(Wanting to) buy a Porsche

Before we get to the actual Porsche information, I want to mention these stairs:

They lead from a nearby park up to our lovely Stuttgart hotel – Le Meridian. Every time we walk up, Ron informs me that the little mini steps off to the right in this picture are designed for easily rolling your luggage and numerous requests to defend his theory have been met with silence. If any of you agree – or can offer the actual use – please weigh in. I say construction design is not Ron’s strong suit, but he sure knows how to enjoy a doughnut:

We started our day with a Porsche factory tour:

Much like at the Mercedes plant, secrecy is of paramount importance. Porsche took it a step further and confiscated our cameras and cell phones before they let us into the factory. Once we were inside, it was clear that the confiscation is not for proprietary secret information. It’s in case any of the tour members are maimed during the factory tour – so that there’s no photographic evidence for the German personal injury jury trial.

The factory is a whirling mass of self-driving vehicles, moving around with full loads of car parts. One little train will be coming at you from the left – and the tour guide will move us all to the right – and then 30 seconds later, another little train will be coming from the other direction, and the tour guide will smoosh us all up against a stack of pallets. I’ve looked and looked for a picture online, to give you an idea of what it’s like but here’s the best I can do – one single self-driving cart. Just go ahead and imagine that there’s hundreds, coming along from all directions. Then there’s an additional class of vehicles – these ones driven by Porsche employees. It’s like a Frogger game or big bumper car ride at an amusement park and someone has dropped us down into the middle of it. No one’s going to steal any Porsche trade secrets – we’re all just trying to not get hit:

In a particularly misleading picture, here are some children, walking the factory with a false serenity and bravado. For me, I was constantly looking around to see if Ron was in the path of any oncoming delivery cars:

The tour was interesting, though, and a significant contrast to Mercedes. Mercedes makes about 1800 cars a day at the factory we saw while Porsche only turns out about 350. Every car Porsche makes has been already ordered – none are “spec”. The Mercedes factory is largely robotic and, while there are large robotic arms moving things around Porsche, there is a lot of hands-on work. There are massive banks of women, stitching interior leather:

There’s a man who spends the day in front of a constant flow of leather cow hides, checking each inch for leather imperfections, and then sending the hides over to be cut into various interior parts. There are two guys who place the windshields into cars and thousands of engine part specialists. It’s hard to choose which factory is better but I liked the small attention to detail that Porsche offers and the hazardous thrill of that vigilante factory. Ron would surely have an alternate opinion as a Mercedes man, but he’ll need to get his own blog if he wants his voice heard.

After the factory tour, we did a quick loop through the Porsche Museum (not my pic):

From Porsche, we set out to see the Stuttgart Central Library. Although this stop has been on my itinerary for months, as we traveled over, Ron peppered me with questions about why we were going there and what we were planning to see. For a congenial man, he sure does have a pointed way of expressing his displeasure!!

The library offers a cool visual trick inside. Here is the interior view standing down low:

And here’s what that same space looks like from up top:

Ron was not impressed but I thought the contrast was fun. I’ll leave you with a few pictures from the walk back to our hotel. It’s time to pack up and head to Munich!