche will need VW's small cars so they can still produce GT3s.

And I'd never buy a Nissan; they're just too bland and invoke no real passion (IMO, anyway). Porsche has already made plenty of interesting cars to keep me busy for a long time. I need a couple more early 911s, a 964 RSA, a 993 911S.......

[pwd72s]

Long ago, I had a 16 year old girlfriend who was quite the philosopher....for a situation like this, she would use her favorite phrase: "Tough titty." Don't know why she liked that phrase...hers weren't tough at all...

[Bill Douglas]

Porsche should move to America so the goverment would bail them out