# Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique



## [email protected] (Apr 9, 2004)

Audi of America announced today that its head of North American operations Axel Mees has left the company. Mees was hired for his role as Vice President in charge of Audi of America and Canada less than one year ago in March of 2004. 
Automotive News is reporting that a source within Volkswage has confirmed that Mees was axed due to comments he made about the Volkswagen Phaeton luxury car and former Volkswagen AG Chairman Ferdinand Piech.
The comments themselves were made during a press introduction of the all-new Audi A6 in San Francisco, California last week. Ward’s Automotive first reported Mees’ derogatory comments:
"I think Volkswagen underestimated the weakness of their brand in the luxury segment. I think they realized the Phaeton... was a first step too fast into a direction they wanted to go.”
According to Wards, Mees also said, "VW overall isn't ready to offer successfully cars in that price range, whatever they do. It can be the best car (but) I still will not buy it because it has a VW logo." 
The article further suggested that it was Mees contention that Volkswagen leadership, mainly Ferdinand Piech, was too focused on the engineering side of the business. "He (Piech) wanted to prove he could build a good car. He didn't look at the marketing aspect, the brand aspect," Mees is reported to have said.
These comments, along with others reported by Wards are likely to have played at least a part in Mees departure, though sources at Audi Fourtitude has spoken to have said that this was not the only reason.
For now, Audi’s remaining existing management team will continue to lead the brand’s North American team, with Reinhard Fischer acting as its interim leader. Audi of America expects to find a permanent replacement very soon.


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## PerL (Jan 9, 2001)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique ([email protected])*

You have got to be kidding! This means that the Car Lounge was right!


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## DGMVW (Oct 1, 2001)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique ([email protected])*

What an idiot...when you a have a job like that, you have got to work hard and always say the right things. Don't piss off Momma VW.


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## 90quattrocoupe (Feb 7, 2002)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (DGMVW)*


_Quote, originally posted by *DGMVW* »_What an idiot...when you a have a job like that, you have got to work hard and always say the right things. Don't piss off Momma VW.

Yea, you can sell your soul cheap. A lot of people do these days. The almighty buck.
Greg


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## rqiu (Sep 20, 2004)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (DGMVW)*


_Quote, originally posted by *DGMVW* »_What an idiot...when you a have a job like that, you have got to work hard and always say the right things. Don't piss off Momma VW.

What he said was right. VW is not good enough for the high end market.


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## CheddaJetta (Jan 14, 2004)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (rqiu)*


_Quote, originally posted by *rqiu* »_
What he said was right. VW is not good enough for the high end market. 

The accuracy of his statements isn't what caused his dismissal. When you're in that type of position, you shouldn't make degrading remarks about your company publicly. That type of talk belongs in the board room. 
I'd have fired him too if he did that to my company.


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## blkaudicq (Oct 22, 2001)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (CheddaJetta)*

yeah, he probably shouldn't have made the comment at that time, but at least we know now that _somebody_ up there knows or knew what is going on. I've read that VW knows that the Phaeton will not make money right out, but i think that with that added to the W8 passat and the high-end Toureg, they would find out that maybe they are not made for highend autos, at least not here. Or if they do, they still need to offer low-end models. My first car was a '88 VW fox, that was about as low-end as you could get, no power anything. Many people (inlcuding me) believe that VW needs to go back to making nice, simple, fun to drive cars. There are many people out there that don't want a $28k GTI with every option imaginable. They need to go back to what they are good at, making nice, fun to drive cars.


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## rqiu (Sep 20, 2004)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (blkaudicq)*


_Quote, originally posted by *blkaudicq* »_yeah, he probably shouldn't have made the comment at that time, but at least we know now that _somebody_ up there knows or knew what is going on. I've read that VW knows that the Phaeton will not make money right out, but i think that with that added to the W8 passat and the high-end Toureg, they would find out that maybe they are not made for highend autos, at least not here. Or if they do, they still need to offer low-end models. My first car was a '88 VW fox, that was about as low-end as you could get, no power anything. Many people (inlcuding me) believe that VW needs to go back to making nice, simple, fun to drive cars. There are many people out there that don't want a $28k GTI with every option imaginable. They need to go back to what they are good at, making nice, fun to drive cars.

Agreed!


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## rqiu (Sep 20, 2004)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (CheddaJetta)*


_Quote, originally posted by *CheddaJetta* »_The accuracy of his statements isn't what caused his dismissal. When you're in that type of position, you shouldn't make degrading remarks about your company publicly. That type of talk belongs in the board room. 
I'd have fired him too if he did that to my company.

That is true. But VW should realize that they should not be wasting their time on the high-end market. Let Audi do it!


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## A4Jetta (Feb 16, 1999)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique ([email protected])*

It doesn't come as a surprise as he comments have made such controversies among the auto industry.


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## CheddaJetta (Jan 14, 2004)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (rqiu)*


_Quote, originally posted by *rqiu* »_
But VW should realize that they should not be wasting their time on the high-end market. Let Audi do it!

Well that i agree with. We don't need more luxo brands, we need better cheap vehicles. I don't understand why they want to enter the "upscale brand" market when they'd be taking business away from Audi. Just doesn't seem like a wise business model.


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## A4Jetta (Feb 16, 1999)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (CheddaJetta)*

Even if the price bracket of Audi and VW are similar these days, the demographics and psychgraphics are dissimilar between these 2 brands. IIRC, there were only 2% of B5 Passat buyers cross shopped A4. I personally think its a bold move for VW to go upmarket since all the "humble" brands like Honda, Toyota and Nissan all got "upmarket" Acura, Lexus and Infiniti.


