WSJ Article on Porsche

[2003S]

Is Porsche Still a Sports Car Company? - Driver's Seat - WSJ

Somewhat of a contrived question... If it takes making Cayennes & Panameras & Macans to allow them to keep making sweet, sweet sports cars, who cares?

[fusionist]

Good for us! We get Porsche experience centers to race around. I can't wait for the Los Angeles track to be complete. I've always wanted to go to Alabama to the Porsche experience but have never made it out there.

[southernstar]

At this point, it shouldn't matter to any of us that Porsche is expanding sales through the production of SUV's and sedans. More sales will likely mean more dealerships - no small thing if you have a break-down in a relatively isolated area.

When Jaguar made the orginal XK series of sports cars, they also made sedans. Did that make the XKE any less of a sports car? When Triumph made the TR series of sports cars and the Spitfires, they also made sedans. Ditto for M.G and Alpha Romeo and Lancia. This is to say nothing of companies that make primarily sedans and trucks, but who also make sports cars: Chevrolet with the Corvette, Fiat with the X-19 and 124 series and their successors, Mazda with the Miata, etc.

Sharing parts with sedans is common-place in most sports cars and has proven to be a successful way to keep costs down. Heck, the first Porsche 356's used largely VW mechanicals. Whether Porsche will use this (and its relationship with VW/Audi) to make more cost-competitive sports cars in the future remains to be seen, but we can always hope!

Brad

[Perfectlap]

It can be a problem. VW's not stellar record of reliability could mean more VW in Porsche sports cars.
Also, They've already lifted Panamera interiors wholesale and shoe-horned them into first the Panamera Coupe (aka the Carrera) and now the Bosxter. Porsche did this with the 996 and 986 out of necessity to avoid bankruptcy but I think VW will do it to Volkswagenify Porsche into a vanilla luxury brand with lots of cost-cutting and inflated options like PDK on all its cars, eventually..

[thstone]

I think that the real risk in damaging the Porsche brand will come when they launch an "affordable" vehicle that is priced below the base Boxster - it won't matter whether its sports car, a sedan, or an SUV.

[Skrapmot]

I think Porsche has always tried to be somewhat affordable for the average person, with the 912's, early Boxsters, 924, 914, etc. although one could argue that all were some form of sports car/coupe.
It seems recently the Boxster has really crept up in price and performance, and a new entry level car is needed, but will always be a premium brand, although still short of the Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti's of the world.
Making luxury sporty cars and SUVs for the masses is a smart move. It's nice to have niche market, but they still have to pay the bills.

[litespeedp]

Look closely as they may try to follow other brands in the introduction of cheap, plastic trim parts.

One of the most obvious areas is the thin,flimsy black plastic piece that is located at the base of the windshield near the trailing edge of the hood and is as wide.It turns a faded dull gray color over time.

My 2000 Boxster has it as does the 2013 Mercedes Benz E class!

[KRAM36]

I was watching a vid on Motor Trend youtube where they pitted the Lambo Aventador against the Bugatti Veyron and at the end they said both companies where own by VW. I knew Bugatti was, but didn't know Lambo was also.