Another Porsche for the Family?

First they introduced the Cayenne and now they are going after the mainstream market again with the Panamera. As much as I can understand the logic and may have even voted in favour of this idea had I been on the board I simply must also question this decision.

The fear is that it will "muddy" the brand. Porsche is a unique company, they build "practical" semi-exotic and exotic sportscars. By practical I mean that a person can actually live with one as a daily driver, despite the fact that they are built to go very fast on the Autobahn they are also built to be driven up to the Alps to go skiing. This fact may be their saving grace on this decision, ever since the 911 was first introduced Porsches have always been both a prestige and practical brand.

But I must confess that I still have a hard time accepting the Cayenne as a Porsche. It is not a Porsche, it is an SUV and a reskinned and tweaked Volkswagen SUV at that. I suppose my point is that they "muddied" their brand once and it was accepted as a necessity, but a family car too? What's next? Are they going to introduce a mini-van?

Like I said I understand the logic, but I suppose from brand identity perspective they would have been wiser to have never offered the Cayenne in the first place and introduced the Panamera as a four door coupe similiar to the Mazda RX8 or even the Dodge Charger. But to have begun with an SUV and then go to a four door is just ruining a good brand name. As I write this I am realising that the truth is Porsche is positioning itself, intentionally or unintentionally as an upscale Mazda.

Mazda has worked hard to position itself as an exciting brand and even marketed their SUV at one time by asking what would happen if a sportscar company built and SUV? Porsche has now answered that question and copied an economy car manufacturer to do it. Like I said I have no issues with the four door coupe per say, but I do have issues with the fact that Porsche seems to be working hard to become just another German car manufacturer.

In and of itself the Panamera is good idea, but following the Cayenne it is a real risk. I fear Porsche has bet inadvertently their reputation and the entire company on this car when it was really unnecessary. Had they never built the Cayenne in the first place this would not be half the risk it is it, something to compete against some Maseratti products is a good idea, but not it just seems like the right idea at the wrong time following an SUV.

London

It is strange how I feel a pressure to write this and yet to my knowledge I am the only person on the entire planet to cares if I do.

Shortly after the bombs went off I heard a news report that effectively stated that world oil prices where falling quickly because the demand was expected to fall off over the summer because particularily in Britian people were expected to be scared of travel. Well, as my tank rapidly approaches empty, I am waiting for the price at the pump to fall. I am not sure it will here in the bald Canadain prarie though. We still feel secure, I mean who cares about Saskatoon? Only those of us who live here.

But back to London, I have no doubts that the bombing will have some effect but they seem to be taking a similiar apporach to the Americans after 9/11. Yesterday Ken Livingston, London's mayor took the subway to work and people are being encouraged to resume their lives as usual. Some one also pointed out that, traditionally, Londoners just live with these things and keep a stiff upper lip.

I have yet to hear of any royal activity but it is a well known fact that the queen's mother went for daily tours of the city during the blitz in the second world war. I suppose my point is life will resume to relatively normal in a very brief time frame. And I would argue that whatever their purpose in bombing London was al Qaeda has failed. Life will go on and apart from creating fear for a few days terrorism is not an effective philosophy with regard to communicating a message to the western mind.

Cutting off our oil would be far more effective. Therefore the question is why does al Qaeda not simply begin bombing oil wells in the Middle East and tankers on the sea? That would be far more effective and far less complicated with regard to having to circumvent security measures. Hit us where it really hurts and cut off our oil supply and now we might listen; continuing to bomb us on our own soil will only create hatred and persecution for Muslim in our countries.

Live 8

Have Bono and Bob Geldof really accomplished anything?

I am all in favour of eliminiating poverty, but I can not help but wonder how many of the concert goers really understand what sort of personal sacifices they might have to make for us to truely eliminate poverty. Are they prepared to pay twice what they now do for a cup of coffee? Are they prepared to pay more for their textiles? Are they prepared to live more simply so that others may simply live?

I am not attacking intentions but I am concerned that many got on bandwagon not realise that it could really cost them. Now with regard to achieving their objective, time will only tell, because the real test will be if Live 8 did infact shame the G-8 leaders into doing something. I happened to catch a part of an interview with Ralph Goodale this afternoon and he was trying to explain what the real cost of eliminating poverty and budgeting 0.07% of our national budget to poverty relief. the bottom line is that it has to come out Canadian's pockets somehow. Military, transfer payments, or justice spending, to just give three examples, would have to be curtailed, or taxes woud have to be raised to meet these commitments.

Now that said, Paul Martin also promised that he would do something about this when he was elected Prime Minister and Bono publicly stated that he would hold him to account, which he is and has done. Somehow I doubt Paul Martin was too impressed that Bono put his office phone number on a jumbotron, but that is the price he had to pay to get Bono's endorsement and blessing, although I have no idea why the Prime Minister of Canada needs to the support of an Irish rock star to give him legitimacy, but such is the strange world we live in.

Anyway I have been up for the better part of two days now and I am afraid I am no longer making any sense, so I will shut up now.