Ferdinand Piech is the Porsche family patriarch [still] pulling the strings at Volkswagen. Wendelin Wiedeking is the Porsche executive who would be king of VW– once Porsche takes control of the mass market motor maker. And Der Spiegel [via Just-auto, sub] is the magazine that says that Piech wants to kick Wiedeking out of the corporate jet, golden parachute and all. Motive: Piech believes that Wiedeking has become too powerful and autonomous. He wants to replace Wendy with Wolfgang Reitzle, the high-living executive who ran BMW well enough– and convinced Ford to lose billions creating its ill-fated Premier Automotive Group (Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Aston Martin and, latterly, Lincoln). Means: Piech's family still controls VW. Opportunity: VW's unions are unhappy at the prospect of surrendering board seats to the numerically inferior Porsche workers. All that said, VW moved to quash the rumor. "The report about a supposed contact between Piech and Reitzle with regard to the replacement of Wiedeking is nonsense and lacks any foundation," a Volkswagen spokesman told Reuters. "Piech has had no contact with Reitzle for years, and has none currently." Ah, but what of intermediaries…?