AUDI / VW DSG TRANNY RECALL!! Please Read!!! 2008-2010

“A small number of these may be affected by a faulty temperature sensor in the DSG transmission,” Volkswagen said Thursday. “Failure of the temperature sensor could result in illuminated warning lamps in the dashboard, and in rare instances the transmission may shift into neutral.”

Volkswagen / Audi is recalling 2009 and 2010 vehicles with the DSG gearbox in the following Models.
VW - Jetta, Jetta SportWagen, GTI, Eos, R32
AUDI - A4, A3, TT,

This effects Vehicles with the DSG option mounted to 2.0T/VR6 engines, once again VW / Audi only started to issue recalls due to consumer complaints much like the 1.8T Timing belt tensioner problem. VW / Audi in some cases are refusing or making it difficult for owners once again to return/repair their DSG gearbox only having it fail again. A similiar issue arose due to Audi / VW fitting the AEB engine code 1.8T with a timing belt tensioner that has a bolt that comes loose around 75- 90,000 miles and bascially throws your timing off causing your pistons the come in contact with your valves and being their are 20 on the 1.8T its not good.

Source:AudiWorld
Source: NYT

Qatar owns 17% of VAG, The death of Porsche.

Porsche SE yesterday agreed to combine with Volkswagen AG after a four-year attempt to take over the larger German rival left Porsche paralyzed with debt. Qatar will own 17 percent of VW with options accumulated from Porsche, making the Gulf kingdom the third-largest investor in Europe’s biggest carmaker.

Qatar used its $63 billion sovereign wealth fund to give the world’s second-richest country behind Liechtenstein investment clout, snapping up stakes in established brands or troubled companies in need of cash. Four years after its inception, the fund has become the biggest shareholder in Barclays Plc, J. Sainsbury Plc and Credit Suisse AG.

“There is an incentive to invest in these known, luxury- sort of top brands,” said Rachel Ziemba, a senior analyst at New York’s RGE Monitor, which researches sovereign wealth funds. “Rather than investing in a whole number of companies that might be harder to keep track of, Qatar’s investment strategy is more akin to a private equity model.”

Hailed by Germany’s Manager Magazin as “The Saviors from the Orient,” Qatar Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani has transformed his country of about 1 million citizens into a center of education and research that include the Arabic television network Al Jazeera and local campuses of six U.S. universities.

Sandhurst Education

Born in 1952 and a graduate of the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst in the U.K., the emir has opened up his country to embrace freedom of press and improved education, and Qatar hosted municipal elections in which women and men participated.

The emir’s wife, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned, heads the Qatar Foundation that fosters education and research. Qatar’s interest in German engineering partly stems from her personal preference for Porsche cars, German newspapers Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung have reported.

The sheikha wants to use Porsche’s engineering expertise to complement a science technology center that she helps oversee as chairman of the Qatar Foundation, she told Germany’s Focus magazine in June. She recently toured European countries including Germany and France to deepen ties. Spokespeople for the emir and the Qatari Investment Fund declined to comment.

German Engineering

Porsche sales in Qatar have more than tripled in three years to more than 600 units in the last 12 months, according to the company. Porsches typically adorn the entrances of luxury hotels or cruise down the six-lane cornice along the crescent- shaped seafront of Doha, the Qatari capital.

“This also reflects our fantastic business development in the whole region over the last couple of years,” Porsche spokesman Michael Baumann said in an e-mail. Porsche Chairman Wolfgang Porsche told workers at a gathering in Stuttgart, Germany today that Porsche will seek to preserve its independence and that Porsche’s “myth will never die.”

Qatar emerged as an investor after the carmaker’s unsuccessful bid for Volkswagen created a rift between CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and Wolfgang Porsche on the one side, and Volkswagen Chairman Ferdinand Piech on the other.

Wiedeking agreed to step down yesterday, paving the way to integrate Porsche’s car manufacturing into Volkswagen alongside brands such as Audi and Bentley. The Porsche SE holding company will remain Volkswagen’s biggest shareholder with about 51 percent of the shares, while the federal state of Lower Saxony will own 20 percent. Michael Macht, Porsche’s head of production, will succeed Wiedeking.

British Protectorate

“Porsche appears to be now firmly stuck in the mud unable to have any control over its destiny,” said Howard Wheeldon, a senior strategist at BGC Partners LP in London.