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## AudiVwMeister (Oct 22, 2002)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (A4Jetta)*

its not the passat buyer that's cross shopping the a4, its the 3 series or c class buyer that writes off the audi. i strongly feel audi needs to break from having vw piggie back off them. i think vw needs to bring it back to the roots a bit and bring out some personable cars that people fall in love with, that's what they are good at (or were). i can see where an exec. that has put in over 20 years at bmw can get frustrated with all the vw/audi red tape.


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## A4Jetta (Feb 16, 1999)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (AudiVwMeister)*

Audi's model range is a desirable one compares to Mercedes and BMW at this point. Compares to Mercedes, Audi has better use of materials and build quality. As for BMW, Audi has far superior styling exercise with less complicated electronic system (MMI vs i-Drive). I just feel Audi needs more aggressive marketing campaign to push those cars out the showroom instead of being too "different" from Mercedes and BMW.


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## bobm (Mar 2, 2004)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (A4Jetta)*

http://quote.bloomberg.com/app...X6IfU


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## King Harvest (Nov 23, 2004)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique ([email protected])*

Sometimes, German executives still have trouble understanding American culture. As a former automotive reporter, I thought Axel Mees's frank remarks about the Phaeton -- a huge international failure -- were honest and refreshing. Journalists love those few p.r. hacks who actually speak the truth. His reward for doing so (and defending his brand at the same time) is to be fired. The arrogance of German automotive czars never ceases to amaze me. Audi has a long history of it, at least as regards the United States, and its corporate culture never seems to change. It took a decade to climb out of the sudden-acceleration scare not because of the cars, but because of the patronizing attitude of VW/Audi to American owners. And Daimler-Benz? Jurgen Schremp's boasting about his bald-faced lies to American shareholders of a publicly traded company in his acquisition of Chrysler Corporation continues to sink the parent firm.


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## AhnucOnun (Jan 28, 2004)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (King Harvest)*

Three things about Axel Mees lead me to think: Good Riddance!
Although I sympathize with Axel Mees comments about the Phaeton and Ferdinand Piech, he should not have said so publicly. Just because you are thinking it doesn't mean you have to say it. Why would you criticize your company and especially a patriarch like Ferdinand Piech? I'll tell you why he did.
Axel Mees was brought over by Pieschetsrieder from BMW. The man worked at BMW for something like 26 years. He was a BMW snob and remains a BMW snob. He was not a good fit for Audi, IMHO, and I think he thought we is "above" the brand. I had a chance to meet him during our dealerships' Grand Re-Opening Ceremony back in July. The impression I got, and I am not the only one, was not very favourable. For one thing, he comes across as old-school, stiff, stale, and not very enthusiastic. During his insincere, fluff-filled speech to us, he flubbed and referred to "BMW" instead of Audi "as having strong values." Everyone had a laugh and the owner of our dealership even made a light-hearted but sarcastic remark immediately following his speech. 
Third, since Axel Mees came on board with Audi, my Audi colleagues have had nothing but grief from Audi corporate. Now, I'm not blaming Mees directly, but usually it is the top dog that is responsible. It started when Audi, for the '05 model year line-up, increased the MSRP by a small margin (nothing unusual) but jacked-up the Dealer Invoice price by a fair margin, slashing the dealer mark-up dramatically. Then Audi Finance reduced residual values across the board while BMW cranked theirs up. On top of that interest rates remained quite high - while everyone else was slashing theirs to clear the '04 model year cars. This resulted in pathetically slow sales. Then, the new '05 A6 was finally released in limited numbers to dealerships - without rates and residuals from Audi Finance. We had customers who ordered the new A6, and who waited patiently for the arrival of their cars, but they had to wait THREE WEEKS after the initail shipement for Audi Finance to release rates and residuals. By god, all the wanted to know was what they would be paying to lease their '05 A6. When Audi Finance finally released the info, the residuals were pathetically low and we had to do some big-time damage control to avoid losing some deals! On top of that, Audi held back the second shipment of new A6's with the excuse that now every person in the Audi dealership had to be certified on the the revised MMI system in the A6 - this despite Audi bringing a European market car and a training team to the dealership and giving everyone a crash course on the car! This further aggravated our customers who were by now no longer patiently waiting.
So Mr. Mess, I mean Mees... Buh-bye!


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## A4Jetta (Feb 16, 1999)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (AhnucOnun)*

No wonder you called him Mess. Check out his comment on the grille similarity between GTI and A6.







http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=101288


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## StormChaser (Jan 3, 2000)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (A4Jetta)*

But they do look alike. Meek prob. should not have said it, but everyone is thinking what he said. His only mistake was saying it. As for Audis use of better material & build quality...that cvertainly doesn't seem to show up in reliability. I cannot remember a time when Audi was considered reliable...what a shame as I really love them, but from what has been happening with reliability, looks like my CGT will be my last Audi for a Long Time...Lexus/Infinity here I come...fourtunately my CGT is a baby at only 140,000 miles. She should be fine for at least another 100,000 before needing a engine rebuild...


_Modified by duandcc at 9:14 PM 11/23/2004_


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## AhnucOnun (Jan 28, 2004)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (A4Jetta)*

Holy Cow! Do people need to see their eye care professionals?
The only thing that makes the grilles the same is that they incorporate the upper and centre lower grille. That's ALL!
They don't have the same shape or finish - yes the new Jetta also has chrome, but it's applied more liberally and with more lustre.
Add different shaped headlights, different horizontal "bumper and license plate" bar, and differently shaped outside lower grilles and I just don't see the problem! 
Maybe I'm the one who needs glasses...


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## AhnucOnun (Jan 28, 2004)

*Re: Axel Mees Departs Audi of America Reportedly Due to Public Phaeton Critique (AhnucOnun)*

Next thing you know, people are going to say that Audi copied the Chrysler 300M...


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