porschce/audi/vw relationship

What is the official relationship these days between the above brands? Art soon to be 996 Cab owner 88 928 S4 - sold

Audi is a subsidiary of VW which is a public company. Porsche is a totally separate company, also public. A little over half of all Porsche shares and all the voting stock I believe are owned by the Porsche and Piech family.Ferdinand Piech is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche and the recently retired CEO of VW. Clear as mud right? VW also owns Seat, Skoda, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce and God knows what else. I just came back from Europe and we visited the Porsche factory. Right in the middle of the complex is an old building that Porsche can't tear down as it is where the first VW Beetles were built. Even clearer now, right.

Oh, and all the 996 body panels are pressed by BMW and shipped to Porsche for assembly and painting.

Interesting article concerning thier SUV relationship <a href="http://www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=5389" target="_blank">HERE</a>

So does that mean theyre cousins???

are SUV relationships legal in Arkansas?

They are seperate companies and to my knowledge, VW does not own any stock in Porsche or visa versa. Porsche did design the bug and received 5 German marks for each one built. That is where quite a bit of the family fortune came from (they built 13 million bugs as I recall)... Piech does own some Porsche stock as a result of his family. Roy

I had this very discussion (more like argument) a few months back on Audiworld.com. Someone claimed that Audi was no longer owned by VW and that Audi owned Porsche. So I did a bunch of research on the internet and put together a pretty detailed history. Since it was on AudiWorld it is focused on Audi (and it was a heated argument) but below it the post. Take it for what it is worth. On the technology sharing part I came to a few assumptions with what I read so I could be wrong, if I am please correct me, I would love to know where I over assumed: First of all Professor Ferdinand Porsche founded the Porsche Engineering office in Stuggart in 1931. Under the instruction of the government to develop a Peoples Car Ferdinand was hired to design and develop the first VW. He did this and helped to develop the start of production. From there he developed his first sports car, the 356, yes you are correct it was based off of VW parts. In 1950 Porsche returned to Zuffenhousen (outside of Stuggart) and set up his own production facilities so that he did not have to rely on VW's assembly line anymore. This is when Porsche became an official company. Porsche was never owned by VW, just worked with them. But you didn't say that, you said Porsche was owned by Audi. Once again...False. Acually in 1958 Daimler-Benz AG purchased(now DamilerChrylser... the parent company of Mercedes-Benz) a majority share of Audi and with this Audi was a fully owned subsidary of the Daimler group. In 1964 VAG purchased Daimler's shares of Audi and has since owned Audi. Audi never owned Porsche and had no relationship with them until VAG purchased them. That is FACT, there is no denying history but if you can find somewhere that says Audi owned Porsche I will be happy to look it over and trade sources with you. Cross development is different from open parts sharing. As for Tiptronic, you are off again buddy. The tiptronic transmission was developed by ZF Friedrichshafen AG (ZF for short). It is just an automatic transmission with a computer program attached to it. Porsche implemented this transmission into their cars in the early 1990's and registered a trademark name for it...Tiptronic. This is much like Ferrari's Syncromesh. Audi also purchases this same transmission from ZF but with a different software package. They then lease the trademark name of Tiptronic from Porsche for guess what...money. As a matter of fact did you know that the Tiptronic in the 996 Turbo is produced by Mercedes? So you see Porsche did not develop the Tiptronic, anyone can purchase it. As for Porsche's AWD, I am almost 100% sure that it is not based on Audi's Quattro. I do know for a fact that Porsche developed their first AWD system in 1949, so they do have their own history with it. On top of that just like how VW cannot use Quattro due to engine layout the same system CANNOT fit in a porsche with the rear engine. That is also a fact and that is what leads me to believe it is not quattro or based on it. A4EP 2002 C4S SG/BLK Heir

Wasn't is Porsche's daughter that married Piech, so F.Piech is not a blood relative?????

I believe Piechs mother was Porsches daughter

Cooper are U kidding about the 996 panels? On second thought Porsche does a lot engineering for other companies. You paint this... I engineer that Buck

No kidding, our guide on the Porsche Factory tour confirmed that indeed the panels are pressed by BMW. They are welded in the Porsche facility in Zuffenhausen and the paint is sprayed by hand! Other than robotic welding of the body panels, the only robot on the whole assembly line was the one thet installed the front windshield glass. As they come off the assembly line, a red licence plate is stuck on and a driver jumps in and drives every car around the town for 20 minutes or so regardless of weather or traffic conditions. He reports any deficiences etc. It was cool to see pallets with complete engines labelled "GT3 Cup", "996 TT North America" etc. There was a new assembly line for the V8 Cayenne Engines. I read an article in a German car magazine in Stuttgart which said the 997 will have an updated body, a 3.8L flat 6 with a 4.something flat 8 as an option. Also the twin clutch sequential transmission would quite likely be available. Thats where there are concentric drive shafts with 2 clutch units and no clutch pedal. A computer controls the shifting, but the with the twin clutch configuration, the drive ti the wheels is never interupted. One last comment...the quality control in the factory is amazing.