Is there really any differrence?

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by Tool Pants

Which transmissions are made in Japan?

It is my understanding that commensurate with the 987, all manual 911 and Boxster transmission were made in Japan. Previous trans made in Germany.

Originally Posted by Brucelee

It is my understanding that commensurate with the 987, all manual 911 and Boxster transmission were made in Japan. Previous trans made in Germany.

This is my understanding too.

Don't forget, all 1997 Boxsters we made in Germany. They did not start using Finland until the 1998 MY.

[Tool Pants]

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[Brucelee]

I tried to run down the source of Porsche transmissions. The closest that I came is that the trans are produced in Germany for Porsche by a company called Hermes. Then I hit a wall. No info.

Several more tid bits below on how Porsche cars are manufactured.





Following was taken from an article on the VW and Porsche relationship.


Why is it so important to Porsche that this relationship work? For an answer, look under the hood. Only about 20% of what makes a Porsche a Porsche - largely the engine and transmission - is made by Porsche workers. The rest is outsourced, mainly to VW. The Cayenne SUV, for example, was engineered alongside VW's own SUV, the Touareg. The steel structure for both vehicles is welded together on the same VW assembly line in Slovakia. When the much anticipated Panamera, Porsche's first four-door sports car, arrives in 2009, it will sport a body assembled and painted by VW at a plant in Hanover.


Several more:


Porsche and Optimal Outsourcing
A client and I had an interesting discussion this week about optimal level of internal v/s outsourced - the buy v/s build as it comes to IT talent. We discussed Porsche - and the fact that they outsource almost 80% of what goes in to their car, and primarily focus on design (can you imagine the reaction to the guy who first proposed they let someone else manufacture the engine - the "heart"). But industrial and retail supplier management has evolved over decades. Boeing, Bechtel, Nike, Wal-Mart - they have learned the art of collaborative design, vendor managed inventory etc. IT supplier management in comparison is still a young art.

Buyers of the highly successful Porsche Cayenne sport-utility vehicle, which starts at $41,000, are probably unaware that VW workers produce more than 85% of the wholesale value of every Cayenne, and that the Cayenne shares 65% of its parts and modules with VW's Touareg. The Cayenne's body is built at VW's plant in Bratislava, where workers earn $250 a month.


If companies like BMW, Chrysler, and Porsche outsource the entire production of vehicles to a manufacturer like Magna or Karmann, what is to prevent the consumer from trying to buy from the manufacturer or the manufacturer from trying to directly reach the buying public? How much value is added by the emblem and hood ornament?

[Brucelee]

In terms of teaching the cases, he says, "What's really remarkable is that, at least for non-German students, for the most part they do not really care whether the Cayenne is made in Germany or not. Customers are buying the Porsche name. For the most part, the controversy in Germany is a non-controversy in the classroom. Yet there does appear to be some limit to where Porsche could locate because of its image."

"The Cayenne is clearly German-designed and inspired. Only when you think of it in terms of a pure manufacturing product does its content become problematic for deciding just how 'German' it is. We do not try to figure that out. It's near impossible because of the long supply chains among parts suppliers. But, I think, in many ways, Porsche has unconsciously gone back to its roots. After leaving Mercedes, Ferdinand Porsche founded his own design firm in 1931 with his son and his son-in-law, Anton Piëch—yes, the father of Ferdinand Piëch of VW, making the original Ferdinand Porsche his grandfather. That 1931-founded firm was mostly a design and engineering firm, which helped to create the Volkswagen Beetle. So the alliance and cooperation with VW is reproduced."

"In addition, as the founder of Porsche, Ferdinand Porsche also had Central European roots, since he was born in Maffersdorf, Bohemia (now Vratislavice in the Czech Republic). If you think of Europe more broadly than just Germany or other national states, it's really a Central European story here." In this respect, Porsche's Cayenne manufacturing also brings the company full circle, observes Fear.

[Tool Pants]

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