Porsche owners out there?

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Squire
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Post by Squire »

My one Porsche fling was 20 some odd years ago. It was an '86 944 turbo, bright red, and I had a young blond girlfriend to match. Thing would run like a scalded dog, the car, not the girl, she was more cat like. You could change lanes by just thinking about it. Swapped it for a MB sedan because I got tired of my butt being four inches above the ground.

As I was approaching age 40, me, the car and the girl got lots of disapproving looks from blue haired ladies and that was probably the most fun thing about owning it.
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Post by rsp1202 »

The Porsche Turbo scared the banana pudding out of me.
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Post by aircraft_electrician »

944 owners may have been shunned by the owners of "proper" Porsches, but they were fabulous cars, in terms of both performance and reliability. When I ran a Midas shop, we often saw 944s with loads of miles on them, many times approaching or exceeding 200,000 miles. Repairs could be very expensive, as with any exotic car, but weren't as frequent as with most other exotics.

Handling was superb, far better than their rear engined siblings. Both Car & Driver and Motor Trend named the 944 Turbo as one of the best handling cars of all time, and the fact that both of these magazines agreed on this one car is a testament in itself to the road holding abilities.

This is one car that I've never owned, but have driven many, many examples, and have loved each one.

Tom
m3m0ryleak wrote:I am the previous owner of a '87 944 Turbo, another "red headed stepchild"
in the eyes of those who thought a true Porsche had its motor in the wrong end of the car and was air cooled. :roll:

I never got any respect from the PCA crowd. As a member at that time, I got an invite to the "super secret" unveiling of the Cayenne SUV prior to public release. When it was rolled out, I remarked that it was hideous (just like the new Panamera :wink: ) and those around me looked on aghast, as if I had said Mother Theresa turned $2 tricks.

My love/hate affair with the marque ended after three years, $$$ of mechanic's bills, and a trip to traffic court that came close to $1200 fine and eight points on my record.

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Post by hoffo »

Apologies for my absence.

I always thought the 914 and 914-6 were "red headed stepchildren" along with the 928 and related models.

I took the Boxster on a trip to a conference a couple of days ago and opened her up a bit just for kicks. WOW! So smooth and stable at speed... didn't feel like I was going as fast as I was at all.
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aircraft_electrician
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Post by aircraft_electrician »

Ah, the 914 truly was an oddball among Porsches, with the original model (the 914 or 914-4) fitted with a VW Vanagon engine and built entirely by VW.

An interesting fact: When first conceived, the 4 cylinder version was intended to be sold as a VW, and the 914-6, with it's more powerful 6 cylinder engine, was to be badged as a Porsche.

If this had happened, I can only imagine how badly treated the owners of the 914-6 would have been by other Porsche owners. They're already looked down upon enough without the car having a VW sibling.

Tom
A razor is a good deal like a gun, much depends on the man behind it - paraphrased from John Philip Sousa

ALWAYS wear a helmet when on 2 wheels; a helmet saved my life on 1Oct2007!
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Post by jww »

aircraft_electrician wrote:Ah, the 914 truly was an oddball among Porsches, with the original model (the 914 or 914-4) fitted with a VW Vanagon engine and built entirely by VW.

An interesting fact: When first conceived, the 4 cylinder version was intended to be sold as a VW, and the 914-6, with it's more powerful 6 cylinder engine, was to be badged as a Porsche.

If this had happened, I can only imagine how badly treated the owners of the 914-6 would have been by other Porsche owners. They're already looked down upon enough without the car having a VW sibling.

Tom
And the remarkable thing is that Porsche is still owned by VW. A testament, imo, to the stalwart state of the VW business model.
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GregPQ
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Post by GregPQ »

I believe it's the other way around, with Porsche owning VW:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen#Ownership

Greg
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2001 Porsche Carerra 4

Post by Cicerosecundus »

My C4 goes through the worst ice and snow with smaller than Carerra Boxter wheels with snow tires. In summer it wears the full size Carerra wheels and tires. There is nothing like a Porsche for a beautiful driving experience for so long as you do not use it as a town runabout. It needs the open road and its engine has been optimized for speed and high RPMs. Baby it and drive it for short distances enough and the engine will self destruct. I commute with mine and it gets the kind of use its engine was designed for. Consequently, I have over a hundred thousand miles and it runs better than when young. When I drive it, I feel like the car is an extension of my body. Be careful when you sneeze, you may find yourself in the wrong lane in an instant.

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jww
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Post by jww »

GregPQ wrote:I believe it's the other way around, with Porsche owning VW:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen#Ownership

Greg
Thanks Greg -- I stand corrected -- I knew that there was a deep relationship there, but got it backwards.

Interesting that VW owned brands include Audi, Bentley Motors, Bugatti Automobiles, Automobili Lamborghini, SEAT, Škoda Auto and heavy goods vehicle manufacturer Scania. Bugatti and Lambo with SEAT and Škoda - don't you just love localized German globalization - i.e. localized to Europe. :D
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Cicerosecundus
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VW has controlling shares of Porsche

Post by Cicerosecundus »

FACTS: Porsche lost its take over battle with VW. Porsche borrowed a huge amount of Euros to purchase VW shares in reliance on its US sales. But, US sales dropped and Porsche could not pay the debt carry. Banks refused to fund more Porsche borrowings. Only VW agreed to loan a substantial sum to Porsche to bail it out, and VW imposed many conditions on that loan and reversed the take over leaving Porsche the target. As of now the reverse take over by VW is in litigation in Europe and Porsche is sued in the US by a few funds who claimed that Porsche manipulated its share value to accommodate the attempted takeover of VW.

Historic Basis for the Takeover Fight: Porsche was formed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche (who designed the Volkswagen). A Ferdinand Piech worked for Porsche and was the grandson of Dr. Porsche. After Dr. Porsche died, there were members of the Porsche and Piech families working for Porsche. Dr. Porsche's son as CEO, forced all members of both families to leave Porsche employment and they were replaced by professional managers. One of the reasons for the exodus was that the Porsche and the Piech families were feuding too much in their co-management of the company.

As fate would have it, Piech became the CEO of VW and now has control of Porsche and the Porsche family, for the most part, is out.

VW is positioning Porsche as the performance car division of VW and has suggested to the press that Porsche has too many different models and needs to use more common platform parts to be shared with other VW car platforms. There are protestations aplenty that VW will let Porsche be an independent brand, but it has replaced most key management positions in Porsche with trusted VW employees. The key Porsche managers who were replaced were give good positions in VW car companies. As of now, key management of Porsche in Stuttgart is composed of loyal VW managers. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck - - -.

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Post by jww »

Thanks Cic - appreciate the further clarity. I will say many good things about VW - have always liked their cars -- especially the way they drive -- even the original beetle was a hoot.

They make the best doggone car commercials on the planet.
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