Jack Ennuste

By Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt
Financial Times; May 11, 2004

Porsche's head of design is to step down and will be replaced by the chief designer at Sweden's Saab, part of General Motors.

Netherlands-born Harm Lagaay, 57, will retire on July 1. He had been responsible for the design of all Porsche models since 1989, including the Cayenne, which marked a break from Porsche's traditional, low-slung sports vehicles.

The car has powered recent profits growth at Porsche, the world's most profitable carmaker in terms of margins, accounting for more than half of its sales in the six months to January 31 this year.

Wendelin Wiedeking, Porsche's chief executive, said Mr Lagaay's "design philosophy and skill have made a major contribution to the high standing of the 911, Boxster and Cayenne on all the world markets and therefore to the success of the company as a whole".

His successor is Michael Mauer, 41, a German who joined Saab as executive director responsible for design in June 2000. Colleagues say his style is identified with concept cars such as the 9-3X - described by Mr Mauer as an "offroader/coupé cross-over" and the 9-3 Sport Hatch unveiled at last September's automotive show in Frankfurt.

Saab has struggled to maintain its individuality while also producing profitable vehicles but Simon Padian, head of project design at Saab, said Mr Mauer has "a lot of vision and passion for the product". He added: "Porsche is also a company with a very strong heritage and you cannot ignore that. I am sure [Mauer] will inject a certain amount of fresh thinking into the brand."

Wolfgang Dürheimer, the Porsche board member responsible for research and development, said Mr Mauer would "impact new, forward looking stimuli to design at Porsche".

Before Saab, Mr Mauer - described by those who have worked with him as "young, dynamic, sporty looking" - spent most of his career at Mercedes where he was responsible for designing its small A-Class as well as SLK models. He moved to Mercedes' design studio in Tokyo in 1998 and a year later was put in charge of design at the Smart division, where he was responsible for the Smart car's evolution.

vjd3

That's swell ... seen the new 9-3 convertible? Hmmmm.

Vic
95 C2

David '96 993

I certainly hope that he does not plan on building a "Smart" Porsche. Now that Porsche has an SUV, anything is possible.

Rassel

Hmmm, Saab is quite interesting.
They've always have the drivers interest in mind.
However, that means that the company is not really doing great ...

David '96 993

They just re-bodied a Subaru to add to their line-up if that is another indication of how business is going for them...

poorb0yw

a-class, slk, and 9-3.......................

All this right after Porsche seemingly took a step forward with the 997 design.

Ruairidh

Sorry but while that may have been true of SAAB, that simply has not been the case in the last few years.

I've had a number of "old" SAABs and really, really liked them. But the 9-5wagon that I'm returning when its lease expires next week was basically a Chevrolet with a Swedish accent. Really not very nice at all.

I only hope that this guy is better in the future than he has been in the past.

Ruairidh

and I think there is a rebodied Trailblazer SUV also in the works

TamiyaGuy

Let's not jump to conclusions. Remember that Saab is owned by GM. Big corporates rarely allow an individual designer to have reign over the final product. Most car designs are produced by committee.

It's possible that given more flexibility, he may have great ideas and vision about the design direction of future Porsches.

Perhaps he'll re-do the Cayenne soon. He'll certainly have a hand in the upcoming sedan also.

Speedraser

The re-badged Trailblazer upsets me as much as the Cayenne.

SLVR

Hmmmm, after the Saaburu comes a 450HP twin turbo Smart 4-wheel drive with a Porschefied Turbo front bumper skin and droopy fried-egg headlights to clean out the old 996/boxster stock........

MSRP 200k...

Ok, let's cut him some slack, after all, GM knows how to screw up any design......witness the H2. MB has improved the looks of their cars quite a bit in recent years. Ford is slightly ahead in that game, at least where Aston is concerned, they are taking the axe to Jaguar though...a diesel powered X-type station wagon!!