Jürgen Schrempp, the architect of Daimler-Benz's merger with Chrysler in the 1990s, has finally parted company with the group, leaving the way clear for Dieter Zetsche to reorganise
Earlier this year, a fault in the navigation system of one of DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes caused Jürgen Schrempp, the group's chairman, to get lost on the streets of Stuttgart. Three months on, problems at the luxury car brand have driven Mr Schrempp out of the role he has held since 1995.
After years of evading responsibility for a string of management misjudgements, from the souring of relations between Daimler's Asian partnerships with Mitsubishi and Hyundai, to record losses at Mercedes, last Wednesday Mr Schrempp bowed to shareholder pressure. He will leave the group at the end of this year - three years before the end of his contract.
During his time as head of the car-maker, Mr Schrempp became well-known for his preachings on the importance of shareholder value. But since he led the acquisition of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz seven years ago, a move he hoped would make real his grand vision of a truly global car-maker, the group's share price has almost halved. From a post-merger peak in April 1999 of €94 billion, the group's market value has dwindled to €35 billion - less than Daimler-Benz alone before the deal.
Perhaps Mr Schrempp's most calamitous episode was when he suggested that the "merger of equals" - the 1998 marriage of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corporation - had given way to a new structure in which Chrysler was treated as a division rather than a merger partner.
The admission caused an outcry in the US and prompted an $8 billion (about €6.53 billion) lawsuit from Kirk Kerkorian, the casino entrepreneur and Chrysler's largest shareholder.
Mr Schrempp has characteristically met criticism from shareholders with temper flares and a somewhat arrogant defence. When quizzed over the disappointing performance of the Smart brand in April this year, he shrugged off the question in an outburst of anger, saying it represented only a small proportion of the group's total revenues.
But the 60-year old fitness fanatic, who joined the group as a trainee mechanic in 1961, has fallen at the hurdle posed by Mercedes' fall from grace. Once the darling of the motor industry, the brand has been beset with quality defects that have prompted a record recall of faulty vehicles and cost the company hundreds of millions of euro.
Daimler is also fighting to restore confidence following the luxury brand's disastrous foray into Smart small cars, which have never made a profit and forced an €800 million restructuring charge in the first quarter of this year.
Schrempp passes the baton to Dieter Zetsche, who was installed as head of the Chrysler group in November 2000. Turkish-born Mr Zetsche, who joined the research department of Daimler-Benz in 1976 and took a seat on the board of DaimlerChrysler in 1998, is credited with returning the division to profitability.