Ferry Porsche On The Importance Of Independence
Published: August 30th, 2010
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Despite the deep ties between his firm and Volkswagen, Ferry Porsche firmly believed that Porsches could only be Porsches if the company remained truly independent. “Independence,” he says in the video above, “has always been the attitude at Porsche.” But as the latest addition to the Volkswagen empire, tasked with developing mass-market architectures and planning Porsche-brand versions of the Audi Q5 and Volkswagen BlueSport, Porsche’s culture has little choice but to change. But will becoming a good team player within the VW-Audi-Seat-Skoda-Bentley-Lamborghini-Bugatti strategy kill off the spirit that made Porsche great? Or can cultural independence survive the VW takeover?
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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I'm not too worried about Porsche losing its identity. Yes, independence was important to Ferdinand Porsche, Jr. But he's been dead for a while and the reasons for independence largely died with him. The distinctive leadership style of a Ferry Porsche no longer exists. So whether independent or part of Volkswagen, the earlier era has ended. What road Porsche travels from here remains to be seen.
If Porsche ends up trying to be present in every niche under the Sun (as BMW, Audi and Mercedes seem compelled to be), it's done. I mean, short-term, the brand will explode, everyone will buy them, retirements will be funded and so on. But in 10-15 years, Porsche will be JACM (just another car-maker) and will end up competing on price rather than image and prestige. If Porsche is assigned a similar place as Ferrari is given by FIAT, then it'll be fine.
If an independent Porsche it to make such monstrositys as the Panamera and Cayanne then how can VW make it any worse? Yes I know those cars sell but so did the Austin Maxi!
Now that you guys have outed it -- or at least raised its visibility -- how long will it take before the Piëch Empire makes YouTube withdraw that video...?