NieFolgen
01-13-2005, 07:15 PM
I received my Febrauary issue of Automobile magazine the other day and was surprised to see a rather long article on the corporate situation at Audi of America. (Titled "A Long Walk off a Short Cliff" Audi A6 soars, Axel Mees dives on Page 107 by Jamie Kitman)
Axel Mees was attending the launch of the new 2005 A6 where he told journalists, "I would still not buy it [the Volkswagen Phaeton] because it has the VW logo." He also said that he would not buy one because he'd have to go to a VW dealer. He said he knew the Phaeton was set for failure because VW didn't have a reputation for large luxury sedans. Now judging from the picture of him on page 16, Mees looks intelligent enough to keep an opinion like that to himself, but he obviously wasn't. Perhaps he was trying to promote the A8 at the cost of VW, but he surely realizes that VW has, let's just say, very STRONG ties to Audi AG!!! As it turns out, he was fired ten days later. . .
Now that kind of honesty is very commendable, but he was just asking to be let go. At 17 years old, I think I or anyone else on this site could have handled the new A6 convention better than Mees. All we can hope for is that he gathered a nice collection of free Audis before committing career suicide.
P.S. For all you Audi fans: In this same issue, the Audi A8 was named Automobile magazine's best pick for full sized luxury sedan beating the BMW 7 Series, Mercedes S-Class, and shockingly, the VW Phaeton.
Axel Mees was attending the launch of the new 2005 A6 where he told journalists, "I would still not buy it [the Volkswagen Phaeton] because it has the VW logo." He also said that he would not buy one because he'd have to go to a VW dealer. He said he knew the Phaeton was set for failure because VW didn't have a reputation for large luxury sedans. Now judging from the picture of him on page 16, Mees looks intelligent enough to keep an opinion like that to himself, but he obviously wasn't. Perhaps he was trying to promote the A8 at the cost of VW, but he surely realizes that VW has, let's just say, very STRONG ties to Audi AG!!! As it turns out, he was fired ten days later. . .
Now that kind of honesty is very commendable, but he was just asking to be let go. At 17 years old, I think I or anyone else on this site could have handled the new A6 convention better than Mees. All we can hope for is that he gathered a nice collection of free Audis before committing career suicide.
P.S. For all you Audi fans: In this same issue, the Audi A8 was named Automobile magazine's best pick for full sized luxury sedan beating the BMW 7 Series, Mercedes S-Class, and shockingly, the VW Phaeton.