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VW CEO calls Phaeton saloon a mistake
Reuters / July 06, 2004
FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Bernd Pischetsrieder believes the company's previous management made a mistake when it built the luxury Phaeton as a saloon, British monthly CAR reported in its August issue.
"The Phaeton fails to sell because it is not distinctive enough," Pischetsrieder told the magazine in an interview, adding that the next generation might be a mixture between an estate car and a coupe.
"It will definitely not be a normal saloon," the former BMW CEO said, pointing out that engineers had originally conceived it differently. "But the marketing people said the luxury buyers would insist on a saloon. That was a mistake."
Pischetsrieder also blamed marketing for nearly killing off the immensely popular Golf GTI model, which he is reviving.
"It was too slow, too average. It was a good example of marketing getting it wrong. If it hadn't been for those fans of the old Golf GTI, and their clubs and meetings, the icon would have completely disappeared," he said.
This is the second time Pischetsrieder has publicly criticized the car maker's product policy under his predecessor and current VW supervisory board Chairman Ferdinand Piech.
In an interview with the Financial Times in early June, Pischetsrieder said it had been "absolutely the wrong decision" to introduce VW's small Polo model in China.
Pischetsrieder also used the CAR report to take aim at Piech, who brought him to VW and anointed him as his successor.
"Dr. Piech possibly emphasized engineering too much, and his predecessor Dr. Hahn possibly emphasized employment too much," he told CAR. "My goal is very clear. It is to make money."