Maybe Jeep will make a sports car!

 

Car companies are in business for one reason, to make money. If there's a demand for a product, they will produce it. From what I can tell Porsche is doing just fine with the Cayenne.

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I respectfully disagree.
Luxury car makers that spend decades developing a brands image, race history, and heritage isn't going to look at the momentary gain of profit to taint its legacy...by Porsche building cars that are not specific to what Porsche was designed to be, (a sportscar company) devalues the marque.
Why shouldn't Rolex produce a affordable digital watch??? They would sell millions of them for just having that prestigious "Rolex" label on them and make lots more money at first. But Rolex won't because they are smart enough to know why this is a slow way of devaluing the brands image.

 

If you were talking about Porsche or Ferrari making a $20k entry level suv with an inline 4, your comparison might make sense.

But they're not. They're making high end, performance centric SUVs, and there's a market for them that doesn't dilute the brands in the eyes of the everyday porsche driver. IMO of course.

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Would a Ferrari owner be o.k if Ferrari made $60k luxury pick-up truck?? The overall perception of the marque would suffer and I would bet it would never ever happen under Enzo.

 

I think you are both right. Those companies are there to make a profit. At the end of the day they are a business. If they don't make money, they shut the doors. That means that as a business you have to change and adapt. I think that is what these companies are doing. Same with the removal of offering manual transmissions. It is a progression of the business. You can still hold true to your brand while simultaneously adapting and branching out to new ventures in order to operate successfully. So long as they hold their core values I don't see the issue. Plus, many of these SUV's and 4 door sedans provide funds to put back into the racing and sports car development parts of the company.

It's just the way the market is heading. I don't see the issue as they still make great cars and are still successful in racing.

 

Im sure if Ferrari's market research showed a market for it, they'd consider it. Whether or not Ferrari owners would be ok with it, I don't presume to now what Ferrari owners think.

Either way, your example doesn't make sense. There's no $60k Ferrari cars, so a $60k ferrari SUV would be way out of line. Cayennes stay within the Porsche price range for the most part.

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I am going to leave pricing out of the equation. What I am getting at is a sportscar company that only makes sportscar suddenly making a off road vehical. They are two completely diffent animals. If your proctologist decides to do brain surgery the next day because it was a popular procedure, you might think twice about if it was a good idea to request his services.

 

I would hardly call the SUV's they are making "off-road" vehicles.

For the record, I wish they would stick to sports cars as well, but that's not going to happen.

 

That's exactly my point. SUV's are the poster child of compromises. They do nothing well but many things o.k. ( yea, I own one for the family). Porsche was a company that is all about the purest form of driving, uncomplicated and full of no compromises. Look how long it took Porsche to put a cup holder in a 911. This is a company that said "there is no substitute". This is/was a company that doesnt believe in bastardizing or compromising their cars for anything but pure performance driving. It was that way for most of Porsche' history. This is not a company by philosophy, that builds SUV's. It's guys like me (so called Purist) that still hold these values dear that Porsche originally established. The brand is so much more than just a "popular for now SUV vehical" that doesn't bring anything to the legacy of Porsche than a momentary profit.


Great discussion by the way.....