Day: Feb 4, 2022

A triumph of engineering, or hubris?

Ferdinand Karl Piëch⁽¹⁾ was a man of towering ambition, both personally and for Volkswagen Group, the automaker he led as Chairman of the Executive Board from 1993 to 2002 and Chairman of the Supervisory Board from 2002 to 2015. The grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, Piëch was automotive royalty and began his career at the eponymous sports car company before moving to Audi in 1972⁽²⁾. He ascended to the helm of that company and was credited with turning Audi from a slightly quirky left-field manufacturer into a direct competitor to BMW and Mercedes-Benz, an achievement that deservedly earned him the leadership of the Volkswagen Group.

For many years there had existed an understanding between the German automotive giants that each would occupy its own place in the hierarchy of marques and would not Continue reading “Missing the Marque: Volkswagen Phaeton”