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Cue lights, cameras to speed, and... action! VW turned on the showbiz for the opening night of the 2008 Geneva Show, channeling the easy confidence and expansive optimism of 50s-era General Motors in a bold display of muscle and mojo.
Several hundred journos were taken out to a specially constructed venue and -- eventually (traffic was bad) -- treated to a full-on VW Group charm offensive that included senior execs performing cameos in a 15 minute Bond movie spoof (way better than former GM honcho Ron Zarella's toe-curlingly lame fireside chats from Detroit a few years back, but don't give up your day jobs yet, guys) and a parade of the new cars and concepts that will be on the show stand tomorrow, including the VW Scirocco coupe, the new Audi A4 Avant, the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, a Caddy-sized Skoda hybrid, and a cool Corolla-sized hatch drawn by former Lamborghini design chief Luc Donckerwolcke that is basically the next generation, made-in-Spain Seat Ibiza.
Just for good measure, VW Group boss Martin Winterkorn reminded everyone VW Group finished 2007 with a record 6.2 million vehicle sales worldwide. Then he casually mentioned VW had just taken a controlling interest in Swedish truckmaker Scania, and that Porsche had announced today it was taking a controlling interest in VW Group. That brings the total number of automotive brands now effectively controlled by VW supervisory board chairman and Porsche scion Ferdinand Piech to 10. And you thought GM founder Billy Durant collected auto companies...
While some of my colleagues paint Piech as a rampaging megalomanic, I like the guy for one simple reason: he doesn't need the job. Bill Ford Jr. doesn't need the job either, but while Bill wouldn't know a great car from hole in the ground, Piech is a driven -- and hard-driving -- engineer with a passion for performance and cutting edge technologies.
Yes, he has his foibles and weaknesses -- what man hasn't -- but he's helped transform Volkswagen, an automaker that once only knew to make variants of the Beetle, into the maker of some of the world's most impressive cars. From fuel-sipping Golf diesels with DSG transmissions, to the astonishing Bugatti Veyron; from the Audi R8, to the Bentley Continental GT, and the Lamborghini Gallardo, they're all Piech creations. He made them happen.
Piech doesn't usually spend a lot of time with journalists these days. But I spotted him holding court with a group of senior German auto writers at the event after-party. Perhaps he just wanted to savor the historic day two companies once run by his grandfather, Ferdinand Porsche, had been finally brought together.
It was left to Piech's hand-picked protégé, Martin Winterkorn, to deliver the message to the rest of us. "We will launch 20 new cars in the next three years," he said. Among them, the sixth generation VW Golf, scheduled to make its public debut this coming fall. "We are going to remain in the fast lane." Now, this is going to be worth watching.
Source: VW's Motorama Moment | MotorTrend
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