BREAKING: Pich Resigns Chairmanship, Winterkorn Continues as CEO at VW

by Mark Stevenson

Published: April 25th, 2015

breaking pich resigns chairmanship winterkorn continues as ceo at vw

While Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn wears bruises from the conflict, Ferdinand Piëch has paid the ultimate of price and resigned his chairmanship with immediate effect.

According to Reuters, the ongoing row between CEO and Chairman at Volkswagen eased this past week, but when the group’s supervisory board put their support behind Winterkorn, the 78-year-old grandson of Ferry Porsche was left “isolated” in a five-to-one vote. Sources told the newswire service Piëch’s decision to not support Winterkorn put his own position in jeopardy. Piëch’s wife, Ursula, also resigned her positions within the company.

Piëch will be replaced by Deputy Chairman Berthold Huber in the interim. A vote on when a new Chairman will be chosen has not been announced.

#FerdinandPiech #MartinWinterkorn #Volkswagen

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Zerofoo on Apr 25, 2015

Until VWs can go 150,000 miles on reasonably priced scheduled maintenance they will never succeed in the US market. Too many other car companies are priced right, have great warranties and nice interiors. VW simply can not play the "German handling" card and expect their customers to foot the bill for their complicated and finicky machines. Build simple, cheap, reliable cars that aren't penalty boxes on wheels and warranty them for 80,000 miles. That's the only way to succeed in the US market.

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- BklynPete on Apr 25, 2015
  
  Yes. VW had its greatest US success building cheap, simple reliable cars. What's more, they WERE penalty boxes on wheels but were fondly embraced. To protect twhat is left of its US turf and significant TN investment, VW should look at where Hyundai/Kia were 15 years ago. Study what they did - starting with that warranty - and apply some of the Audi dealer experience to the not-so-cheap seats.
  
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- Bullnuke on Apr 26, 2015
  
  @BklynPete ^^ This. Back when air-cooled was cool a VW was cheap, reliable and, yes, a penalty box that after-market doo-dads would cure. I bought several new in the '70s and '80s; the problem started as I see it when the change to water-cooling came. My Scirroco and Dasher had silly, niggling problems (speedometer cables, carb adjustment on the Scirroco, cv joint issues) but the air-cooled cars/vans were dead reliable. The exception was the much maligned VW Fox (I purchased an '89 wagon), my last new Volkswagen. Made in Brazil it was cheap, surprisingly reliable for a water-cooled VW and made it to 160k miles with minimal maintenance but pretty bland. This is where they need to go. The failure came when Volkswagen seemed to stop being Volkswagen and chase the other guys thus forgetting what made them successful.
  
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- HerrKaLeun on Apr 26, 2015
  
  @bullnuke how did watercooling impact CV joint reliability? are you one of the "before injection systems all cars were great"guys?
  
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- Bullnuke on Apr 26, 2015
  
  @HerrKaLeun The cv joints on the water-cooled were different from the rear-engined cars - turned left and right in addition to up and down with suspension travel. A bit different in design between the two. The boots would get a very small tear in 'em that wasn't really obvious and loose all the lube. More than once I had "blue-balls" in the joint of the front drivers from this. And fuel injection is a god-send. 32 PICT carbs could drive you nuts - the dual Solex's on the vans were a treat to sync. The idle circuit on one of these carbs was pretty silly.
  
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- Pch101 on Apr 26, 2015
  
  @BklynPete Once Datsun, Toyota and Honda made headway in the US, VW lost it. Not exactly a coincidence.
  
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- HerrKaLeun on Apr 26, 2015
  
  @HerrKaLeun What you are saying moving the engine upfront caused the CV joint problem, but not water-cooling it. I think introducing cheap design and parts along with FWD caused the problems, not the front or water-cooled motor itself. Every year some 50 million cars with water-cooled and front engine are produced with perfectly fine CV joints.
  
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MrCharlieWhyoming on Apr 26, 2015

He's got 80,000 problems but Range Rover ain't one of em.

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Volt 230 on Apr 26, 2015

He was disgusted by the fact that VW's superior German engineering could not copy Hyundai's silent steering column adjustment that he marveled at a few yrs back at some auto show.

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Motormouth on Apr 27, 2015

This could really be a bloody shame for VW - and for the automotive landscape as a whole. Without Piech pushing through the Phaeton and Veyron, they probably wouldn't have happened. Now the bean counters are well and truly in charge, there'll be no more vanity projects and the world will probably be a worse place without them.

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