I realise it was touched on in another thread, but what does everyone think about Audi's takeover of Ducati? Is it a good move or a bad idea? Will it end up being a positive, negative, or inconsequential event in the motorcycle world? What were your thoughts about the future of Ducati before the recent sale of the company, and what are they now?
Volkswagen has improved the quality of cars built by the companies that they have acquired over the last 25 years but at the expense of character. You drive a Spanish Seat or a Czech Skoda you are basically driving a restyled Volkswagen Polo. On the other hand they don't have a motorcycle to homogenize the Ducati brand with so hopefully they will just give Ducati the financial strength to build the best bikes possible.
Gerhard
I haven't really followed Ducati lately to have an opinion about their corporate health but there seemed to be a fair number of them around. Considering the dearth of Ducati dealers in BC that is quite often a good sign.
Volkswagen also seems to me to be a pretty decent company who does their research so I suspect they could see something in Ducati that they thought they could work with. Their products do tend to be rather Teutonic so one hopes they don't render Ducati entirely devoid of it's joi de vivre. I rode BMWs for years but it wasn't because they were particularly exciting. It was the legendary reliability I was looking for. Plus they handled better than the Honda 750K. They were not really what would be called exhilarating though.
The older I get, the faster I was.
I have no problems with Audi/Volkswagon taking over Ducati. I didn’t realize Ducati had built up as much debt as it had while chasing after mainstream acceptance. I guess when you’re a couple hundred million in debt and the brand is growing, there’s not much sense in backing off. Audi/Volks also have Lamborghini, Porsche, Bentley and Bugatti makes in their stable. If you can believe Wikipedia, they also own 19% of Suzuki. It’s a nice diversification of high-end manufacturers. I read in one press release that the Audi/Volks group was gaining high end engine technology and carbon fibre molding skills... as if they didn’t have that with Bugatti and Lamborghini… but one has to spin the goodness of the purchase somehow. I haven’t heard much about a generic low end Lamborghini coming out. Granted the Ducs are quite a bit less expensive. I doubt we’ll ever see a combined dealership. One can hope for better parts availability and distribution. Now they are debt free (or with less debt) and poised to launch into bigger and better.
Ducati sure makes sexy bikes. I know a couple peeps who have these, but to them the bike is just a status symbol: they ride about 1000km/yr, mostly in the city. These peeps are also single with no children, so perhaps they can more easily afford such extravagance. Ducati does not sell anything in my price range. I don't see Audi's takeover changing that. This is kind of moot as I am into cruisers. And if I was to get a sport bike (and money wasn't an issue), it wouldn't be a Ducati. I'd be getting the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R I saw in the latest edition of Mojo. That's a sexy machine.
Audi/VW did a pretty good job designing the motor for the V-Rod and certainly their engines today at top notch. My Jetta TDI is phenomenal and a leader in diesel technolgy. I'm sure they bought Ducati to do some good things with it. Not like HD's idea to buy something and then discontinue it or try and sell it as with MV Augusta. Maybe new blood will help Ducati which is already a great and has a fantastic follwoing.Originally Posted by Uwe W.
Porsche designed the V-Rod's engine. And a lot of the technology being used in current VW engines came from Audi and its über-successful LeMans prototype cars.
I understand that Ducati closed their factory in Northern Italy for safety reasons following a major `quake in the area. Hope this doesn`t mean that we will have wait too long for the next and greatest Monster ever.
slo.
Yes, Volkswagen/Audi/Porche. Same company, different make. Same technological breakthroughs and superlative engineering.
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