US car owners happier with imports

Which will probably be a big mistake on Piech's part. As I see it Porsche and Wiedeking is like Apple and Steve Jobs, and we all know what happened to Apple when Jobs was gone and what also happened when he came back.

Obviously you have no idea, who Ferdinand Piech is. So here for you a brief summary from Wikipedia:

"Ferdinand Karl Pi?ch (17 April 1937) is an Austrian automobile engineer and manager. He is a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, and son of Louise Pi?ch (the sister of Ferry Porsche).

Pi?ch was the winner of the award of Car Executive of the Century in 1999.

Born in Vienna, Pi?ch graduated from the ETH Zurich, Switzerland in 1962, with a degree in mechanical engineering, having written a Master Thesis about the development of a Formula One (F1) engine. At the same time, Porsche was involved in F1 and developed an 8-cylinder for the Porsche 804.

From 1963 to 1971, he worked at Porsche in Stuttgart, Germany, on the development of the Porsche 906 and following models that led to the successful Porsche 917. In 1972, he moved to Audi in Ingolstadt, Germany. Starting from 1975, he was manager of technological engineering, being responsible for the concepts of the Audi 80 and Audi 100. In 1977 he also began the development of a car for the World Rally Championship, resulting in the four-wheel drive Audi Quattro. The engine used in the Quattro model was a turbocharged inline-5 cylinder unit.

Pi?ch held a small engineering company in the time between leaving Porsche AG and joining Audi, and while there he developed a 5 cylinder in-line diesel engine for Mercedes-Benz. He picked up the concept again after moving to Audi, because there was a market demand for engines with more than 4 cylinders. At the time, Audi (and the Audi-derived VW Passat/Santana model range) used logitudinally mounted inline engines and front wheel drive. More conservative layouts with 6 cylinders were abolished because of engineering and production costs (v6-engine) and packaging requirements (straight 6 did not fit because front wheel drive required that it be mounted in front of the axis).

In 1993, Pi?ch moved to Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen AG), where he became Chairman and CEO, succeeding Dr. Carl Hahn. He retired from the Board of Management in 2002, but as Chairman of the Supervisory Board, he still serves in an advisory capacity. In 2000, he was named chairman of Scania AB.[2] He retired from the management board in 2002 and succeeded as chairman by Bernd Pischetsrieder.

While head of Volkswagen Group, Pi?ch was known for his aggressive moves into other markets. He drove the Volkswagen and Audi brands upmarket with great success. Pi?ch also pursued other marques, successfully acquiring Lamborghini for Audi, and establishing Bugatti Automobiles SAS. His purchase of British Rolls-Royce and Bentley was more controversial. After successfully buying the Crewe, England carbuilding operation, VW was denied ownership of the Rolls-Royce name. Pi?ch later claimed that he only really wanted the Bentley brand, but at the time the loss of Rolls to rival BMW was widely seen as a major failure.

What was not a failure, however, was his effort to rescue Volkswagen in North America. Dr. Hahn's previous efforts to regain market share in the United States and Canada - which he had built up as the head of Volkswagen of America from 1958 to 1965 - were to no avail, but Piech helped reverse VW's fortunes by agreeing to the manufacture of the Volkswagen New Beetle, the introduction of which in 1998 gave Volkswagen of America a much needed momentum.

At Porsche, Pi?ch triggered significant changes in the company's policy. For example, the position of drivers in race cars was moved from the left to the right, as this gives advantages on the predominantly clockwise race tracks. After making mainly small 2000 cc race cars that were supposed to be closely related to road cars, Porsche made a risky investment by unexpectedly building twenty-five 5000 cc Porsche 917, surprising the rule makers at the FIA. Even Ferrari had needed to sell his company to Fiat before making such a move. Always thinking big, Pi?ch started development of a 16-cylinder engine for the Can-Am series. It is probably no coincidence that his grandfather had developed a famous supercharged 16-cylinder engine for the Auto Union racing cars in the 1930s. Pi?ch was denied the chance to complete it, as a turbocharged version of the existing 12-cylinder was simpler, more powerful and very successful. Three decades later as CEO of Volkswagen Group, Pi?ch insisted on the very ambitious Bugatti Veyron, with a turbocharged W16-cylinder, 987 horsepower (736 kW) and 407 km/h (253 mph) top speed. These figures are higher than those of the Porsche 917, and most current racing cars. Pi?ch was also behind the Volkswagen Phaeton luxury saloon, which was intended as a rival to other German luxury cars, but the sales of the model have been disappointing.

