Weekend Rant: Let Reason Prevail
So it seems Porsche’s CEO, Wendelin Wiedeking, is furious that people within his company are leaking info about its dire financial situation. It wasn’t long ago that Porsche was the most profitable enterprise in the business. Now that’s over, and Wiedeking is begging the German treasury to provide billions in emergency cash to save his company from bankruptcy.
All this chaos in just a few months. What a man.
I’m not going to hide it: I think Wiedeking is the worst auto exec still employed. This is a guy who took a wealthy and promising concern, and got it screwed harder than Kim Kardashian in the Saints’ locker room. Plenty of folks want to give Robert Nardelli of Chrysler that title, but Nardelli did nothing more than hurt an already broken company.
I like to point to the Panamera as a symbol of all that’s wrong with Wiedeking and Porsche’s whored identity. What is Porsche today? A fashion statement. It’s a brand Jerry Seinfeld markets. It’s a line of apparel. It’s an overpriced and overweight Volkswagen SUV. It’s a sedan that’s uglier than Joy Behar at a nude shoot. The tragic thing is that I’d rather get into Behar than the sedan.
Some of that is unfair. The Cayenne was a key reason why Porsche prospered over the past decade, and it is a good SUV–just not a good Porsche. Porsche’s own status has been somewhat wounded since it became a yuppie icon in the 1980s. I also have to give Porsche Design its dues: those varsity jackets are pretty damn fine.
That is beside the point. Porsche is billions in debt, it’s probably going to be annexed by a bigger company, and it’s set to win the dubious honor of having the ugliest machine on wheels since the Aztek. I don’t think even a Cayman Turbo could redeem this once-great marque in the eyes of true enthusiasts. Frankly, I don’t care kind of flattering words Jay Leno or Jeremy Clarkson have for Panamera. (If they do have them, that is.)
There’s only one rational thing that can be done to help remedy this: Sentence Wiedeking to death by impalement, with no chance for appeal.
We must let reason prevail.
1 Comment
“I’m not going to hide it: I think Wiedeking is the worst auto exec still employed. This is a guy who took a wealthy and promising concern, and got it screwed harder than Kim Kardashian in the Saints’ locker room”
to be honest: you have no idea.
wiedeking went to porsche when they were almost bankrupt. He was the one, who turned porsche to one of the most successfull car companies on this planet with the boxter and cayenne. he was the one that introduced employee profit sharing and so on and so on.
your best sentence is this one: “…and it’s set to win the dubious honor of having the ugliest machine on wheels since the Aztek.”
you call yourself a journalist? come on…
the cayenne is far more ugly and a lot of people only bought it cos it had four doors and those people waited for the panamera. believe me: it’s gonna be a great success and the pictures just don’t do it justice.