When Porsche was established in the 1930s, Qatar was an isolated British protectorate, without schools or a fully functioning hospital. The country, once dependent on its pearl industry, began exporting oil after World War II.

By the 1960s, Qatar’s network of paved roads included one to the west coast oil fields and another south to Qatar’s Mesaieed industrial center, said Vahe Halajian, managing director of sign maker Qatar Neon Light Co.

“Anywhere else you wanted to go, you had to have four- wheel drive,” said Halajian, a U.S. citizen who first visited Qatar in 1963 when his father opened the sign business in Doha. “I wouldn’t recommend driving a Porsche on the Qatar roads in the 60s.”

Petroleum Wealth

Gas exports have helped increase Qatar’s gross domestic product to $101 billion, or $101,000 for each of the about 1 million men, women and children on the thumb-shaped peninsula -- among the highest per-capita GDPs in the world.

The Gulf has become a key investor in the German car industry as cash dwindles amid the worst automotive market in decades. Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments PJSC bought 9.1 percent of Daimler AG for 1.95 billion euros in March to become the largest shareholder in the maker of Mercedes-Benz cars. Kuwait is its second-largest owner with 6.9 percent.

“Porsche has acquired the reputation of one of the most renowned and versatile providers of engineering services the world over,” Abdelali Haoudi, vice president of research for the Qatar Foundation, said in a July 21 e-mail. Porsche “is truly a remarkable and an outstanding piece of technology that Qatar as a whole can benefit from.”

‘Significant Role’

The sovereign wealth fund overseen by Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani was created in 2005 to spend Qatar’s surplus generated from petroleum exports. Smaller than neighboring Abu Dhabi’s $700 billion fund or Norway’s $350 billion oil fund, the Qatari fund’s strategy of taking large stakes may help the Gulf state become a more active shareholder.

“I see them as being investors that want to take a significant role in the management of the companies they are taking stakes in,” said Ziemba, the RGE Monitor analyst.

Qatar’s overtures haven’t always been welcome. In September 2007, the emirate bought 9.98 percent of Swedish stock-market operator OMX AB, threatening a bid by Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. and Borse Dubai for the exchange. OMX founder Olof Stenhammar said at the time that he didn’t know what Qatar wanted or understand its strategy. After forcing the other suitors to raise their price, Qatar left the battle and sold its holding.

Today, Qatar can rely on its status as the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas producer to fuel its investment ambitions, as other sovereign wealth funds retrench. Norway’s fund had its worst return in its 18-year history in the third quarter, and Abu Dhabi’s fund also lost in value, Ziemba estimates.

For Qatar, there’s no sign the development will slow, as the kingdom plans to more than double output of liquefied natural gas by the end of 2010.

Qatar has “a favorable cash flow position because of the development of the gas fields,” said Brad Setser, an economist at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, an independent institute that studies geopolitics. “It’s in a position to continue to invest where some other funds are not.”

Source: Bloomberg

Porsche CEO Says Sale Imminent

Porsche SE, the sports-car maker that may merge with Volkswagen AG, is likely to reach an agreement on a stake sale in a few days, Chief Executive Officer Wendelin Wiedeking said in an interview.

“I think all the details will be solved within the next days,” Wiedeking told Bloomberg Television last night when asked whether Porsche will be sold to Volkswagen. A proposal “is already on the table,” he said in Ingolstadt, Germany, where he’s attending the 100th anniversary celebration for Volkswagen’s Audi division.

Porsche is also considering an offer by the Qatar Investment Authority to buy a stake in Porsche’s holding company and options on Volkswagen stock. Stuttgart-based Porsche is considering ways to reduce more than 9 billion euros ($12.7 billion) in debt after amassing a 51 percent stake in VW as well as the options for 20 percent of the Wolfsburg-based carmaker, Europe’s largest.

Porsche’s power struggle with Volkswagen appears to be “over,” Lower Saxony state Prime Minister Christian Wulff told reporters as he arrived at the Audi event. Wulff said he’s “very confident of good results” from meetings that Porsche’s and Volkswagen’s supervisory boards plan on July 23.

The sports-car maker’s top labor leader said that Volkswagen must double its offer for a 49 percent stake in Porsche’s automotive unit.

The “exact correct price” is 7 billion euros to 8 billion euros, Uwe Hueck, head of Porsche’s works council, said in an interview with Germany’s ZDF television July 15. “The 4 billion euros will not even suffice. We also need liquidity.”

