The new toyota??

[Dave Eaton]

the porsche/vw saga continues as piech continues to pull the strings...

dave
'03 rs6
'04 allroad tdi

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MUNICH - Volkswagen could have a new long-range plan: Take on Toyota.

“If anyone can challenge Toyota, then it is Volkswagen,” Porsche CEO
Wendelin Wiedeking said at his company’s annual meeting last week. “Porsche
has confidence in Volkswagen’s potential. 
 There have to be some changes.
There will be some changes.”

The Stuttgart sports car maker is becoming a larger force in VW’s decision-
making. Porsche last week received supervisory board approval to boost its
VW shareholding to 29.9 percent from 27.4 percent. Porsche is already VW’s
biggest shareholder.

“We intend to be very, very active members of the supervisory board,”
Wiedeking said. But he added that, “like a chess player,” he wouldn’t
divulge future moves. 

The news capped another two weeks of turmoil at VW. As Audi named Rupert
Stadler, 43, its interim chairman, a series of other developments began to
take shape.

* Porsche executives hinted they want to get at least three or four of the
10 supervisory board seats reserved for shareholders on the board.
Currently, Porsche has two seats.
* The uncertainty over Wolfgang Bernhard’s future as VW brand chairman is
blocking incoming VW group Chairman Martin Winter-korn’s personnel
reshuffle, sources said. They say Bernhard wants a clause in his contract
that prevents him from working for a rival for up to two years to be eased. 
* German media reports suggest Winterkorn wants to restructure the VW group
into premium- and volume-brand divisions. Then brand heads at Audi, Bugatti,
Seat, Skoda, Bentley, Lamborghini and VW also could become sales and
marketing division heads.

And, finally, Ferdinand Piëch, VW’s supervisory board chairman and a large
shareholder in Porsche, might stay on in his position after all.

Piëch was set to step down as chairman in April in a pact made with the
state government of Lower Saxony, VW’s second-largest shareholder.

But asked whether that deal was still valid after Porsche increased its
stake from 20 per cent, Wiedeking said: “The rules of the game have
changed.”