13 Volkswagen Passat Tdi Sel Premium Diesel Navi Heated Seats Keyless Go Warrnty on 2040-cars

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Volkswagen taps Porsche chief for board

Matthias Mueller was promoted to the top position at Porsche in 2010 after a successful stint of developing model lines during his 36 years with the company, mainly at Audi. Having shown the same prowess while overseeing Porsche for the past five years, German outlet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that Mueller will be promoted to the management board of the Volkswagen Group, according to a leaked copy of an agenda for the meeting. It's said that a new spot is being created for him, one that will put him in charge of "overseeing cooperation" among Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and Porsche. While other group executives are known to hold positions on the board and with brands, or across brands, it isn't clear yet whether Mueller will keep his spot at the CEO of Porsche after the promotion. One thing that is certain is the 61-year-old Mueller doesn't see himself in line for Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn's job in 2016, having told FAZ this month, "It's no solution to put a 63-year-old at the head of Volkswagen." News Source: Reuters, Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Porsche Volkswagen Performance volkswagen group matthias mueller promotion

Ferdinand Piech (1937-2019): The man who made VW global

Towering among his peers, a giant of the auto industry died Sunday night in Rosenheim/Upper Bavaria, Germany. Ferdinand Piech, a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who conceived the original Volkswagen in the 1930s, was the most polarizing automotive executive of our times. And one who brought automotive technology further than anyone else. Ferdinand Porsche had a son, Ferdinand (called "Ferry"), and a daughter, Louise, who married the Viennese lawyer Anton Piech. They gave birth to Ferdinand Piech, and his proximity to two Alfa Romeo sports cars — Porsche had done some work for the Italians — and the "Berlin-Rome-Berlin" race car, developed by Porsche himself, gave birth to Piech's interest in cars. After his teachers in Salzburg told his mother he was "too stupid" to attend school there, Piech, who was open about his dyslexia, was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland. He subsequently moved on to Porsche, where he fixed issues with the 904 race car and did major work on the 911. But his greatest project was the Le Mans-winning 917 race car, developed at breathtaking financial cost. It annihilated the competition, but the family had had enough: Amid growing tension among the four cousins working at Porsche and Piech's uncle Ferry, the family decided to pull every family member, except for Ferry, out of their management positions. Piech started his own consultancy business, where he designed the famous five-cylinder diesel for Mercedes-Benz, but quickly moved on to Audi, first as an engineer and then as CEO, where he set out to transform the dull brand into a technology leader. Piech killed the Wankel engine and hammered out a number of ambitious and sophisticated technologies. Among them: The five-cylinder gasoline engine; Quattro all-wheel drive and Audi's fantastic rally successes; and turbocharging, developed with Fritz Indra, whom Piech recruited from Alpina. The Audi 100/200/5000 became the world's fastest production sedan, thanks to their superior aerodynamics. Piech also launched zinc-coated bodies for longevity — and gave diesel technology a decisive boost with the advent of the fast and ultra-efficient TDI engines. Less known: Piech also decided to put larger gas tanks into cars. Customers loved it. Piech's first-generation Audi V8 was met with derision by competitors; it was too obviously based on the 200/5000.

Volkswagen rules out Eos successor

When Volkswagen introduced the Eos back in 2006, hard-top convertibles were all the rage – in North America, in Europe and around the world. But the trend, billed at the time as the best of both worlds, has long since subsided, leading to VW axing the Eos several months ago. And don't count on it getting a successor at some point down the line, either. At the Detroit Auto Show earlier this week, VW R&D chief Heinz-Jakob Neusser told Autocar that the Eos is down for the count. In fact it is "maybe the first model we take out of the market" in a reversal of the momentum that has seen the German automaker expand its lineup incrementally over the past several years – although the Chrysler-built Routan minivan was also canceled around the same time. The place the Eos occupied in VW's North American lineup is largely being taken by the more charismatic Beetle Convertible, and in Europe and other markets by the Golf Cabriolet that's still based on the previous-generation hatchback. The Eos, however, isn't the only hard-top convertible withdrawn from the market in recent years. Tin-top cabrios like the Lexus IS and SC, Cadillac XLR, Chrysler 200, Pontiac G6 and Volvo C70 have all gone the way of the dodo – as have Euro-market coupe-convertibles versions of models like the Ford Focus, Opel Astra, and Peugeot 207. The arrival of the Buick Cascada just goes to show that soft-roofed convertibles have won out, particularly as far as four-seat cabrios are concerned. The one notable exception where folding hard-tops are still gaining traction is among mid-engined exotic supercars like the Ferrari 458 and McLaren 650S, both of which opted for solid folding roofs instead of fabric ones. We've yet to see, however, which approach Lamborghini will take with the Huracan Spyder or Audi will with the next-generation R8, the predecessors of both of which featured fabric roofs.