No surprise. Audi has done the deed with Ducati. At right is the front page of the Wolfsburg, Germany newspaper. Wolfsburg is
the home town of VW.  |
| picture via Frankfurter Rundschau. |
Some people hate Piech, some fear him, many admire him but he may be the ultimate gear head, one who manages to create whole car lines and buy a whole motorcycle company because he loves motor vehicles and wishes to make it happen.
Piech is probably a modern day Soichiro Honda or Count Agusta. Piech has just been re-elected to the VW Board chairmanship for 5 more years but he'll be 75 years old soon and I wonder how long he can last at the top of his game. And when he's gone, did he plan well enough for the empire he's built to hold together? If he kicks it and things go down hill for the VW Group, I predict Ducati will be the first to be voted off the island. Hopefully by then Ducati will be worth enough to fetch a dear price and continue to thrive.
3 comments:
good stuff here doug, thanks for the info. ive been slow to comment but im following with interest...and im hopeful that this acquisition goes well.
Hallo Douglas,
Herr Piech seems quite autocratic and of course must have some rivalry with the Quandt family who control BMW - he has Bentley, they have Rolls-Royce and so on. There has been some speculation that VW are also involved with the new Horex which has a narrow-angle V6 remarkably similar to a VW engine. My Grandfather had a Horex - a particularly unsuitable name for a motorcycle, it sounds more like the nasty exhibition that always used to take place in the basement of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Ms. Jessop, thank you for your comments. Certainly the Germans do have a penchant for strong leaders. At least with Dr. Piech he is right far more more than he is wrong.
Yes, the Horex is a clumsy name for any machine let alone an interesting motorcycle. Would that companies could be as creative now and give machines lilting monikers such as the late Super Snipe, or of course, the redoubtable Flying Squirrel. Silly Germans.
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