#Fahrvergnügen, meet #BlueBell

With Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn officially stepping down, I think there's parallels between his company and the American ice cream maker.

Per the link, and per my blogging about Blue Bell, as here, too rapid of expansion is what likely led to corner-cutting at both places.

(More here on Volkswagen's being driven by Ed Abbey's "theology of the cancer cell," growth for growth's sake.)

And, it should be a warning to we the consumer not to buy stuff from such companies.

There's another parallel of sorts. Volkswagen is public, Blue Bell private. But, both Winterkorn and Kevin Kruse seem to be very sharp at board politics. Per the behavioral economics tag, boardrooms, it would seem, aren't very rational.

And, some slogans?

"Listeria: It puts the 'l' in 'Blue Bell.'"

"Fahrvergnügen: It's German for 'cheating pleasure.'"

That's especially true now that we learn, as I heard on the radio this morning, that renowned German auto parts maker Bosch reportedly warned VW back in 2007 not to try cheating EPA tests. Shades of Blue Bell, indeed.

And, yes, just like Blue Bell listeria helped kill a few people, so did VW smog.

Finally, a diesel hybrid!

XL 1 looking bad-assed. Photo via Daily Mail.

And, one that looks very cool to boot.

Volkswagen has just thrown the gauntlet down in Toyota's face with the XL 1. It claims this baby can get up to 313 miles per gallon, and it will have production models by the end of this year.

A few more specs on this baby:

It can also cover a distance of up to 31 miles (50km) in all-electric mode where it emits zero carbon dioxide.

Overall emissions are a mere 21g/km - less than a quarter of the amount produced by the ultra-green Toyota Prius.

So, there you go!

Now, it's just producing 50 production models for now, and prices have not yet been released. But, still, this is something whose time has come, at least for Europe, with fuel prices around $10 per gallon. It's also given Toyota a design challenge.

Sure, 50 cars isn't quite mass-market, but Japan doesn't do diesels. Until Ford changes its stubborn refusal to bring a prototype diesel-hybrid to market (and yes, it has one) then, we have to rely on VW or another Euro company to do the lifting. 

Auto industry crisis going global

German carmakers estimate they could lay off 100,000 employees. Sales are sagging, and the credit crunch is as bad in western Europe as here, so German makers can’t borrow to retool factories.

And, like American companies, the Germans fueled much of their sales growth in the first half of the decade by offering easy credit to customers. And, like here, they can’t do that now either.

Opel (German’s GM subsidiary), VW, Daimler and BMW are all seeking guaranteed loans from Berlin.

Read the full story for all the woes of the Euro auto industry.