‘Against Raiding Coffers’

Hueck, who is Porsche’s deputy chairman, said he’s “against raiding Volkswagen’s coffers” for the sake of erasing debt. He said the Porsche and Piech families, who control all voting rights on Porsche shares, should take part in a 5 billion-euro capital increase and pave the way for Qatar to buy a stake and the VW options.

Wiedeking will remain at the helm “for as long as his contract permits, and that’s until 2012,” Hueck said. German weekly magazine WirtschaftsWoche has reported that the CEO will step down.

Wiedeking transformed the manufacturer of the 911 and the Cayenne, almost bankrupt when he became CEO in 1993, into the automaker with the industry’s highest profit margins. In 2005, he began using cash from the luxury-vehicle business to acquire shares of Volkswagen, a company that builds more cars in a week than Porsche does in a year.

Share Sale

Qatar and the family owners have been asked to participate in a planned 5 billion-euro share sale at Porsche, people familiar with the talks said this week. Qatar may pay 2 billion euros for a stake, one of the people said.

At the same time, Porsche may hand over the options that can be converted into a 20 percent stake in VW to Qatar for free, the people have said. Qatar would then pay about 5 billion euros to banks that sold Porsche the derivatives, they said.

An investment by the Persian Gulf state may give Wiedeking, 56, leverage to negotiate a deal to merge with VW. The families agreed in May with VW to pursue a merger to create a 10-brand behemoth that would include the Audi luxury division of VW as well as its Seat and Skoda mass-market units.

Wulff, the regional government leader, said July 14 that Lower Saxony would welcome Qatar as a “third strong shareholder” in VW. Lower Saxony is Volkswagen’s home state and the carmaker’s second-biggest shareholder, with a 20 percent stake and the power to veto decisions.

Source:Bloomberg

Porsche Chief Obstructs Merger With VW

Chief Executive Officer Wendelin Wiedeking is obstructing a possible merger with Volkswagen AG, VW union chief Bernd Osterloh said, calling on the sports-car maker’s CEO “to end his ego trip.”

“Wiedeking has not yet realized that he’s part of the problem and not part of the solution,” Osterloh said in an interview with Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung. “Together, one could do a whole lot of more things if Wiedeking would end his ego trip at last.” Gunnar Kilian, a spokesman for Volkswagen’s works council, confirmed Osterloh’s remarks by telephone.

Porsche, which started acquiring Volkswagen shares in 2005, has gone from the potential buyer of VW to the one struggling to remain independent in the eight-month-long battle between the German carmakers. Saddled with more than 9 billion euros ($12.6 billion) of debt, Stuttgart-based Porsche is in talks with Qatar about selling a stake as well as some options that can be converted into Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen’s stock.

MORE:>Source:Bloomberg

VAG engines to power possible IRL chassis

As VW said almost 2 years ago they are still looking into entering engines to the IRL along with Audi, Porsche, FIAT, AlfaRomeo, Nissan, which Honda has dominated since Chevrolets departure almost 8 years ago.

Small Snippet: Motorsport.com

1.75 Billion-Euro Porsche Loan Denied by Germany

Germany’s government is unlikely to support Porsche's renewed request for 1.75 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in loans and canceled a review of the application, two people familiar with the situation said.

The Federal Economy Ministry called off a meeting of an eight-person advisory committee scheduled for tomorrow in Berlin to discuss Porsche’s request to state-owned development bank KfW Group, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the session is private. German officials no longer see the need for a review after KfW rejected the loan request last week, the people said.

The decision increases pressure on Porsche to reach an agreement with Qatar on selling a stake in the Stuttgart-based carmaker or some VW stock options it owns to the Persian Gulf state to reduce 9 billion euros in debt. Porsche, which tripled its debt after boosting its stake in VW earlier this year, doesn’t have the money to exercise the options for an additional 20 percent of VW shares.

“We continue to believe that the loan request provides a basis for a decision” by the German government, Frank Scholtys a spokesman for Porsche, said today by telephone. “We’re still in talks with KfW.”

Porsche said on June 22 that it would make a second approach for government loans.

Source:Bloomberg

Audi speeds past rivals in mainland elite fleet deal

While BMW is likely to walk away empty-handed from China's lucrative government car procurement market this year, its German peer Audi has been dominating the market for a long time.

The Procurement Center of the Central People's Government (PCCG) said last Thursday that it has no plan to buy BMW cars this year.

In contrast, government procurement contributes about 20 percent to Audi's total sales in China, according to Zhang Xiaojun, deputy managing director of Audi China's Sales Division.

