[sliverstorm]

Well, they're Porsche. I imagine "seeing if it lives up to the Porsche marquee" primarily involves flogging it to make sure it drives well.

Do you associate the Porsche brand with a dedication to fuel economy or low emissions?

[Nelson69]

The vehicles have to independently pass the emissions tests. Even if they have a a crate engine from some other supplier. All of the compliance engineers throughout all of VAG only test emissions to the EPA test rig? Even the ones at Porsche?

Nobody is going with Porsche for fuel economy but nobody is expecting to have their Porsche lose power due to a recall either. It's a premium badge, I expect them to dot more of the I's and cross more of the T's when I pay that extra $20-$40kk for a Porsche branded Touareg.

[seanp2k2]

Sometimes the magic of branding is that they can get that extra cash for it for not a whole lot of actual extra engineering in return. Thus, profit!