Boxster fires up on VW line
GoAutoMedia Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting. It was rekindled when he started contributing to magazines including Bushdriver and then when he started a motoring section in Perth’s The Western Mail. He was then appointed as a finance writer for the evening Daily News, supplemented by writing its motoring column. He moved to The Sunday Times as finance editor and after a nine-year term, finally drove back into motoring when in 1998 he was asked to rebrand and restyle the newspaper’s motoring section, expanding it over 12 years from a two-page section to a 36-page lift-out. In 2010 he was selected to join News Ltd’s national motoring group Carsguide and covered national and international events, launches, news conferences and Car of the Year awards until November 2014 when he moved into freelancing, working for GoAuto, The West Australian, Western 4WDriver magazine, Bauer Media and as an online content writer for one of Australia’s biggest car groups. He has involved himself in all aspects including motorsport where he has competed in everything from motocross to motorkhanas and rallies including Targa West and the ARC Forest Rally. He loves all facets of the car industry, from design, manufacture, testing, marketing and even business structures and believes cars are one of the few high-volume consumables to combine a very high degree of engineering enlivened with an even higher degree of emotion from its consumers.
Read full bioCarsGuide puts every effort into ensuring the accuracy of the information it publishes. Double-check the details that matter to you before buying. Learn more about how we fact check.
After last month completing its “integrated automotive group'' - effectively Volkswagen buying Porsche - the pair are now intensifying their marriage.
At this week's production line ceremony in Germany, Volkswagen's chairman Martin Winterkorn, says: “The production of the Porsche Boxster is a clear sign that Volkswagen and Porsche are growing together fast.'' Production in the north-western German town of Osnabruck, 250km west of Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, isn't the first for Porsche.
The Karmann - now Volkswagen - plant made the Porsche 914 (from 1969 to 1976) and the 968 (from 1991 to 1994). Since March 2011, it has also built the Golf Cabriolet. Porsche is making the Boxster in a model mix with the Porsche 911 at its main plant in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.
It says that production at Osnabruck - which replaces Valmet Automotive's deal that has made the Boxster in Finland - will relieve a bottleneck because the Zuffenhausen plant can't cope with demand.
The plant has 1800 staff and can make about 100,000 vehicles a year, including the body, paint and assembly shops. The Boxster was initially assembled in Stuttgart and received only rear and side body components from Osnabruck. Porsche's deputy chairman Holger Haerter says that the end of Valmet's contract to build the Boxster also affects the next Cayman.
He says Cayman's production will go to Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria. But that plan fell apart. Now the Cayman, due early 2013, will also be built at Osnabruck.
Why you should trust us
Read More
GoAutoMedia Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting. It was rekindled when he started…
About Neil