Porsche

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Well, Porsche have now bought options that will take it to a majority stake in VW, 75% it is said. Where this leads us, I do not know but it could be interesting. As you might expect, Porsche has said that they will make VW focus on engineering and stop chasing financial markets. There is also a certain irony here, given that Ferdinand Porsche, the company's founder, also designed the VW Beetle.

I have only been to Porsche once and that was to the Engineering Centre at Weissach, deep in the Black Forest. The place was full of cars from all over Europe for which Porsche was offering design consultancy. I heard at the time, that they made more money from this than they did from making cars.

My most abiding memory of the visit was the relatively luxury of the site compared to any other automotive site I have seen before or since. And to top it all, there was the restaurant.

No company canteen here, a proper restaurant. White cotton tablecloths, silver service and china crockery each emblazoned with the company logo. There was a proper menu and a wine list; we had Chablis as I recall. And with the coffee, you got little chocolates each with the logo on them and wrapped in pink paper, again with the logo on them.

We did not win business with Porsche which is a pity for I should have like to have gone back there, often.