Toshihiro Suzuki, executive vice president of Suzuki said Volkswagen conducting a review of their troubled marriage is “a step forward.” He quickly added  that Suzuki had not heard any details, says Dow Jones via The Nikkei [sub].

“Our cooperation is based on the premise of being equal partners,” said Suzuki. “We’ll wait to hear from Volkswagen to confirm that the review under way is being carried out with this idea in mind.”

This doesn’t sound like the remarks of a partner who is ready to kiss and make up & out.

A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal had reported from Germany that Volkswagen “is reviewing its plan to forge a small-car alliance with Japanese peer Suzuki Motors Co. highlighting the difficulties that cultural differences can create for cross-border deals.”

Relations between Volkswagen and Suzuki had been strained for a while. It came to blows when Osamo Suzuki himself published a surprisingly frank blog post a month ago, in which he slammed Volkswagen for their „mistaken impression that Suzuki is placed under their umbrella.”

Suzuki said the “initial basic agreement seems to falter.” Then he proceeded to hit Volkswagen in a spot where they are most sensitive: Their pride of engineering.

Said Suzuki:

“We learnt about Volkswagen’s technologies, but we did not find any one of them interesting enough to adopt immediately.”

Aua. Da tut weh!