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Why no diesel Dr. W???

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Old 12-15-2005, 12:20 AM
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skl
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Default Why no diesel Dr. W???

With the new Audi R10 TDI coming to Sebring, and then LeMans next year, and hopefully a TDI version of the upcoming Q7, why no diesel version of the Cayenne someday??? Dr. W says no Porsche will have a diesel, but he seems to have forgotten about the great old tractors, and he is going to build a hybrid, which to me is just a marketing joke... I don't plan on keeping the pepper past 50K which will come before the 4 year limit of the warranty- I almost bought a V10 TDI Toureg, but the scarcity of them worried me, and they eventually withdrew them because of our lousy diesel fuel anyway. I assume Audi will bring over a TDI Q7 sometime, so good old Dr W ( I can never learn to spell his name without a Pano or Excellence sitting next to me) could lose another customer...
Old 12-15-2005, 08:22 AM
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Originally Posted by skl
With the new Audi R10 TDI coming to Sebring, and then LeMans next year, and hopefully a TDI version of the upcoming Q7, ...
Currently planned for 2007-2008 in the US, after the low sulfer diesel requirements are up and running here. There are TDI Q7's running about in Ingolstadt.

Originally Posted by skl
why no diesel version of the Cayenne someday??? Dr. W says no Porsche will have a diesel, ...
According to reliable, yet unnamed sources (names wouldn't matter with this person, since he has multiple personalities anyways), this is the fallout of the 'lack of royalty' squabble between VAG and PAG regarding whether or not the Q7 is a 'stretched Cayenne/Touareg unibody' therefore required to make payaments to Dr. W's offshore personal account...I mean payments to PAG; or rather the Q7 is a non shared VAG chassis development.

Dr W's people skills make me look good....really.
There is a legendary story about Dr W being at an International car show and asking where his personal/favorite beer was.....it had not been flown over, it was late, it was held up in customs, it was forgotten. The man threw a fit, chewed out the corporate vice president in charge of making sure his personal beer is at any event he attends, to end all fits...it was witnessed by more than a couple of folks. To put it into perspective, Hitler on a bad day is better than Dr W on this day.

Logic would dictate now that PAG owns 20% of VAG that a TDI would be forthcoming. Not so, as this would require someone to eat their own words/lose face (after the aforementioned VAG/PAG meeting that killed the stretched Cayenne and the TDI in said vehicle)...and Dr W isn't about to lose face or eat any of his words. Pride or Profits.....you decide.

Originally Posted by skl
but he seems to have forgotten about the great old tractors,....
The only way you'd make Dr W aware of the Porsche diesel history is if you parked one in one of his personal parking spaces.

Originally Posted by skl
and he is going to build a hybrid, which to me is just a marketing joke....
Yes, but good PR is good PR, so they will build it. Expect ~ 2 MPG bump.

Originally Posted by skl
I don't plan on keeping the pepper past 50K which will come before the 4 year limit of the warranty-...
Chicken!

Originally Posted by skl
I almost bought a V10 TDI Toureg, but the scarcity of them worried me, and they eventually withdrew them because of our lousy diesel fuel anyway...
.
They're coming back 2007-2008.

Originally Posted by skl
so good old Dr W ( I can never learn to spell his name without a Pano or Excellence sitting next to me) could lose another customer...
TAKE ME WITH YOU PLEASE!
I'm pretty good to have around, I can make people laugh......
Old 12-15-2005, 11:50 AM
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Dr W can't be as egomanical as Dr Piech can he???? (wonder if Dr P still thinks the Phaeton was a great idea?????)
Old 12-15-2005, 04:29 PM
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The issue is that the diesel is mainly a good seller in Europe - here in the US, it's not very popular - at least not, yet.

I hear that Porsche did some market studies and found that even in Europe, the percentage of Cayennes sold with Diesel engines would be rather low, and the overall sales volume would not justify the engineering cost for a such model.

Also, the cost of a modern turbodiesel with particle filter etc that meets California emissions standards is pretty high. And I doubt Porsche would make a Cayenne model they could not legally sell in all markets.

This is kind of sad, as the turbodiesels my friends drive are so much fun. I don't think that Porsche will stay away from the diesel forever, but I expect them to be very late in the game.

The Touareg V10, BTW, is not such a great engine. Despite his theoretical power, people say it has a lot of lag from idle, and the fuel economy is not very good - not what you'd expect from a diesel. Apparently the same engine with slight modifications behaves better in the Phaeton, but that's not relevant here.

I did not know that Dr. W can be so nasty, but I've read quite a few stories of him not holding back on his political views. He had a good connection with the former Chancellor Schröder, so they say, even though the two did not always agree.



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