Unlike Renault-Nissan Chief Carlos Ghosn or Chrysler-Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne, Winterkorn is a classic car guy.
Winterkorn may or may not have had in mind what VW will do in the Super Bowl.
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As with the trucks, Winterkorn is to marry surging revenues with waste reduction.
For Martin Winterkorn, a talented goalkeeper who had professional aspirations and now runs Volkswagen AG, the porous performance was hard to witness.
VW's size means it seldom needs partnerships with rivals, says Mr Winterkorn.
ECONOMIST: Germany��s biggest carmaker is leaving rivals in the dust
Rivals envy the stability this brings, especially just now, says Mr Winterkorn.
Winterkorn worked in a variety of quality and production roles at VW and Audi, earning a reputation as a boss who obsesses about the tiniest product details.
Shortly before Lamborghini was set to introduce the new Aventador super-luxury sports car in 2011, for instance, Winterkorn took the 690-horsepower behemoth for a final test drive.
Winterkorn bought the remainder from Investor AB in March 2008.
When it was finally unveiled at a press event Winterkorn was furious after discovering a tiny paint flaw on one of the media test-drive cars, according to one colleague.
The rapid expansion has raised concerns about whether Winterkorn and his boss, Supervisory Board Chairman Ferdinand Piech, have overindulged, amassing an industrial empire that is too complex to manage efficiently, especially in a fragile economy.
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At the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2011 Winterkorn was caught on video poring over a new Hyundai model, griping to one of his engineers that the Koreans managed to cheaply design a steering column adjuster that made little noise, yet VW could not.
Mr Winterkorn the get-things-done guy.
ECONOMIST: Germany��s biggest carmaker is leaving rivals in the dust
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