Re: Audi Stock, VW Audi Relationship?

[bazooka!ti@sgiblab.sgi.com (Ti Kan)]

Thespian88 writes:
> What is the relationship between Audi and Porsche, and if there is none, why
> are so many dealerships Porsche-Audi?

Porsche is a separate company and is not related to VW or Audi in terms
of organization.  However, Porsche's relationship with VW and Audi runs
deep over the course of these companies' history.

Ferdinand Porsche, as you may know, was responsible for designing the
original VW beetle.  The Porsche 356 and later 911s were all derivatives
of the beetle.  VW's chairman today, Ferdinand Piech, is F. Porsche's
grandson.  Piech was the force behind the Porsche 907 and 917 race cars,
and was the engineering head at Audi in the 70s and responsible for
bringing the quattro concept to reality.  Piech eventually became chairman
of Audi in the 80s, and moved on to become chairman of VW AG.

Porsche, VW and Audi all share technology and parts bin.  Porsche uses
the same part numbering system as VAG.  The Porsche 914 was originally
designed to be VW sports car, but the plan was changed last minute.
The Porsche 924/944 cars were built by Audi for Porsche, using lots
of parts from the VAG parts bin.  Porsche and Audi even share racing
drivers (Hans Stuck and Hurley Haywood comes to mind).  And did anyone
notice that the new Boxsters have the Audi climate control system?

The Porsche+Audi association in the U.S. as far as dealerships are
concerned started in the 70s when VW, Audi and Porsche cars were all
imported by VW of America, and VWoA saw fit to sell Porsche and Audi
in the same dealerships.  Porsche eventually established a separate
import agency in the US (Porsche Cars of America) but many Porsche+Audi
dealerships maintained the same lineups.

-Ti
96 A4 2.8 quattro
84 5000S 2.1 turbo
80 4000 2.0
-- 
    ///  Ti Kan                Vorsprung durch Technik
   ///   AMB Research Laboratories, Sunnyvale, CA. USA
  ///    Internet: ti@amb.org
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