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"VW now runs the Porsche show - Porsche must do what the VW Board says to do.
VW Board may make poor decisions regarding sports cars since they are not a sports car company
VW Board may not be willing to take any chances/risks since they do not share Porsche's history
VW Board may siphon off top Porsche engineering talent to other brands
Porsche engineers not happy/may leave company if forced to work on VW projects (imagine being an engineer who was finally hired by Porsche.... and then being assigned to the new Jetta project)
VG-wide shared platform engineering (Q5 is the basis for the Maccan)
VG parts bin engineering (why design a new Porsche part when we have existing VW or Audi parts?)
Financial resources to develop non-sports car models (brand dilution)
Potential loss of exclusivity
Potential loss of brand value
Additional costs of intra-corporation duplicity (Audi's racing against Porsche's)"
Other than the possible parts sharing and shared platform engineering I've seen no evidence that VW is slowing down Porsche development. The new GTS series Boxsters and Caymans, the upcoming GT4 series Cayman (possibly a Boxster) and the ongoing testing of the new 718 four cylinder Boxster/Cayman. If anything it appears that Porsche is blossoming in development of new and better sports cars and sports sedans/SUVs as well as having the funds to get back into serious racing again.
My '99 Boxster has a Tiptronic trans made by MB and had a Japanese made IMS and the LN ceramic bearing that replaced it is also made in Japan. The list of parts, on my Box, that are made from third party suppliers goes on and on but it still has the Porsche badge on front and handles like any other Porsche on the road. The purists can turn their noses up but don't think for one minute those air cooled Porsches didn't have their share of problems either from poor engineering or poor quality manufacturing. Those two inherent issues in the AC models were one of the major reasons Porsche sales dwindled to the point that it took our Boxsters and 996's to keep them in business and having Porsche around is better than not.
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