Porsche: The Hedge Fund that Also Made Cars

[ep3_lol]

Fantastic article. I think, as Porsche fans, anger is an easy response to that article But when I consider the actual products that Porsche has put out over Wiedeking's tenure and in the few years that have followed, I find it hard to get too worked up about it. At the end of the day, Porsche is still a strong brand with a secure future that- and this the most important part- still builds excellent automobiles. Wiedeking may have put the brand in danger, but he also saved it from the brink. Without him, Porsche may have ceased to exist and this forum's namesake would have probably never existed.

The financial stuff is non-issue to me. I see "investing" as a more conservative form of gambling. You have no guarantees and if someone plays that game better than you and you lose out, you should have no one to blame but yourself.

[BIGJake111]

Originally Posted by ep3_lol

Fantastic article. I think, as Porsche fans, anger is an easy response to that article But when I consider the actual products that Porsche has put out over Wiedeking's tenure and in the few years that have followed, I find it hard to get too worked up about it. At the end of the day, Porsche is still a strong brand with a secure future that- and this the most important part- still builds excellent automobiles. Wiedeking may have put the brand in danger, but he also saved it from the brink. Without him, Porsche may have ceased to exist and this forum's namesake would have probably never existed.

The financial stuff is non-issue to me. I see "investing" as a more conservative form of gambling. You have no guarantees and if someone plays that game better than you and you lose out, you should have no one to blame but yourself.

I agree, both wiedeking and piëch have seriously admirable approaches to buisness, and I don't see wiedeking as taking a cheap approach to building cars, I see it more as a smart approach, it is amazing what quality used to go into porsches, but the brand would either be dead or way beyond the means of most of us here if porsche did not modernize.

It always has been and always will be a company ran by fairly crazy Germans with odd ideals, a lust for perfection, mismatched green thumbs, and a quality of uniqueness. It's the ambition of a takeover like that, despite its ability to fail that we also see in the ambition set forth on the racetrack and unbelievable ventures like the 918.

[barkinfool]

$20,300 in after tax profit per car in '08 -- pretty impressive figure...