I just saw this... maybe it's not such a bad thing, eh?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...d-in-2011.html

 

Well... Not sure I see how any good can come of it for us. As it was, Porsche tried to own VW and failed. Porsche would have been top dog if they succeeded, but just the effort made VW stock go up, which pissed off the people who were betting the VW stock would tank. Then VW and Porsche agreed to merge, with Porsche having the technical responsibility for all the cars we care about, but also getting some very nice regulatory advantages where 'fleet' statistics are at issue. Now the lawsuits prevent setting a firm enough value to permit the merger. So instead, VW ends up owning Porsche outright. Not a win for us.

I'm not entirely sure that will change the near-term decisions about technical responsibility that most concern us buyers, especially with the Porsche family running VW already. But in the long run it sure can't be as good for the Porsche engineers to be working for a subsidiary of VW rather than a co-equal Porsche. Sooner or later, usually sooner, the interests of the dominant brand conflict with the needs of the lesser brand. Then we lose.

Just speaking personally, it will grate to have Jeremy Clarkson justified in calling the Porsche a VW.

Gary

 

Here's another related story... looks like Porsche's lacking in attracting engineers!

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/74524667/

 

I love it..."legal issues"- being sued because a stock went UP, and they were betting on it to tank.....welcome to the game my friends....

 

Maybe they can move some of the work to detroit...

 

Porsche's attempt to take over VW at the wrong time has seriously weakened the company ( Porsche). In the end, aside from the different legal entities in the backgound, the operations of Porsche are destined to be folded into the operations of the VW group, I am sure. Also, Piech almost always gets his way, one way or another.

 

the "News" today is not meaningful. P is in the fold.

 

In the interview it sounded as if the person said hiring foreign engineers was a possibility but that the German government tries to stop that. Is that correct?

 

No, I think he mentioned that government is helping with the foreign engineering hiring... are you thinking to apply?

I work for a Germany company and we partner with Porsche, and visited their booth in Frankfurt autoshow, they actually had a recruiting booth there and I applied to work for them, the PROBLEM is that you MUST speak German to work there! which definitely limits the #of candidates.

Our company changed the official language to English a few years ago and that made a HUGE difference attracting talent, maybe Porsche should do the same?!

 

When I used to hang around the factory years ago I recall seeing mostly Italian and Turkish workers assembling the cars. This was in the late 1970s. They could not get enough skilled labor from within Germany to do their own work. They continued to keep only Germans doing the engine assembly, however. This they valued over the body assembly. The engineering shortage is global. Everyone will be paying more for engineering help in the near future.

 

As an engineer, I approve of this.

 

+1

Although I don't see much sings of it around here?!

 

Is Vancouver a big engineering area?

 

Oh yeah.......that'll fix everything......just like they fixed all of the American cars for the last 30 years!

 

Corvette and Viper turned out pretty well. What really matters is leadership and what guidance the engineers are given. If Henry Ford is walking through junkyards, admonishing his engineers for overdesigning parts that are outlasting the rest of the car, we're going to end up with a different product than Ferdinand Porsche designing for Le Mans.