Difference in cars made in Germany vs. Finland? - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

waynes986 · 05-01-2008, 01:45 PM

Got a question... Trying to sell my car and the buyer who is european wants to know where the car was produced... Wants to know if its from Germany or Finland... I took a look at mine and it said Germany but was wondering if there was any difference between the two...

Brucelee · 05-01-2008, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by waynes986

Got a question... Trying to sell my car and the buyer who is european wants to know where the car was produced... Wants to know if its from Germany or Finland... I took a look at mine and it said Germany but was wondering if there was any difference between the two...

Do a search, tons of threads on this topic.

Good luck!

RandallNeighbour · 05-01-2008, 01:58 PM

Here ya go Wayne:

http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14917&highlight=finland

Kevfra · 05-01-2008, 04:22 PM

Before I bought my Box I did some little study on this issue. Forst of all you can tell from your VIN where it was assembled - not from the dealer sticker because in the US they all say final assembly in Germany. The word 'final' being kind of tricky and playing loose with the facts.

Anyway I bought my car from my neighbor who is a dealer, also sells a ton of Saab, Jaguar and Mercedes. He says the Finland built Boxter comes from the Saab plant and has better quality workmanship. Same parts of course as the German assembled car, just a difference in workmanship and the factory. He pointed to the excellent workmanship of the Saab...while not skipping that it isn't a very good car due to engineering and parts, particularly transmission. but anyway he raves about the workmanship quality of Finland.

So we went through the VINs on the lot and I selected one made in Finland. So far no regrets. I have owned several Porsche cars over many years, my last being a 928st, and never considered where they came from. Did have a friend with a VW 914 and geez was the quality bad. BUt my 928 was superb. My 911 and 912 were funky, and my old bathtub C was fabulous. Who knows? But this time I made a definate choice and went with the Finland car.

By the way I have been to Germany many times and have visited the assembly plants for mercedes and BMW but not Porsche. As far as things looked to me they were outstanding examples of fine modern factories and well cared for employees. Never have visited the plants in Finland...maybe that'll be a future trip.

thomschoon · 05-01-2008, 07:02 PM

Valmet is a world class manufacturer:
http://www.valmet-automotive.com/automotive/cms.nsf

People worry too much about where things are made versus the quality of what you bought, the reason Porsche has decent AC is their link back to hiring Shingijitsu to help them fix their production lines, bringing on board the Japanese is what probaly saved the company.

djomlas · 05-01-2008, 09:16 PM

they all suck,.
we all need to 'upgrade' to a Z4

cvhs18472 · 05-02-2008, 04:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djomlas

they all suck,.
we all need to 'upgrade' to a Z4

Why? So people can tell us how sorry for us they feel.

Lil bastard · 05-02-2008, 10:02 AM

Having a Porsche made outside of Stuttgart is as much a tradition as the left-handed LeMans ignition.

Porsches over the years have been produced by Karmann, VW, AUDI, Skoda, Tatra, and numerous other sub-assembly contractors. They have been produced in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and now Finland.

Saab NEVER assembled or produced ANY Porsches. Assembly in Finland was performed by Valmet Automotive, Inc. in their Uusikaupunki Plant. Valmet Automotive, Inc. was established in 1968 as a joint venture between Swedish Saab-Scania and Valmet, a long-standing Finish paper and plywood manufacturer. It was named Saab-Valmet. In 1992, long before contracting with Porsche, Valmet acquired Saab's interest and the company went solo. After another merger in 1999 with Rauma Oy, the company came under the ownership of the Metso Corporation, the resulting parent in the merger.

Valmet has been a quality assembler of cars for many years and produced the Saab 95, 96, 99, 90, 9000, 900, 900-93 convertible, the Chrysler Talbot, Opel Calibra, Euro-Samara and of course the Boxster and Cayman. In their 40 year history, the have produced more than 1 million cars with the 1 millionth being a 2005 Porsche Boxster. They employ 789 people, primarily in their Uusikaupunki location, Metso Corp. operates in 50 countries and employs 27,000 people worldwide. Valmet Automotive represents about 3% of Metso employees and approx. 2% of their €6 billion in annual sales.

Of course, as most of you know, the Valmet produced cars are identified by having a U as the 11th character in the VIN sequence.

RandallNeighbour · 05-02-2008, 10:35 AM

Lil, are you sure your name isn't Jim from Minneapolis, aka MNBoxster?

You sure do write like him. I just can't get over the resemblance of your writing style, the length and depth of the information in your posts, and the fact that your car is identical in color and model year to his.

2000SoCalBoxsterS · 05-02-2008, 10:45 AM

There is no mystery as to why they starting making cars in Finland. It was simply a matter of production capability. Porsche had more orders for Boxsters than they could produce at just Stuttagrt. That's all there is to it.

Lil bastard · 05-02-2008, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

Lil, are you sure your name isn't Jim from Minneapolis, aka MNBoxster?

You sure do write like him. I just can't get over the resemblance of your writing style, the length and depth of the information in your posts, and the fact that your car is identical in color and model year to his.

Nope, never met the man. I did see someone else post a quote from him in the tech forum the other day.

My car's a '99 which I bought new, there are lots of guard red boxsters around - just a coincidence.

btw, my name is andy - that's the one my parents gave me