In 2008, Audi sold 119,598 sedans in China, a 17 percent increase year-on-year. China is now Audi's second biggest market in the world, only behind Germany.

The money Audi has made from Chinese government procurements and its avoidance of major public controversies should be the envy of other German luxury car competitors.

The image of an "official car" has helped Audi beat BMW and Mercedes-Benz, two other German brands which are also eligible for government procurement in China, the only market where Audi leads in luxury sedan sales.

"Government procurement has a direct influence over vehicle consumption of ordinary people. If a customer sees a model that is the same as the governor's, he will probably take it into first consideration. That's a big reason why foreign automakers pay so much attention to government market," said Hu Xiaowu, professor, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University.

Compared to Malaysia, India, Japan and other countries that strictly require officials to use homemade cars, it is common for Chinese officials to favor foreign luxury cars.

"The higher the level of government, the higher the request for luxury. If the price of two cars is the same, officials always prefer the foreign brand," said Chen Min from Geely, a domestic automaker in China. Chen is responsible for government procurement of the company.

In 2005, Audi launched a new, prolonged sedan model A6L in China and it is now the most popular model among Chinese officials.

BMW got enrolled by PCCG only now.

"BMW cars have been involved in several traffic accidents in recent years and its reputation is not good among ordinary Chinese people. Besides, the central government calls for priority to domestic brands in the 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package. The news thus raises public dissatisfaction," said Hu.

Absence of domestic competitors is also a reason for the success of foreign automakers like Audi in Chinese government procurement market.

According to the standard set in 1999, sedans for officials at the minister and province governor level should be within 450,000 yuan with engine size less than 3.0 liter; vice-minister and vice-governor level within 350,000 yuan less than 3.0 liter; officials at other levels within 250,000 yuan less than 2.0 liter.

The price of Audi A6 and A6L sedans is around 300,000 to 700,000 yuan with engine size around 2.0 and 3.0 liter, which mostly covers the price and engine limit, while the highest price of domestic cars like Geely and Chery is about 100,000 yuan with engine size around 1.6 liter, much lower than the lowest limit.

"Our products are not high-end enough, which restricts the level of our target market. Our products can only sell to low level government officials at present," Chen said.

According to Chen, although vehicles of Geely were enrolled by PCCG in 2008, not a single car has been sold to the central government till now.

Source:China Daily

Audi TDI to reduce carbon emissions with The Nature Conservancy

Audi has committed to supporting The Nature Conservancy to help reduce carbon emissions as part of its public awareness campaign for Audi TDI clean diesel engines, which reduce carbon emissions by 20% over gasoline. Audi will donate $1 to The Nature Conservancy’s voluntary carbon offset program for every Facebook user who joins the cause at www.causes.com/natureconservancy, up to $25,000.

The donation will directly benefit The Nature Conservancy voluntary carbon offset program, which features the Tensas River Basin as its first project. The Tensas River Basin Project counterbalances carbon emissions by reforesting private lands to capture and store carbon, as well as to restore critical habitats to native species. Located in the Lower Mississippi Valley, the project will help to buy land, plant trees and to monitor the carbon benefits of these actions. Currently focused in the United States, The Nature Conservancy voluntary carbon offset program may soon expand to more places globally.

"Reducing carbon emissions through protecting and restoring forests plays a critical role in fighting climate change," said Zoe Kant of The Nature Conservancy. "Audi’s contribution will provide necessary support to our voluntary carbon offset program’s reforestation and forest protection projects, but it will also help us to bring the benefits of the project to a new audience of supporters."

The Nature Conservancy’s goal of reducing carbon emissions aligns with broader Audi objectives. The recently introduced Audi TDI clean diesel engine reduces carbon emissions by 20% over gasoline and is 30% more fuel-efficient. The Audi donation to The Nature Conservancy augments a broad public awareness campaign in the U.S. to highlight the ways in which TDI clean diesel can help America reduce carbon emissions and achieve energy independence.

"Our engineers are always innovating to reduce our vehicles’ carbon emissions, and we’ve taken a giant leap forward with the introduction of the Audi Q7 TDI clean diesel this year," said Johan de Nysschen, President, Audi of America. "But our commitment doesn’t stop with our products; we want to promote reduced emissions through support of organizations like The Nature Conservancy, and also to spread the word about the benefits of reduced emissions."


