Maybe?

 

I always thought Porsche's looked like squashed VW Beetles

 

Yes and no. The original VW was designed (in part?) by Porsche, or at least the lead designer. That's why some of the same-era Porsches look similar.

VW has gone back to the retro roofline for these cars, instead of the palindrome looking car of the 90's, which, sometimes you can't tell if it's coming, or going. The new car has a much more distinct 'coupe' look with a long hood and a sloping back.

 

I started a thread about this redesign a while back. The VW Bug has essentially had the same styling since 1998. Yes, that is crazy. I think the bug is going back to its original heritage with the cut roof-line. Regardless, it looks much sportier this way. Hell, I would even drive one now.

 

I think it's on it's way to becoming a bit manlier design. Since 1998 that has been a chick car to me. The one up top, I don't think I'd be embarrassed to be seen in.

2" drop all around.

 

Doesn't volkswagon own porsche? The new volkswagon SUV shares the same body as the porsche suv.

 

I agree, it looks more like the original now. And I think this new one looks pretty damn good!

 

Hey that's not too shabby!

 

I think the one pictured above looks pretty good and I would definitely drive it.

 

VW is making the new Beetle more aggressive looking to appeal to more younger male buyers. (They also dumped the flower vase holder.) Up to now, it has essentially been a woman's car. The fact it closely resembles a Porsche is because as 97Q stated, their lineage is tied to Dr. Ferdinand Porsche.

 

I've never liked the look of Porsche vehicles.

I was in Germany a few weeks ago and at the hotel I was staying they must have had a local Porsche club meeting in the parking lot.

First thing that came to mind was a bunch of gay yuppies.

 

That would be just about any carshow featuring Euro-Trash in my opinion and when I think Euro-Trash, Porsches do not come to mind immediately...

 

A lot of people think that since VW is a much bigger company and owns a lot of other companies (Audi, Lambo, Bentley, Bugatti, etc), but it's actually the opposite, as strange as that seems. Over the last several years Porsche AG has been buying up more and more shares of VW and at this point they are now the majority shareholder.

Also Qatar, a big investing firm owns significant chunks of both Porsche and VW.

It's really complicated, but supposedly the two companies are going to merge at some point this year which I guess will simplify quite a bit.

 

Yeah. Porsche Automobil Holding SE has 51% of the voting rights at Volkswagen AG. The next biggest voting block is the State of Lower Saxony. This holding company also owns the majority of Porsche Zwischenholding GmbH which used to own nearly all of what is now Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG (the company that builds the cars). In 2009 they lost control of Porsche Zwischenholding GmbH with VW buying up a bunch of it. As Threxx said, they are supposed to become essentially one company this year.

 

So weren't they positioning themselves to gain control of VW, but ran out of money and then VW gained control?