Is the Porsche Cayenne About to Become an American Car?
Some say it's bad enough that Porsche sullied its brand by building an SUV. Automotive News [sub] reports that Porsche is looking to add sacrilege on top of brand defilement; Cayennes may soon be produced stateside. Word first came out in Handelsblatt magazine, which cited "internal sources." VW spokesman Andreas Meurer confirmed the gastric rumor. "When we discuss whether to build the [VW] Touareg and [Audi] Q7 in the USA, we also talk about the Cayenne." Previously, we'd heard that the new U.S. plant would produce Jettas. But since The Land of the Free is the major market for the VW/Audi/Porsche SUV triplets, and the dollar's weaker than the V6 Cayenne's on-ramp acceleration, there's a compelling case for bringing VW Group truck production stateside. Germanophiles note: all three utes are currently built in Bratislava, Slovakia; BMW builds (and exports) their SUVs in South Carolina while Mercedes does the same in Alabama. As Big 2.8 supporters will tell you, as long as Cayenne profits end up in Zuffenhausen, it's still a German car. Technically speaking. On both points.
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Because building SUVs here worked so well for Mercedes?
cretinx: "its already not a Porsche in my eyes (just a reskinned VeeDub)" Yeah, a true Porsche would never be a reskinned Volkswagen, especially not to prop up the 911. I mean, Ferdinand and Ferry must be turning in their graves to see the Porsche family name to see the Porsche name associated with a Volkswagen product. Landcrusher: "And they way they fought in WWII was pretty tough, too." The aid from Nazi Germany didn't hurt. (Yes, I'm well aware of the moral complexities of the Continuation War, but it should at least be noted that they were nominally on the Wrong Side.)
Brian, They weren't really given an option of a good side though. Let's see, we have the Nazi's on one side, and the Bolsheviks on the other. Hmmm.