To join the Cause and trigger a $1 donation to The Nature Conservancy, courtesy of Audi, visit www.causes.com/natureconservancy.

Source:Audi Press Release

Audi Promotes Diesel "Right Now" Over Hybrids to Save Oil

Audi began a U.S. ad campaign this week focused on the viability of diesel autos versus gasoline-electric hybrids and those that run on batteries. A diesel Q7 sport-utility vehicle went on sale six weeks ago, and a diesel A3 wagon is due late this year.

“We’re not saying these technologies are nonsense,” Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America Inc., said yesterday in a telephone interview. “For us the appeal of the clean diesel technology is that it is here right now.”

Volkswagen and Audi have emphasized diesel engines, which power 50 percent of European cars, rather than the focus on electricity favored by U.S. and Japanese automakers. President Barack Obama’s administration seems to back electric autos over diesels, said de Nysschen, who is based in Herndon, Virginia.

One ad among Audi’s television and Internet spots shows barrels rolling through streets and onto a supertanker, saying that if a third of Americans drove diesel autos, daily imported- oil use would fall by 1.5 million barrels. Diesel engines are as much as 30 percent more efficient than gasoline models.

Diesel vehicles now account for about 3 percent of sales in the U.S., according to research firm J.D. Power & Associates of Westlake Village, California. Hybrids have a similar market share, J.D. Power estimates. Audi expects diesels to be 15 percent of all U.S. deliveries in 15 years.

Smell, Power

Rising fuel prices in the late 1970s and 1980s spurred automakers including General Motors Corp. and Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen to sell diesels. Buyers didn’t like the cars’ smell, lack of power and difficult cold-weather starts.

Newer diesel engines feature better performance and fewer odors. Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler AG renewed the push for diesel vehicles in the U.S. two years ago with three diesel SUVs from Mercedes-Benz.

In 2008, Volkswagen resumed sales of its Jetta TDI after a one-year hiatus, while Munich-based Bayerische Motoren Werke AG offered BMW 335 sedans and X5 diesel SUVs.

De Nysschen said competition among the companies thwarted efforts to jointly market the advantages of diesels over gasoline-powered autos.

“If the automakers had any sense, we would collaborate and do this together,” de Nysschen said.

U.S. buyers of the diesels offered by all of the German automakers qualify for tax credits of as much as $1,800 for fuel-efficient vehicles.

Audi has outperformed most automakers in the U.S. in 2009, with sales down only 18 percent to 36,820 units through May compared with a 37 percent industrywide decline. The company’s market share rose by a third, to 0.8 percent, according to research firm Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

Source:Bloomberg

End of an Era....Peugeot defeats Audi with 1-2 Finish...

Audi it seems was plagued by Wrecks, Suspension troubles, and Engine faults. Audi has proved to be a Pioneer since 1998 with the announcement of a LMP entry and it has taken 2 Teams to beat them, their own Audi Factory backed Bentley Team & Peugeot. Congratulations to the Total Peugeot Teams for a well deserved Victory.

Truth in 24 Trailer

This is available for D/L from iTunes

Audi Inks deal with Sanyo for lithium-ion battery packs

On the heels of the VW announcement that feasible electric cars are years away, Audi's CEO Rupert Stadler confirms that they too believe EVs are years away from becoming affordable, mainstream vehicles.

Last week, Audi held an annual meeting in Germany. They discussed future product plans and spoke about alternative energy vehicle coming from the company in the next few years. What Audi did confirm is that their first hybrid the Q5 SUV is coming to market, but Stadler only stated to expect it in the "near future".

Audi has been on and off in regards to there hybrid program. The Q5 hybrid was originally slated for production in late 2010, but now that may have changed as Audi will no longer confirm the date.

The company is not counting EVs out. They recently signed a collaboration deal with battery maker Sanyo and are reportedly working towards a possible EV. But with the company stating that EV profitability could be a decade away, we don't expect Audi or VW to bring one to market in the "near future", our best guess is sometime in the "far future".

Source: Audi Press Release

“War has erupted again between Volkswagen and Porsche”

Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest automaker, called off talks with Porsche SE about a combination less than two weeks after the sports-car manufacturer’s controlling families agreed to pursue a merger.

“There is currently no atmosphere for constructive talks,” Christine Ritz, a spokeswoman at Volkswagen, said yesterday in a telephone interview. In a statement, Porsche said that while a meeting scheduled for today had been canceled, negotiations will resume. It didn’t give details.

