Audi Fires Head Of Research And Development - Is This A Signal Of Major Changes?

This article by Automobile Magazine predicted Durheimer's firing:

http://m.automobilemag.com/features/news/1307_deep_dive_the_apporaching_storm_at_audi/

Just finished reading the Automobile article, The house of Audi sound like a mess.

No big deal, really. Wolfgang Durheimer has been in the job for only ten months.

It's nothing like BMW firing their CEO in the 1990s.

Audi is no brand in turmoil. Audi's success today has little to do with Durheimer (he's been in the board for too short a time) but rather due to the top management who have been in place for 10 years. It's clear that Audi's long-time top management remains firmly in control -- asserting their control to maintain consistency and focus, just like they've always done. Prof Rupert Stadler has been Chairman of Audi's Board of Management since January 2007 (i..e, he is 'President and CEO' of Audi's senior management team -- and he has been a board mmeber since 2003). Before Stadler, Prof Martin Winterkorn had been Chairman of Audi's Board of Management from 2002 to 2007 (he was also head of Technical Development at that time, which was Durheimer's job the last ten months). Since 2007, Winterkorn has been Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen as well as Chairman of the Board of Management of Porsche Automobil Holding.

Durheimer (head, technical Developmen) and and Luca de Meo (head, sales and marketing) with the direction of Stadler and Winterkorn, were appointed members of the Audi Board of Management only ten months ago, both reporting to Chairman Stadler. Being new board members, they lack political power. If Durheimer acts like a maverick wanting to do his own thing and is not aligned the leadership of Stadler and Winterkorn as well as the overall management team... well, he will be fired in any large company.

The real reasons for Durheimer's firing are probably only known to top management at Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche.

You can't trust what you read in car news articles because these are small time journalists who rely on gossip as they don't have access to top management.

For example, take the Automobile Mag article written by Georg Karcher, who is a big auto writer in Europe. But Karcher can't even get basic facts right. Karcher wrote: "Dürheimer joined Audi last year, after serving first as Bentley and Bugatti CEO, then as a board member of Porsche." That's wrong. Dürheimer was in the Porsche job first, and only after the Volkswagen AG began taking over the Porsche automotive company did Durheimer get the Bentley and Bugatti jobs: "In 2001, (Durheimer) was appointed Board Member for Research and Development at Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG. In 2011, he became CEO of Bentley Motors as well as President and CEO of Bugatti S.A.S. As General Representative of Volkswagen AG, he was also responsible for the motorsport strategy pursued by the Volkswagen Group and its brands. On September 1, 2012 Dürheimer became Member of the Board of Management for Technical Development at AUDI AG."

If Karcher can't get such simple facts right, can we trust anything else he says?

My, what beady little eyes he has. He possibly was caught spying on BMW.

What a WASTE of a story. This means absolutely nothing. How many times have we read where one car company fires someone only to be picked up by another car company. This is about as interesting news as buying gas at a self service station. Anyone remember Lee Iacocca? He worked for Ford before going to Chrysler and turned them around. I still remember his commerical, "We'll give you $50 if you don't like our product after a test drive and buy another competitor's vehicle". The "K" car.

3-2-1 KIA just signed him for $5 million a year and a harem to recycle all the crap Audi already has out (buth with new colors) so they can claim to be tech geniuses like Samsung.

K1 k-tron anybody? I hear its being offered on a 0%, 20 year lease with payments of only $0.81 a week.

Stupid me, people will know its a KIA if they cal it that. Let me introduce to you the a1 E-tron.