Who was that under the Toyota Tundra?

Who was that under the Toyota Tundra?

Toyota executives were a bit taken back when Ferdinand Piech, Volkswagen's non-executive chairman and Porsche stakeholder, showed up at Toyota's Detroit auto show exhibit with his entourage of about 20 people, apparently engineers, in tow. The 70ish Piech, an engineer, dropped to the floor and slid deep beneath the Toyota Tundra pick up truck with nothing more than his feet dangling out.
 
Why?
 
Toyota execs witnessing the event said Piech closely examined various attachments, door hinges, tailgate mechanisms and who knows what beneath the truck. The Toyota onlookers theorized maybe Piech was looking for innovative and possibly lower cost bits and pieces for the Porsche Cayenne sport utility, and its cousin, the Volkswagen Touareg. Or, they wondered, could a pickup truck be in Volkswagen's future?
 
Now that Piech has tightened his grip on German car making, having pushed out Bernd Pischetsrieder, who until last spring headed Volkswagen AG, and only this week Wolfgang Bernhard, Pischetsrieder’s comrade formerly of DaimlerChrysler and Chrysler Group, anything is possible.
 
The VW soap opera will be one worth tuning into during 2007. Stay tuned.
 
--Michelle Krebs

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.