The Porsche and Piech families, which together control half of Porsche, agreed May 6 to create an “integrated” carmaker that would put Porsche alongside VW brands including Skoda and Audi. Within a week, VW Supervisory Board Chairman Ferdinand Piech said that Stuttgart, Germany-based Porsche must first trim its 9 billion euros ($12 billion) in net debt before a merger, and that Chief Executive Officer Wendelin Wiedeking and Chief Financial Officer Holger Haerter were partly responsible.

“War has erupted again between Volkswagen and Porsche,” said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Dudenhoeffer was head of marketing strategy and research at Porsche from 1987 to 1990. “Piech is behind that.”

Porsche owns about 51 percent of Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen, whose automotive division had 10.7 billion euros in net cash as of March 31. The maker of the 911 sports car had been accumulating Volkswagen shares since 2005 to protect ties to its largest supplier.

First Strike

Porsche Supervisory Board Chairman Wolfgang Porsche was struggling to raise financing to boost the stake to 75 percent and had been at loggerheads with Piech about how to unite the carmakers. The May 6 agreement between the families effectively put on hold Porsche’s plan to further bolster its stake in Volkswagen by acquiring VW shares.

The Porsche family is upset over Piech’s remarks and is concerned that they may hurt the value of the carmaker, Der Spiegel said on its Web site. When asked whether Volkswagen would pay 11 billion euros for Porsche AG, the operating unit of Porsche SE, Piech said that amount is “definitely a few billion too high,” according to the magazine.

Porsche workers will hold their first-ever strike today to protest the merger plan, Focus magazine reported. On May 7, a day after the initial pact, Porsche fell the most in at least 13 years on the Frankfurt exchange.

The stock has fallen 21 percent this year, cutting Porsche’s market value to 7.2 billion euros. Volkswagen has declined 12 percent, valuing the carmaker at 69.6 billion euros.

Blocking Minority

“It’s completely open when talks can continue,” VW’s Ritz said. “We are under no time pressure at all.”

Porsche spokesman Albrecht Bamler said the situation may become clearer tomorrow. He declined to elaborate.

The 72-year-old Piech is a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who founded the sports-car manufacturer and was Volkswagen’s first leader when the carmaker was set up under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime in the 1930s. In addition to leading the supervisory board at Volkswagen, where he was CEO for nine years until becoming chairman in 2002, Piech is a member of Porsche’s board.

Any agreement between Porsche and VW will require approval by Volkswagen’s home state of Lower Saxony, which has a right to veto decisions through its 20 percent stake in VW. The automakers, worker representatives and Lower Saxony officials will decide on the new group’s structure over a four-week period, Porsche SE said May 8.

“Piech wants to form Volkswagen according to his own ideas and he also wants to give Porsche and CEO Wendelin Wiedeking the boot,” Dudenhoeffer said.

Source - Bloomberg

"Porsche is running into financial trouble...."

Porsche Automobil Holding SE (PAH3.XE) said Thursday it has no plans to sell its sportscar operations to Volkswagen AG (VOW.XE), dismissing a media report published earlier Thursday.

"We resolutely dismiss the speculation, which is currently being leaked on purpose," a spokesman for Porsche said.

The Financial Times reported earlier Thursday that Volkswagen could take over Porsche's sports car unit, citing people close to the situation. The move would turn the tables on Porsche, which boosted its Volkswagen stake to a majority holding in January.

At Thursday's shareholder meeting, Volkswagen Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn is facing questions on Porsche's future role at VW after analysts voiced concerns that Porsche is running into financial trouble, squeezed by mounting net debt of EUR9 billion after raising its VW stake to 51%.

The closely-held firm has repeatedly denied that it faces financial difficulties.

Source - WallStreetJournal

Porsche, Piech Families Said to Sell Car Assets to VW

The Porsche and Piech families plan to sell their main car assets to Volkswagen AG under a plan that would tighten Porsche SE’s grip on Europe’s biggest automaker, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The families, which control at least 51 percent of Wolfsburg, Germany-based VW, intend to sell the Austrian Porsche Holding GmbH unit and the Porsche AG automotive division to VW in return for cash and VW shares, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plan is confidential. As part of the transaction, Porsche SE will issue new shares, a portion of which may be sold to external investors, they said. The plan is backed by VW, the people said.

