CEO Profile: VW exec brings plans to U.S.; see video Q&A

ByABC News
July 28, 2008, 12:42 AM

HERNDON, Va. -- Stefan Jacoby's suits appeared to be shrinking after he moved to this country from Germany in the fall. He blamed the dry cleaners. But after his wife arrived here in March, she let him in on a secret: He was eating too much.

Steaks, Italian, Asian food the new CEO of Volkswagen of America took it all in, much as he's now immersing himself in American culture.

A trim man with a playful twinkle in his eye, Jacoby is a self-described "non-German German." His aides say that refers to his international upbringing his father was in the German Air Force, and he traveled a lot as a child and to his eager embrace of the USA. He's so quick to laughter and lightheartedness that Jacoby cuts a stark contrast to any stereotypes of "very, very businesslike" German auto officials, says COO Mark Barnes.

To prove that his company's diesels are clean, Jacoby takes a tissue, holds it over the exhaust pipe of a 2009 Jetta TDI while the car is running and displays the still-white tissue to a reporter. Then, with deft comedic timing, he blows his nose with it.

To underscore the appeal of his brand, he notes that after he bought a Beetle in college in 1974, "From that day on, I had much better success with girls."

A whimsical sense of humor

During an eight-hour, 20-mph trip in a driving snowstorm last winter, Jacoby kept Barnes and a PR aide laughing with vows to find Elvis in the storm.

"He is very witty," says Automotive News publisher Keith Crain.

Like his brand, though, Jacoby will need more than personality to succeed in the U.S. market at a grim moment for automakers. Though Volkswagen commands loyalty among its fans in this country, it remains a niche brand, with only 2% of the U.S. market, according to Autodata. That puts it well behind U.S. brands and all major Japanese brands and is only half the share of of South Korea's Hyundai.

With new car sales down more than 10% for the first six months of the year and consumers increasingly focused on fuel economy, price and quality, VW's often-higher prices, and lingering doubts about reliability, can work against it. It's responding by rushing more diesel models, including the Jetta and a new Touareg, to market for consumers worried about gas prices.