Pi?ch owns a significant share of Porsche, roughly 13%. In order to prevent discussions among the many family members, a policy was established in early 1972 that no Porsche family member is allowed to be involved in the management of the company. Even company founder Ferry Porsche, Pi?ch's uncle, only held a seat on the supervisory board of Porsche after the company's legal form was changed from a limited partnership to a private legal company. This made Pi?ch move to Audi after the foundation of his engineering bureau."

So if you wanna compare someone to Steve Jobs, it'd have to be Ferdinand Piech. Piech is a billionaire, who became VW CEO just because for the fun and the challenge. He is an absolute car enthusiast.

Wendelin Wiedeking, however, is more the bookkeeper type of guy and was/is "just" a hired manager with no connections to the Porsche family.
 
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Obviously you have no idea, who Ferdinand Piech is.
I know my Porsche history really well, so subsequently I also know well about Piech's merits at Porsche, especially with the 917. So no, I dont' need that Wikipedia outclip... ;)

Wendelin Wiedeking, however, is more the bookkeeper type of guy and was/is "just" a hired manager with no connections to the Porsche family.
He's more than a mere bookkeeper, I remember from my Operations Management text book, there were many examples used of the brilliant ways in which he managed to do what was viewed as an impossible task; Modernizing and applying a streamlined and efficient way of producing niche sports cars for a reasonably low amount of money, and net the struggling Porsche outfit a healthy profit.

It's also a good thing that he's not a part of the Porsche family, that means he will make (and have made) decisions based on rationale, not emotions. Hence the Porsche board's "family rule". Anyway, I don't think Porsche should loose Wiedeking, might not keep him as the CEO, but somewhere else maybe.
 
US drivers who own a car made overseas...

How many of US drivers actually drive cars made overseas? My guess is very few. Most "foreign cars" are actually made in the USA.
 
Hate-mongering removed, all that stays is one wrong fact.
GM (or Obama Motors in your world) is forbidding Magna, who bought most of Opel from GM, from bringing Opels to the US. That's noting new or Obama-esque, it's just the status quo of the last 50+ years continuted: GM never brought Opel cars to the U.S., with one or two exceptions?(the GT and maybe one other model which i've forgotten about), but built identical or closesly related cars (the Chevette was a Kadett with a different bodykit and U.S. engine, for example) locally. As they seem to keep the rights to use all Opel technology developed until the sale (and still own a minority of Opel's stock), of course they want to keep this principle upheld for the current product cycle. This does not have to do with U.S. government strongarming, but with good negotiation on (pre-chapter 11) GM's side when selling Magna: They sold off a loss-making subsidiary and still got a gurantee that this won't compete with them for the time being.

There is more than enough to critizise in Obama's handling of the crisis (and the nationalisation of car companys) without creating conspiracy theories.

(1) GM sure did used to bring Opels to the US. Most recently as SATURNS.

(2) They were never forbidden BY THE GOVERNMENT from bringing Opels over until now. As part of the government's restructuring and forced sale of Opel, GM is forbidden from bringing Opels over to the US and badging them as GM cars -- preventing them from escaping having to manufacture a new small car in the US and guaranteeing union jobs, also known as PROTECTIONISM. Not only is Opel forbidden from marketing its cars in the US, GM is forbidden from importing them and rebading them as GM models.
 
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I know my Porsche history really well, so subsequently I also know well about Piech's merits at Porsche, especially with the 917. So no, I dont' need that Wikipedia outclip... ;)

Thanks for clearing that up then ;) I just found the comparison between Wiedeking and Jobs more than unfitting.

He's more than a mere bookkeeper, I remember from my Operations Management text book, there were many examples used of the brilliant ways in which he managed to do what was viewed as an impossible task; Modernizing and applying a streamlined and efficient way of producing niche sports cars for a reasonably low amount of money, and net the struggling Porsche outfit a healthy profit.

Well, one's got to give him credit for being smart enough to leave the engineers alone and let them do their work. Not every car manager has that kind of intelligence.

Nevertheless in the end he messed up because of those financial transactions which lead to another episode of "The mouse that roared".
 
Not only is Opel forbidden from marketing its cars in the US, GM is forbidden from importing them and rebading them as GM models.

