Porsche Dealership Arson Enacts Sick Burn on Globalists, Maybe

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

A Porsche dealership in Hamburg, Germany fell victim to a fire targeting roughly a dozen vehicles last night and there is some speculation on whether or not the arson was politically motivated — primarily due to its close proximity to this weekend’s G-20 summit. Relegated primarily to 718s and Macans, firebugs apparently missed some of the hotter ticket items in the showroom to burn the less-expensive models sitting in the lot. However, at least one Porsche 911 went up in smoke, along with an almost unrecognizable Panamera.

While the fire may have been unrelated vandalism or insurance fraud, Hamburg protesters spent a portion of the evening starting dumpster fires and setting cars ablaze in other parts of the city. They’ve since geared up and organized for a weekend of globalist opposition near the city’s center as police rolled in with water cannons and riot gear. Organizers of Thursday’s demonstration have titled the event “G-20: Welcome to Hell.”

Details of the Porsche fires were outlined in Fire Engineering, where Hamburg authorities explained the incident occurred in the city’s Eidelstedt district shortly before 4 a.m. on July 6th. The cars were extinguished two hours later as dawn broke over a parking lot littered with blackened automotive frames and the white foaming agent fire departments use to keep combustible fuels from making contact with oxygen.

Eight of the cars were burned intentionally, with the flames spreading to several other nearby vehicles. No injuries were reported.

According to the UK’s Daily Mirror, early estimations from Porsche place the total damages at around $1.13 million.

Optimistically, this will turn out to be the act of a disgruntled employee using the summit as cover and not a politically motivated attack on capitalism as Jalopnik (satirically, I hope) suggested. Because, if someone were trying to make a statement about wealth, they really should have burned more Porsche 911s and left some of those poor entry-level models alone.

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

More by Matt Posky

Comments
Join the conversation
24 of 34 comments
  • Slavuta Slavuta on Jul 07, 2017

    Porsche was member of NAZI and SS. All that wears his name should be burned and destroyed. I am surprised they kept this name

    • See 14 previous
    • W210Driver W210Driver on Jul 12, 2017

      The reason I don't drive a Ferrari or Lamborghini is because my ancestors were slaughtered and abused by the Romans. 2000 years later we still hold a grudge! The last person who told me he would never drive a German car because of the Holocaust was a Jewish gentleman who ended up trading in a Ford product for a GM product. Oh the irony! If they only knew about the connections and support which Ford and GM provided to Nazi Germany before and even during the war! Porsche was not a Nazi in the sense that he believed that gibberish, but he was a member of the party because it advantageous for business purposes. He was not a member of the SS.

  • Flybrian Flybrian on Jul 07, 2017

    I have some aged inventory that exhibits the worst qualities of capitalism run amok. Can Antifa burn some of them to ashes?

    • See 6 previous
    • Ajla Ajla on Jul 08, 2017

      @Flybrian Cool. Nice finds. Up until 2015 I had an '89 Electra Limited that I put some Olds Touring Sedan parts on. It was a fun car. Hope the PA finds a good home.

  • Varezhka I have still yet to see a Malibu on the road that didn't have a rental sticker. So yeah, GM probably lost money on every one they sold but kept it to boost their CAFE numbers.I'm personally happy that I no longer have to dread being "upgraded" to a Maxima or a Malibu anymore. And thankfully Altima is also on its way out.
  • Tassos Under incompetent, affirmative action hire Mary Barra, GM has been shooting itself in the foot on a daily basis.Whether the Malibu cancellation has been one of these shootings is NOT obvious at all.GM should be run as a PROFITABLE BUSINESS and NOT as an outfit that satisfies everybody and his mother in law's pet preferences.IF the Malibu was UNPROFITABLE, it SHOULD be canceled.More generally, if its SEGMENT is Unprofitable, and HALF the makers cancel their midsize sedans, not only will it lead to the SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST ones, but the survivors will obviously be more profitable if the LOSERS were kept being produced and the SMALL PIE of midsize sedans would yield slim pickings for every participant.SO NO, I APPROVE of the demise of the unprofitable Malibu, and hope Nissan does the same to the Altima, Hyundai with the SOnata, Mazda with the Mazda 6, and as many others as it takes to make the REMAINING players, like the Excellent, sporty Accord and the Bulletproof Reliable, cheap to maintain CAMRY, more profitable and affordable.
  • GregLocock Car companies can only really sell cars that people who are new car buyers will pay a profitable price for. As it turns out fewer and fewer new car buyers want sedans. Large sedans can be nice to drive, certainly, but the number of new car buyers (the only ones that matter in this discussion) are prepared to sacrifice steering and handling for more obvious things like passenger and cargo space, or even some attempt at off roading. We know US new car buyers don't really care about handling because they fell for FWD in large cars.
  • Slavuta Why is everybody sweating? Like sedans? - go buy one. Better - 2. Let CRV/RAV rust on the dealer lot. I have 3 sedans on the driveway. My neighbor - 2. Neighbors on each of our other side - 8 SUVs.
  • Theflyersfan With sedans, especially, I wonder how many of those sales are to rental fleets. With the exception of the Civic and Accord, there are still rows of sedans mixed in with the RAV4s at every airport rental lot. I doubt the breakdown in sales is publicly published, so who knows... GM isn't out of the sedan business - Cadillac exists and I can't believe I'm typing this but they are actually decent - and I think they are making a huge mistake, especially if there's an extended oil price hike (cough...Iran...cough) and people want smaller and hybrids. But if one is only tied to the quarterly shareholder reports and not trends and the big picture, bad decisions like this get made.
Next