German Carmaker Narrowly Averts Bankruptcy

[emayer]

I agree with Darren's sentiments but the numbers seem to tell a different story.  No doubt the fusion of Boxter and 911 components in the last decade was a major manufacturing and design savings measure.  From a profitability standpoint however it turns out the Cayennne has been the strongest player.  The reason stems from combined development with VW of major components and shared assembly.  As much as I hate the idea, this car really helped save the company.  The Panamerra follows the same principle and you will see some of the same underpinnings in VW and Audi offerings soon.

That said, even in the best economy a fusion of Porsche with a larger company is inevitable.  This stems from the increasing fleet demands on fuel consumption and CO2 output worldwide with the associated development and production costs.  Porsche needs VW or a similar company to achieve compliance.  I think the philosophy amongst the powers that be at Porsche was that they would rather lead such a merger than be absorbed.

Porsche is on life support at the moment, I'm not optimistic that the financial and housing markets will turn around quickly enough for sales to increase sufficiently.  Ironically, it may be the Panamerra that changes the equation one way or the other.