Lovers of metaphors have had a field day since the boardroom coup at Volkswagen earlier this week. The ousting of the carmaker’s chief executive meant victory above all for his predecessor, the engineer of the defenestration: Ferdinand Piëch, VW’s aristocratic chairman.

Mr Piëch has VW in his blood - his grandfather, Ferdinand Porsche, designed the Beetle for Hitler - and his move brings the company firmly under the control of him and Porsche, the luxury carmaker that he controls and that owns 21 per cent of its bigger rival. But it has left many investors and German businessmen pondering important questions: can Mr Piëch ever leave VW alone or is he too obsessed with power? And what do the extraordinary events at VW say more broadly about Germany? A senior banker who is currently negotiating with VW says: ”It is like the Stone Age again.” A VW non-executive director says that running VW is ”like trying to ride a chariot with four or five horses each pulling in a different direction”.