Porsche to build 4 door saloon

rcunning03

http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=102871

Porsche are going to be building a 4 door Saloon, they had similar ideas back in the early 90's but decided against it.

I think it looks good, but life was so much simpler when a VW Golf would be your first car, then a BMW 3-Series, then a Mercedes E-Class or S-Class and a porsche 911 for the weekends.(That was the aspiration anyway).

Now, BMW and Mercedes are building Golf sized cars, VW plan to make a 5-Series rival and already have a 7-Series competitor, Porsche are building SUV's and Saloons and If your prepared to spend your life explaining to people why you "decided" not to buy a 911, you can even buy a cheap porsche.

I know choice is a great thing but a saloon Porsche ? I thought it was a bad idea back in the early 90's, but if it stops Porsche being bought by GM or Ford, then it's not necessarily such a bad thing but what's next ? A Ferrari Pick-up truck ?

All that said though, I hope Mercedes introduce a 4 door coupe s-class, cause the cls and forthcoming cle (4 door coupe c class) are the nicest saloon cars Mercedes have introduced in a while. The CLS with the proper wheels on it looks really class.

Alfasudcrazy

While we all appreciate the need for volume to make a business more profitable I am not so sure it is a wise strategy for the makers of prestige and highly priced products.
Case in point is Mercedes. When they introduced the 190 back in the 80's it was seen as a dramatic development - now the introduction of another Mercedes variant is nothing much - roll in the B class.

Has this worked for Mercedes - NO. They are now losing money big time, their quality has suffered and their Smart adventure has proved to be anything but. Ironically its the Chrysler division that is now the only profitable part of the business but 'experts' are sceptical as to how long this will last.

Analysts have derided Mercedes 'all things to all men' strategy as what they are actually doing is devaluing the brand. If you do that you can no longer charge premium prices - Porsche seem destined to repeat their compatriots mistake - not that it really bothers me - always thought all Porches were rather bland cars. :rolleyes:

528i

*cough* where were you 6 months ago ?

I think its a great idea, dilutes the porsche brand and brings the competition (uberpanzers will be better) up a notch.. a 500bhp 4-door porsche can only mean one thing, a 600bhp M5

and maybe 700bhp AMG :eek:

hawkmoon269

rcunning03 wrote:

http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=102871

Porsche are going to be building a 4 door Saloon, they had similar ideas back in the early 90's but decided against it.


I know choice is a great thing but a saloon Porsche ? I thought it was a bad idea back in the early 90's,

Yes I actually remember reading about the early 90's plan in Car magazine. I think I might even still have the issue. Personally I thought it was a great idea then, and now.

Thanks for posting that, interesting article.

rcunning03

hawkmoon269 wrote:

Yes I actually remember reading about the early 90's plan in Car magazine. I think I might even still have the issue. Personally I thought it was a great idea then, and now.

Thanks for posting that, interesting article.

That's the very magazine, I have it stored with all my other old car magazines

impr0v

528i wrote:

I think its a great idea, dilutes the porsche brand and brings the competition (uberpanzers will be better) up a notch.. a 500bhp 4-door porsche can only mean one thing, a 600bhp M5

OT, but what exactly is the uberpanzer? From previous contexts I had thought it was a Golf, but from the above it could be a BMW, or perhaps it means any German car? Please enlighten.

528i

It's a TDi golf with tuning box and cutting edge pump dúse technology.

dahamsta

Conceived as a “four-door coupe” in the mold of the Mercedes-Benz CLS...

Marketers are such assholes.

prospect

Yeah, I always figured a coupe was, by definition, essentially a two door saloon car....

whippet

528i wrote:

It's a TDi golf with tuning box and cutting edge pump dúse technology.

how many 'red-eyes' would that have?

vector

the porsche quattroporte