The asset sale would allow Porsche SE to achieve its aim for greater control of VW, Europe’s largest carmaker, while preserving cash and giving it funds to repay debt, three people familiar with the situation said this month. Porsche, based in Stuttgart, Germany, is struggling to raise the financing needed to reach its goal of obtaining 75 percent of VW, they said.

“One driving motivation is that Volkswagen, being the largest volume producer in the European space, has tremendous cost efficiency that could be married to Porsche’s discipline and lean production capacity,” Stephen Pope, chief global strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in London, said by telephone.

Frank Gaube, a spokesman for Porsche, and Michael Brendel, a VW spokesman, declined to comment.

Shares Jump

Porsche jumped as much as 3.99 euros, or 8.1 percent, to 53 euros and traded at 51.88 euros as of 2:01 p.m. in Frankfurt, giving the company a market value of 9.05 billion euros. Volkswagen dropped 8.03 euros, or 3.4 percent, to 230.46 euros.

A transaction would result in the creation of a major automotive holding company spanning cars, trucks and luxury vehicles, the people said earlier this month.

The Porsche and Piech families together control half of Porsche SE. Porsche AG is the operating unit that’s the maker of the 911 sports car and competes with Bayerische Motoren Werke AG. Austrian Porsche Holding is Porsche’s eastern European distribution division.

Porsche has accumulated Volkswagen stock since 2005 to protect ties to its largest supplier. Volkswagen provides Porsche with parts and the companies cooperate in building sport-utility vehicles. Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn said today that he is “confident” that deepening ties with Porsche will let the companies increase profitability and market share.

‘Enormous Potential’

“We’re both capable of forming the center of strength in international carmaking,” Winterkorn said at VW’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hamburg. “This alliance has enormous potential in technological and economic terms.”

Shrinking European and U.S. car markets have prompted Volkswagen to scale back production, reduce employee hours and eliminate its temporary workforce to stem declines in profit. The carmaker, which reported a 74 percent drop in first-quarter net income yesterday, will be profitable this year, Winterkorn said, reiterating an earlier forecast.

Porsche Chief Executive Officer Wendelin Wiedeking has said Volkswagen offers a “gold mine” of saving potential that the carmaker can tap to boost profits and that there will be no “sacred cows” at VW.

Volkswagen and Porsche already work together to build sport-utility vehicles and Porsche has tapped VW to assemble its Panamera four-person sedan. The companies also cooperate on SUVs such as Touareg, Cayenne and Audi’s Q7.

Volkswagen’s ties to Porsche go back to the company’s creation under the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. Ferdinand Porsche, the grandfather of Volkswagen’s current chairman Ferdinand Piech, was the company’s first leader. Ferdinand Piech’s father, Anton Piech, married Porsche’s daughter and became Volkswagen’s director. The extended Porsche- Piech family controls all of the sports-car maker’s voting shares.

Source - Bloomberg

Audi Celebrates Best Month Ever in China

Year-on-year sales growth of seven percent in March
Audi A4L makes a very successful start on the market
Audi will unveil the new generation Audi Q7 at the “Auto Shanghai 2009” show

AUDI AG achieved its best monthly results yet for the Chinese market in March 2009. Including Hong Kong, 11,848 vehicles were sold – a seven-percent increase over March 2008. This record performance is due in particular to the long-wheelbase version of the Audi A4, produced exclusively for the Chinese market and available since January 2009.

“We are pleased with this healthy growth in China, our second home market,” says Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG. “These successful sales figures make us confident about the rest of the year.”

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Volkswagen First-Quarter Sales Fall 11% on U.S., Audi Declines

Shrinking European and U.S. car markets have prompted Volkswagen and other automakers to scale back production and eliminate temporary jobs. With vehicle deliveries projected to drop 10 percent this year from 2008’s record of 6.23 million because of the recession, Volkswagen is bracing for a first- quarter loss.

The sales drop was held back by gains in countries where governments are offering incentives for car purchases, and the introduction of new models will allow Volkswagen to “perform significantly better than the competition in 2009,” Detlef Wittig, the company’s sales chief, said in the statement.

Declines in European car-industry sales, including deliveries by PSA Peugeot Citroen, the region’s second-biggest automaker, and Fiat SpA, Italy’s biggest, slowed to 9 percent in March, the smallest drop in six months, as incentives encouraged trade-ins, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said yesterday.

Volkswagen-brand sales fell to 876,000 cars and SUVs, the company said today. Global deliveries at the Audi luxury division fell 11 percent in March to 90,400 vehicles, the unit said on April 6. Group figures also include the Skoda, Seat, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini car divisions, the commercial- vehicles unit and, as of March, Scania AB trucks.

