blueevo8

Do you think the 998 will be the last 911? VW does not like having the engine in the back (they killed the rear engine beetle and bus.) and has made it clear through the past 40 years that they believe the rear engine car is antiquated.
Will we start to see a mid engine replacement or front/midship?

ltc

Profitability...
There is nothing in the VW lineup that competes with a rear engined '911'

However there are models which do compete with the mid engined Boxster/Cayman.

I think as long as they keep the Porsche brand, they will keep the 911...everything else is not a guarantee.

blueevo8

I don't know, I think VW's board will axe it. They will give the "new" 911 like the "new" beetle.

Helios59

It'll last as long as people pay for it!
That was true in the 1980s when Porsche first wanted to kill it, and it's true today.

MechanicalEng

if the 911 dies, Porsche will die

Hoosier_Daddy

"With VW taking control of Porsche, how long will the 911 last?..."

Forever.

Macster

As long as 911s with engine in back continue to sell well VW would be stupid to axe the model line.

Sincerely,

Macster.

jimq

then ours will be worth more money

palestar

There is no way VW is going to axe the mainstay of the Porsche line-up...

Mikelly

VW will not kill the 911. That is the "funniest" comment I've read in quite sometime...

Kida reminds me of the gossip in this one office I used to work in... people LOVE to Gossip about stuff like this...

Mike

funcars

I don't understand the gloom and doom people are spreading about VW and Porsche. The Porsche and Piech families just pulled off the biggest corporate take-over in recent history. Let's review the timeline:

1. Porsche and Piech families have a controlling interest in Porsche SE, which controls Porsche AG.
2. Porsche SE buys up 70% of VW, creating massive debt.
3. VW buys part of Porsche AG, paying Porsche SE enough to service the debt.

So now we have Porsche SE controlling VW, which controls Porsche AG; and the Porsche and Piech families are *still* in control of Porsche SE. Looks to me that this was a brilliant step-up from controlling Porsche to now controlling VW. The losers were clearly Wolfgang and Wiedeking. But I think we're the winners since Piech is a car guy -- much more so than Wolfgang.

I think we're about to head into the golden age of Porsche.

blueevo8

OK here we go
1) Piech has thought the rear engine car should be put to rest since 1973. He has said many times upon leaving his uncle's employ that he never understood why Porsche was so loyal to the rear engine lay-out when a mid engine is far superior.
2) VW will run Porsche, when Piech is gone it will be run by a board of directors with platform engineering on their minds. The 911 replacement will share a midship platform with the next R8 and Gallardo. I don't think this is all the bad by the way.
3) Porsche will return to LeMans using an Audi sourced Chassis and TDI. They did it with Bentley, why won't they do it with Porsche.
4) the next Cayman/boxster will share a platform with the Audi TT. The motor will be moved up front. This could become the next 944/968.
5) the next Panamera will share a platform with the Audi A8 and Bentley Continental or just go away completely.
6) the Cayenne will share a platform with the next Toureg and Audy Q7.
Oh, wait it already does.

funcars

A lot of assumptions there (well, except for #6). And I'm not sure I understand some of the contradicting statements like: if Piech prefers mid-engine, why would he force the TT and Boxster to share a front-engine platform?

Since we're trying to foretell the future, here's what I see happening:

1. Porsche AG becomes part of the VW group and benefits in the following ways:
   • Porsche can easily meet CAFE requirements into the future because of VW's small car/high mileage/high sales volume focus. No need for cars that make bad trade-offs for efficiency.
   • Porsche will benefit from better engineering on the non-core stuff that they've never done great with. How much Porsche engineering goes into trim fasteners and metallurgy?
   • Here's my fantasy: Porsche gets out of the truck and sedan market and concentrates exclusively on sportscars. Let others in the VW group build the bigger stuff.
2. The Porsche and Piech families, who still control Porsche SE and therefore VW, continue to run Porsche as they have for decades. Of course, now they also control the rest of the VW group... I haven't looked into if the balance of power has shifted with the recent transactions (esp the Austrian distribution company which was in the Piech family), but I expect that it has since Piech got to appoint the Porsche SE CEO (Winterkorn).
3. As one of the two majority shareholding families of Porsche AG and then SE, Piech has had ample time to kill the 911 platform since 1973. He won't try to kill a cash cow.
4. Yes Porsche will get back into real road racing. On their own platform. They won't have to make the decision of race vs. truck development...

blueevo8

[QUOTE=funcars;6819189]A lot of assumptions there (well, except for #6). And I'm not sure I understand some of the contradicting statements like: if Piech prefers mid-engine, why would he force the TT and Boxster to share a front-engine platform?

Because it whould much more cost effective to move the Boxster/Cayman to an established (in the VAG) product line. VW could keep the price down on these car's by sprading the R&D over an increasing product portfolio.

kaizashozay

there are no vw models competing w/ those. not even a mid engine vw. r32 is their sportiest model, and it would get ruined on the track by a cayman s.