Yes, basically they were in trouble with old-world economics etc. The engineers were no longer in charge and cost-cutting became the norm - and this was in the 90s when things were downhill for ze Germans exchange-rate wise etc as well - Lexus was a serious threat on the luxury end and all the Japanese makes had sports cars well undercutting Porsche on performance/price ratio (not to mention the Corvette finally had its act together, sort of). Toyota came in and helped with process but apparently they didn't really grok that Toyota also manages to control both cost and quality, and it's never been the same since....
Yes, basically they were in trouble with old-world economics etc. The engineers were no longer in charge and cost-cutting became the norm - and this was in the 90s when things were downhill for ze Germans exchange-rate wise etc as well - Lexus was a serious threat on the luxury end and all the Japanese makes had sports cars well undercutting Porsche on performance/price ratio (not to mention the Corvette finally had its act together, sort of). Toyota came in and helped with process but apparently they didn't really grok that Toyota also manages to control both cost and quality, and it's never been the same since....