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Slump Reaches New Rich

The new millionaires of Asia and the Middle East have curbed spending, executives from companies including Rolls and Ferrari said in interviews at the Geneva Motor Show this week, torpedoing a market they’d counted on to spur growth after the banking crisis eroded orders in Europe and the U.S.

Rolls-Royce, the U.K.-based top-end brand of Germany’s BMW, says demand is falling fastest in the once high-growth locations of China and Dubai. Volkswagen AG’s Italian Lamborghini division said yesterday that China has turned into a tough market after previously supporting sales.

Lamborghini’s worldwide deliveries rose 1 percent in 2008 to a record 2,430 vehicles, supported by sales in China and other emerging markets. That won’t be the case this year, Stephan Winkelmann, the division’s chief executive officer, said yesterday in an interview at the Geneva show.

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Not much to report sorry....

With Audi closing plants and Eastern Europes failing Economy, Indias sudden halt to its rising middleclass, things aren't going to look well for the next 1.5 years for the Auto section. VW will of course announce production halts along with BMW, the rest of the VAG will follow. It seems though that Bugatti and Lambo seem to be doing ok (go figure all the hedgers who ran our 401ks off a cliff with derivitaives invested with creditdefault swaps made out ok). But hey it'll all get better by 2010....I hope, there's a Black RS4 somewhere with my name on it....even if it makes me look like a cock.

Nvidia GPU powers Audis new Nav system

Audi's new Q5 sports navigation graphics empowered by chip maker Nvidia, along with a radically updated dashboard interface, which Audi calls the Multimedia Interface, or MMI. Integrated into the new navigation system is an automotive grade Nvidia graphics processing chip, allowing the Q5 to display 3D renderings of urban centers on its navigation system.
Along with outlined buildings, some landmark buildings in major urban areas will be rendered with textures, making them easier for drivers to recognize from screen to real world. Audi is also including 3D topographics maps, so you can get an idea of what the terrain ahead looks like. Traffic conditions will also be displayed on the navigation system. In the Q5, the maps are shown on a seven inch screen with LED backlighting.

Beyond the graphics upgrade, Audi is going to a hard drive-based navigation system, which allows more detailed maps and faster rendering over a DVD-based system. The car's 40 gigabyte hard drive will keep 10 gigabytes reserved for music, so CDs can be ripped to the car, a feature becoming increasingly common with a new generation of automotive infotainment packages.

Audi is also boasting new speech-to-text technology, which will not only let you enter addresses to the navigation system by saying full city and street names, but will also process the phonebook of a paired Bluetooth phone. With this system, you will be able to say the name of anyone in your phonebook, and have the car make the call. Audi has also upgraded the MMI hardware, adding a joystick onto the top of the console.

As if that wasn't enough, the vehicle's in-dash system will also boast support for external USB storage media, built-in Bluetooth, satellite radio, and even a SIM card slot that'll effectively turn it into a quad-band GSM cellphone much like Porsches current system in Europe.

Audi halts production in Hungary (Again)

"In line with the parent company, Audi Hungaria Motor Kft. will suspend operations for a week between February 23 and 28," spokesman Peter Lore said, citing "changed conditions on the market." He added however that no lay-offs were planned at the Hungarian plant, which employs 5,800 people.

Audi constructs the TT and TT Roadster sports cars and A3 convertibles in Hungary. It is also home for Audi's engine production line. Engines produced in Hungary are the 2.0T, 3.2 V6/VR6

Audi said in November it would halt car production for four weeks from mid-December and that engine production would also stop for two to four weeks, depending on the type of the engine.
The plant employs close to 6,000 people in Hungary, they also last year announced cuts in its temporary workforce in the country due to a decline in orders amid the global financial crisis.

Audi Declines by 9.3%

Audi, Volkswagen’s luxury brand, posted a 9.3 percent decline in December sales to 7,712 vehicles, burdened by a 23 percent drop in purchases of the Q7 SUV, the Ingolstadt, Germany-based unit said today. Sales for the year declined 6.1 percent to 93,506 cars and SUVs.

Porsche SE, which is taking control of Volkswagen, said U.S. sales dropped to 2,154 vehicles last month from 2,891 a year earlier. Full-year sales plunged 25 percent in the U.S., the maker of the 911 sports car said.

Source:Bloomberg