They're facing massive fines still. The world economy is in an ugly place. If I were VAG I'd totally sell MAN, Ducati, Lamborghini and Bentley. Having seen what Ferrari did I'd think about spinning them off and taking them public, and that right quick.
I don't pay much attention to super cars, the cars or the brands, but I was fascinated for a short term when Ferarri went public. I could imagine Lamborghini going public would have similar success though I also think that maybe VW would be smart to shutter Bugatti. Unlike Ferarri and Fiat, many people don't associate Lamborghini with VW and Bugatti even less so. Porsche seems like is just as recognizable as a brand and could easily use the engineers wisely. As for Bentley, maybe some Chinese firm could pick them up. Same for Skoda. Though I don't know how comfortable VW as a company and Germany as a country would be to see their assets and technology going to Chinese firms.
Yeah, but it seems like a weird dichotomy when China is involved. On the one hand, car companies want to tap into the Chinese market as it's gonna be a huge source of untapped income. GM loves the fact that the Chinese buy Buicks in droves and newer companies like Tesla and Uber are testing the waters as well. On the other hand though, the way Chinese manufacturing companies and the Chinese government works rubs people the wrong way sometimes. For example some Chinese manufacturing company takes the specs that Ford gives them to make parts and uses the same specs to make identical off brand parts, from the same factory sometimes, and the government won't step in to protect Ford's IP. That's why I used Bentley and Skoda as an example. I think if VAG sold Audi to a Chinese firm, Germans would flip their shit. Ford selling Volvo to Greeley was met with "mehs" but if GM sold GMC to Greeley during that same time, I bet Rush Limbaugh's rant would use up all of the oxygen in the western hemisphere.