Some missteps have been clear. Promotion of insiders, including Mr. Müller, a trusted longtime lieutenant of Mr. Winterkorn, is not a hallmark of a fresh start. Treating customers differently in Europe and the United States is asking for trouble.

Volkswagen has been scrambling to enlist help. The company has brought in three public relations firms based in three different countries — Kekst in the United States, Finsbury in Britain and Hering Schuppener in Germany — to join Edelman, an American firm already on retainer. VW has been paying Richard Gaul, the former communications chief of BMW, 20,000 euros a month, about $22,000, to work as a part-time, 60-hour-a-month consultant, according to a contract reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Bode, however, said Mr. Gaul had been advising the company on other matters.

VW also hired Jones Day, a law firm, to conduct an internal investigation, though the firm’s own website said it helps clients determine “whether and how to voluntarily disclose criminal conduct to the government,” suggesting disclosing criminal conduct is not a foregone conclusion. The top executive at VW’s Porsche division has already said he is hoping to reinstate Wolfgang Hatz, the suspended engineering chief who is seen as a central figure in the scandal.

Mr. Bode himself was part of a broad reshuffle of management from within the company’s ranks. He said VW had revived a “newsroom” for rapid response to inquiries on the scandal from the news media and others, made up of 15 to 20 employees from the communications and sales teams and people with technical expertise. VW had such a newsroom during a prostitution scandal in 2007 and 2008 involving the company and its trade unions.

Mr. Bode accompanied Mr. Müller on his trip to the United States where he made the controversial statement. “It was my failure,” Mr. Bode said. He said the questioning, around the Detroit auto show, was too chaotic, with many reporters asking questions. He said he should have organized more individual interviews to forestall confusion.