percentage and heritage, vw/porsche Options

[TROJANMAN]

what percentage of a stock 914-4 are volkswagen parts?

[lapuwali]

QUOTE (TROJANMAN @ Oct 12 2005, 09:55 AM)

some other cars with identity crisis: prism/corrolla, vibe/matrix, subaru/saab, etc....................................

Well, Prizm/Corolla is simply caused by GM's apparently inability to engineer good small cars. The Corolla existed before the Prizm, and the Prizm is only a badge. The Vibe/Matrix is simply more of the same, though perhaps more of a joint venture between GM and Toyota.

The Soob/Saab story, don't even get me started. GM has killed Saab as a car company, and they'll probably end up killing Subaru, too.

Many US Fords are really Mazdas, yet very few European Fords become US Fords, even though there's a lot of overlap. The US Escort, for example, was never the same car as the European Escort. They brought the Euro Fiesta over briefly to help the first major gas crisis, but during the second crisis, they used the Mazda 121 as the Festiva, rather than just bring over the Fiesta again, which was still being produced. They have a great small car now: the Ka, which would probably sell very well here now, but have no plans to import it from Europe, and seem more interested in use Japanese market Mazdas instead.

Badge engineering and identity crisis cars have existed for a long time. The "BMW" Isetta, for example, was really an Innocenti design, which BMW licensed. Innocenti themselves licensed and built Mini and Midgets (only better made than the British versions).

The VW/Porsche story is a lot more complicated than joint ventures or corporate raiding. From the way this is going, they'll end up the same company within a few years, what with Porsche buying up 20% of VW as an "anti-takeover" measure.