VW has new Chairman (from BMW)

Bernd Pischetsrieder, the man who will replace the almost legendary Ferdinand Piech as chief at Volkswagen, says he will continue to pursue Piech's business strategy. He may not have too much leeway to do anything other, as Piech is still going to sit on the company's supervisory board.

Pischetsrieder has been keen to promote the similarities in the two men's style, saying the only difference is that he has a beard.

There are other similarities, of course. Both are engineers and both have experience in running large auto companies. But it was Pischetsrieder, then at BMW, who took the can for the Rover affair. He's obviously not a man to shirk decisions.

Already he has suggested he will stop some of VW's brands competing against each other. The improving Seat and Skoda brands are already proving more than a match for some of VW's other brands. His plan is to create a separate group for the likes of Seat and Skoda and another one for VW and Audi. With such a set-up, he sees little benefit of the two groups producing cars in the same segment.

He's a friend of Formula 1 boss, Bernie Ecclestone and some commentators would have it that we can expect VW to launch its own F1 team.

But that's the glamour of the job. Pischetsrieder is more likely to be judged on how he handles the bit of trouble VW is currently experiencing with unions and labour rates. Then there are the shareholders, including the government of Lower Saxony. It holds an important 18% stake in VW - sufficient to temper any rushes to the head of Mr Pischetsreider.

Could we see VW developing manufacturing operations abroad, in the US, for example? It has been more successful than most European makers over there.

Strangely, for all its success, the VW share price is a poor affair. Despite good results this year, the share price has slowly moved downwards 15%. How will the financial market react to VW installing as its chief the man who BMW blamed for its inept Rover investment?

The sad thing is that after that 5-1 drubbing, I see little hope of us getting back our Bentley business. On the other hand, I bet Mr Pischetsreider won't be rushing into the take-over market again.