I still have to see any proof beside your word for the latter. AFAIK one of the main points in the negotiations with Magna was that GM wanted to keep the rights to do exactely that.
With GM already having ordered some seventy thousand Insignias to be sold as Buick LaCrosses in the U.S. (as the Fairfax plant will not be converted for production of the new model in time), i somehow doubt you're right.
(see: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,624046,00.html )
 
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Whatever the rest of GM will look like, they would be extremely stupid to lock themselves out of the Opel resources. Currently the Insignia and the new Astra are the only ready cars, that could fill the gaping holes in GM's model range in a short amount of time.

And I cannot imagine GM sold Opel (including the major R&D department in R?sselsheim) without keeping any access to Opel's technology and developments.

One thing is for sure: The Chevy Volt is not going to be a mass seller and won't save GM. It's rather a beacon of hope, a symbolic vehicle -- which was also in big parts developed by Opel, btw. If GM is to survive in any way, they need attractive cars very soon, which sell in big numbers and are on eye level with the Japanese and European competitors.

And if you look around, you'll see that Opel is the only solution to that problem.
 
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Whatever the rest of GM will look like, they would be extremely stupid to lock themselves out of the Opel resources. Currently the Insignia and the new Astra are the only ready cars, that could fill the gaping holes in GM's model range in a short amount of time.

And I cannot imagine GM sold Opel (including the major R&D department in R?sselsheim) without keeping any access to Opel's technology and developments.

If GM is to survive in any way, they need attractive cars very soon, which sell in big numbers and are on eye level with the Japanese and European competitors.

And if you look around, you'll see that Opel is the only solution to that problem.

Agreed, and that was what was so maddening about prohibiting the rebadging of Opels.

The news happens so fast, I'd swear I heard it in between all the Opel news and the reopening of a plant here to build small cars, and I'd swear I saw it on Autonews.com. But we may have to chalk it up to the fog of war until we can find a source.
 
Whatever the rest of GM will look like, they would be extremely stupid to lock themselves out of the Opel resources. Currently the Insignia and the new Astra are the only ready cars, that could fill the gaping holes in GM's model range in a short amount of time.

And I cannot imagine GM sold Opel (including the major R&D department in R?sselsheim) without keeping any access to Opel's technology and developments.

One thing is for sure: The Chevy Volt is not going to be a mass seller and won't save GM. It's rather a beacon of hope, a symbolic vehicle -- which was also in big parts developed by Opel, btw. If GM is to survive in any way, they need attractive cars very soon, which sell in big numbers and are on eye level with the Japanese and European competitors.

And if you look around, you'll see that Opel is the only solution to that problem.

Remember they have Holden down here working frantically on small car design, and remember Holden can do the whole thing from initial concept, prototype fabrication, production line design (VERY important) and finally mass production (both drive trains and whole cars).

The last lot of cars designed here: VE Commodore, Captiva (built in Korea), Camaro (Built in the US?) and now frantic work on a new small car (FWD/4WD hatchback?)

Maybe this is GM's way to totally circumvent Opel? It wouldn't surprise me if its actually cheaper to do it in Australia plus Holden isn't saddled with the debt problems that Opel have/had.

Plus re-badged Holden's seem to have a reasonable reception in the US market, and since Australia car wise is in the half way mark between European and American car design it may be a easier transition for US consumers.

Sorry I'm being pragmatic again ;)
 
When will Holden release these new cars to the market?

The Opel/Vauxhall Insignia is already on sale for some time now - as is the Corsa - and the new Astra will come in autumn.

GM would only need to grab them. It really doesn't need any new developments - if you're pragmatic ;)
 
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When will Holden release these new cars to the market?

The Opel/Vauxhall Insignia is already on sale for some time now - as is the Corsa - and the new Astra will come in autumn.

GM would only need to grab them. It really doesn't need any new developments - if you're pragmatic ;)

Maybe the fact that GM is government owned the pressure is off and they don't need to? :rolleyes:

But yes, I agree with you. They should grab them. I wonder how compatible most European Opel's are with the US FMVSS rules? THAT is the big problem which most people forget....

...remember us in the civilized and free world all have agreements on motor vehicle standards. Americans seem to forget that, they think the big bad UN and ECE is out to get them...
 
Speaking of US safety regs, now that GM is owned by the US tax payer, any wagers on our standards getting more archaic and a PITA for foreign manufacturers to meet?

I wonder when we will fully institute some tax policy like that in Japan that makes owning an older car exceedingly expensive?
 
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