Porsche Design Driver's Selection Quality is Horrendous

How hard is it for a company to disappoint a long-term brand loyalist? Hard. I know, I have been in advertising for over a decade. Your brand loyalists are your strongest asset, but they can also be your strongest adversary.

And Porsche Design/Driver's Selection/Porsche AG whatever you call yourself, you have an adversary in me now.

If Porsche built their cars as shoddily as they do the glasses, watches and toys that bear their name they would not be in business. Period. I thought that their items would be built like their cars in that they were meant to be used. That is what I and so many of you like about Porsche cars, they can be used as intended and not be the worse for it unlike a Lotus or Ferrari. But read below and you will see that is not the case.

Let's recap my passion for Porsche. I have owned three 951s, two 944s, I race a 944 SPEC Car, I have owned two 911SCs, I have owned one 912. I have convinced two of my friends to buy 911s. I have driven across the country for the right car. Oh yeah, I have also written the only Porsche novel. So you could say I am a brand loyalist. Doubt it still, I even defend the Panamera design. I write this blog for no monetary compensation, I hope my readers enjoy the lack of ads. It would be only one click of the button labeled 'monetize' for me to allow them, but I want the site to be unsullied. I do this because I love it.

My opinions and decision to bring this to the world, (OK Porsche world through my blog) is because I do not want anyone else to be disappointed like I am.

WATCHES. I was pretty happy when I bought my 911 To the Core Watch. I even made a post about it. But that was before I even wore it out once. Much to my chagrin, I have worn the watch approximately two dozen times. And each time I do, a new fault seems to appear. Enlarge the pictures and notice the frayed stitching on the band. And the remarkable amount of scratches on the housing. I am not kidding, I can scratch it with my fingernail. Compare this to the Christopher Ward watch I recently won from Octane. I have worn this watch almost daily since then and guess what? It looks as good as the day I pulled it out of the very impressive packaging. The list price on both these watches is around $500. So, apples to apples, Porsche Driver's Selection your watch quality stinks!

TOYS. I have a one year old son and I of course wanted to indoctrinate him into the Porsche brand early. So, I bought him the My First Porsche wooden toy. A friend of ours bought him anAutomoblox. The Porsche was $20, the Automoblox $30. Enlarge the pictures you will the Porsche paint flakes off on a whim. Every edge is scratched remarkably. Guess what, he usually plays with this car in his crib. Compare that to the Automoblox which looks brand new, and this with much abuse from the four year old neighbor who takes it out of my house and plays with it on the driveway. Seriously, I have wooden toys from Target, not cars I admit, that have not flaked off any paint as of yet. Thanks for the junky toy Porsche!

GLASSWARE. This is my favorite. Do you like my set of four, I mean two drink glasses? Pretty nice huh? I have had this set for three years and use it on the rare occasion that I would mix up some Tom Collins. Well, two of the soldiers are down. One cracked on the lip when an ice cube was dropped in. The other broke in half when hand washing. Now, compare this to the complete set of four glasses I was given by my grandparents who purchased them in the 60's. These glasses have been moved countless times, sipped on porches(not in Porsches) and washed in dishwashers yet they all remain intact. The Porsche glasses were $80 for 4, thats $20 a piece. My grandparents were poor so no way did they spend the equivalent funds FORTY YEARS AGO.

NOTE - I have bought all these items new from approved Porsche dealers. Not second hand. Not off a resellers site.

I have gone and sent this posting link to Porsche Driver's Selection, Porsche NA and Porsche Design. I will let you know what I hear back.

But, I cannot recommend any Porsche products besides their cars at this time. It is all too obvious to me that these items and I am sure all the others in their catalog are designed to make money not live up to the Porsche brand promise of excellence. They seem to be designed as gifts to be admired on a shelf, not used and enjoyed. And with the gift giving season just coming on us, that is too bad.