Six years after the German takeover of that bastion of British motoring, Rolls-Royce, Karl-Heinz Kalbfell has flown in from Munich to take charge.
It comes after Tony Gott resigned unexpectedly as chairman and chief executive of the BMW-owned car firm last week, ending a long and sometimes turbulent 20-year career with both Rolls-Royce and Bentley.
Colleagues said they were unaware of any tensions within senior management, and insisted that the business plan for Rolls-Royce was on course.
However, some executives in Munich suggest there may have been an increasingly poor personal rapport between Mr Gott and Helmut Panke, BMW's chairman.
Mr Kalbfell (54) already knows Rolls-Royce well. In 1998, shortly after BMW took control, he was appointed project director charged with overseeing design and development of the new Rolls-Royce Phantom.
The company built 300 in 2003 but is expected to produce 750 in 2004 and 850 in 2005.