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Volkswagen says it has agreed a deal to buy the remaining 50.1% stake in Porsche it doesn't already own by the start of next month.
VW will pay 4.46bn euros ($5.6bn; £3.6bn) plus one VW common share to acquire the stake.
The two firms had agreed in 2009 to merge by the end of 2011, but have since faced legal obstacles.
The deal is likely to reduce costs and boost VW's earnings as it seeks to become the world's biggest carmaker.
That whole deal was a hostile takeover gone terribly wrong from the Porsche perspective back in 09, seems to have worked out pretty well for VW. I know a joint venture project was mentioned a couple years ago called the VW Bluesport, which was supposed to share common architecture with an upcoming, affordable, mid engined porsche that would lie somewhere below the Boxster in terms of entry level. I was really hoping to see that car built, and i'm sure finilalizing this takeover might make that a reality...but only if the car gods can align.
I would not be too afraid of this. Volkswagen will not be that stupid to crap up a brand like Porsche, its a good cash cow and a lot of good engineering for the whole enterprise could be done there.
The Porsche Cayenne also shares lots of parts with the Audi Q7 or VW Touareg. And the Porsche Panamera is also avaliable with a VW/Audi Diesel engine.
I think Volkswagen does a good job with their company expansion. It does not necessairly means Porsches are to be built by VW with VW quality (which for american/mexican models might indeed be not the best). Remeber Audi is also a VW company, and still delivers great cars.
Where are VWs that are sold in the US built, is it usually the US and Mexico?
I only ask as the ones on sale in the UK are built in Europe with most still assembled in Germany and they have a very good reputation for build quality and reliability. Reading the above posts i get the impression that that isn't the case in the US.
I don't believe that VW will tinker with Porsche too much, the buyout of Lamborghini didn't do that company any harm, the still have the same engineering and design teams, they now just have a better quality parts bin.
Not sure if every single model sold here is built in the U.S. or Mexico, but most of them are.
Quote:
I only ask as the ones on sale in the UK are built in Europe with most still assembled in Germany and they have a very good reputation for build quality and reliability. Reading the above posts i get the impression that that isn't the case in the US.
The problem is that VW has identified (true or false? I don't really know) the U.S. markets demands larger cars for lower prices compared to the European market. (Jetta starts at about $16k including 2,5l engine, automatic etc.) This can simply only work with low quality. They could build the Jetta or Passat with the same quality as they do in Germany, but then the Jetta would come at at least $25k-28k and nobody would buy it.
Irony. Mr. Porche created the vehicle that would become the VW Beatle and now VW owns Porche. Does this mean we may one day see the return of the rear engine Beatle?
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