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Re: Ideological differences...

-hh
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SubjectRe: Ideological differences between big 3 german, americans and jap trash
From-hh
Date02/26/2014 22:17 (02/26/2014 13:17)
Message-ID<6163bf13-9921-43d3-9905-69eba618072c@googlegroups.com>
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Newsgroupscomp.sys.mac.advocacy
FollowsDavid Fritzinger
David Fritzinger wrote:

David Fritzinger
-hh <recscuba_google@huntzinger.com>wrote:

-hh
... Another direction that they probably considered would have been some sort of revival of the affordable two door hot hatchback such as was the 924/944/968...but as one can see from what products exist in the US Market, that's a small niche and not a growth segment - they never would have been able to have offered a product that would sell 50-80K units/year such as the Cayman has.

Editorial correction: meant the Cayenne (SUV) here, not the mid-engine Boxster coupe.

David Fritzinger
I can't argue with what you said. As I had stated, the Cayenne probably saved Porsche (which at the time was independent) and allowed them to build the Boxter and the Cayman, not to mention continued work on the 911. Still, Porsche building SUVs seemed at the time like Ferrari building an SUV...

Oh, it was certainly a controversial move. The funny part about all of it is that the firestorm over the 928 (years earlier) - - front engine, water cooled - - had not been enough to soften the even-older critics of the 914's heritage, but with the 911 going water cooled and then (gasp!) an SUV, the net result was that the Cayenne is IMO what gets credit for the 914 finally being embraced by the purists as having a legitimate Porsche lineage.

Insfoar as other more recent factors, I'm sure that the relatively recent Porsche - VW Stock Market manipulation/buy-out activities probably played a role in the "Q5 clone" product decision too, although I've not done a studious timeline crosswalk to see if those events align or conflict with when its product development rumors started to see if it was/wasn't coincidental. Plus the development of the 918 hybrid also would have had to have been a factor as well. What probably wasn't a factor - - at least a _significant_ one - - was their complimentary lunch at my last visit to the Zuffenhausen factory ;-)

-hh