VW's announced a new North American factory and whittled down the short list of locations in Alabama, Tennessee and (yeah right) Michigan. Volkswagen has only one problem with its U.S. market strategy, which calls for sales of 1m units per year: "we need models for the US market." Yes there is that. In an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, VW works council boss Bernd Osterloh says that picking the right models for the American market is a far more important (undecided?) issue than the American factory's location (yes way). That said, Osterloh claims the decision is not urgent; VW's Mexican facilities can begin production of the new, as-yet-undecided American models before the new factory is online. Osterloh calls the U.S. market a herausforderung (loosely translated as a pain in the ass) for the entire industry. Apparently VW doesn't even have a coherent diesel strategy for their deeply respected American consumers. For a German firm, that's saying a lot. Machts schnell burschen!User comment: By: driving courseIf US legislation isn't making the US a pain for foreign makers to manufacture for, Detroit would be wasting a lot of money on lobbying. Now, whether this is good for US consumers is another matter completely.
User comment: By: EngineerBased on what I can recall of my high school German, several decades later, I believe when giving a command, the correct form of the verb would end with -e, as in: Mache schnell burschen!
User comment: By: GeotpfMany parts of California are very polluted. Diesels pollute a lot. Therefore, the state of California has some very good reasons to be extra picky about allowing the sales of diesel cars here.
User comment: By: Paul NiedermeyerConsumer Reports "Recommends" the Rabbit, and says its reliability has been better than average. Are things improving on that fron? Chuckgoolsbee: The global shortage of diesel is even causing price spikes in Europe. The price differential her in the US almost negates the improved fuel economy.
User comment: By: GottleibVW seems to suffer from the "Build it and they will come," philosophy that served them so well from 1957-1977 when they had the original beetle and its variants. Since then they have run hot and cold. Remember their disaster with the Rabbit built stateside in the 1970's?
User comment: By: whatdoiknow1One of VW biggest problems at least around the NYC metro area is that VW dealerships look like crappy "hole-in-the-wall" used car shops. They have almost zero presence and do not look like real auto dealers. Not very confidence inspiring for the potential customer. The dealer closest to me looks like something out of the 1950s when imported cars were a novelity, it is tiny white painted storefront wedged in between two local mechanic shops. The joke is that VW expects to sell cars that sell at a big premium over the established competition from little "dives" that garner little to no respect for the brand. Today VW reminds me of Alfa-Romeo or Pugeout in the USA back in the 1980s when they were dying.
User comment: By: brettcTrue. There are a lot of OEM VW parts vendors online that sell parts at a much lower price that what you'd pay at the stealer. I once paid $46 for a fuel filter at the dealer because I needed one right now. I now stock up ahead of time. I can buy 2 fuel filters for $40 online, and that's just the beginning of the price differences. It seems that most customers that buy VWs buy based on safety. The guy I was talking to about his Passat wagon said he bought it because of the safety features and that he and his wife liked the looks of the car. I have a friend that I tried pushing toward a TDI to for a while because he has a bit of a commute. But he's not mechanically inclined, so I decided to stop trying. He wants to buy a low end Lexus, so I think that would be a better fit for him. He's been driving a Corolla for about 8 years, so he knows what to expect with Toyota. If he bought a VW and was at the dealer constantly, I'd feel really bad. "Friends don't let non-mechanically inclined friends buy VW group products."
User comment: By: brettcVW did stop selling diesels in the US for a while in the 90s. From 1992 to 1997, no VW diesels were sold new in the US. However, during that period, VW did offer the 1.9 TD in Canada in the A3 Golf, B3 Passat, and A3 Jetta. VW is completely clueless about marketing in the US. I've seen the occasional TDI ad on TV in Canada, but I don't think I've ever seen one in the US. The funny thing is there's really no reason to advertise TDIs in Canada. With 50 state legal engines becoming available, I'll be annoyed if they don't advertise the new generation of TDIs in the US. Instead they'll probably just advertise the gas 2.5 and the 2.0 FSI models.
User comment: By: ash78The real "reliability" problem VW has to do with the fact that, IMHO, the dealers are crazy, the indy mechanics are too far between, and the customers are relatively uneducated. Cases in point on my 98 Passat: Control arms (which suck on most Audis and Passats from 98-02): $2,000+ at the dealer, or $500 and an afternoon of DIY for a low/mid-skilled shadetree mechanic. ABS module (another common failure): Around $1,500 for a new one at the dealership...or $200 for a remanufactured one with a 5-year warranty. And 20 minutes of DIY for both removal and reinstallation. But 95% of their customers never know of these alternative...so I can't blame them for running from the brand.
User comment: By: Michael KareshI've been expecting them to make a play for Chrysler ever since I stood next to Piech and Winterkorn as the oogled a 2009 Ram at NAIAS. Might just be waiting for Cerberus to clean it up first. Get a bidding war going with Ghosn. VWs and Audis haven't been doing badly in TrueDelta's Vehicle Reliability Survey--while they're under warranty. Maybe their reliability really has improved. Maybe they just need another year or two before they turn south. Time will tell. http://www.truedelta.com/latest_results.php
User comment: By: brettcPlus VW dealers typically employ mechanics that are parts replacers, which means big bills for jobs that should be relatively simple and affordable. That in turn equates to very few repeat buyers. My Jetta has only been to the dealer once in the 5 years I've had it. As a result the car runs well and I still have money. I was talking to a guy with a 2004 Passat wagon recently, and he was complaining about how it was a huge bill every time he took it to the stealer. He's had issues with coil packs with his 1.8T (but who hasn't?). I gave him the name of an independent shop I use. He said he doesn't think he'd buy another VW after all the money he's spent on his Passat so far. I told him I didn't blame him. Until VW can build cars that go to the dealer as often as a Toyota or Honda, they're going to continue to hate the US market. As Toyota has shown though, there's money to be made if you can get things right!
User comment: By: chuckgoolsbeeYou really can't blame VW for their lack of a coherent Diesel strategy. NOBODY has one because the tail that wags the US Car Industry dog is CARB (The California Air Resources Board), who shift the goal posts regarding Diesel regulations just about every other year. VW is actually the ONLY car maker who has consistently sold Diesels in the US over the past 30 years. Even Mercedes (who used to sell 50% of their products with Oelmotoren here in the states) only offer one model with a Diesel currently and spent many years since the CARB crackdowns on Diesel in the late 80s offering no Diesel options at all. VW and VW alone have been the only ones who kept delivering Diesels across most, if not all of the product line throughout the 90s and up until the last target-shift by California's Diesel-haters. Even then they sold their most popular model (the TDI Jetta under a "last model year" exemption for a while.) If you are going to take anyone to task about Diesel deliveries, how about California first, and EVERY other car maker other than VW next. Where are my Diesel options from Toyota? Honda? GM? Ford? BMW? Where have they been over the past 30 years? All I hear from them is "maybe", "coming soon", or in the case of Maximum Bob (channeling Dick Cheney obviously) "Go F**K yourself." What boggles my mind most about VW is the fact that since 1980(!) they have had several models in their product mix here in the USA that average ABOVE 40 MPG. A few of those (especially with 5-spd manual gearboxes) average 50 MPG or higher. Yet when have you EVER seen any advertising or marketing bringing that to consumer's attention? If I was a VW marketer in Post-Katrina America, I'd be shouting from the rooftops: "We've got 40+ MPG cars RIGHT HERE!" Obviously the Marketing Dept at VWoA is staffed with abject morons. This market has been literally starving for fuel efficiency and they've been holding the cure without doing anything to sell it. Yes, the US market is a pain in the ass, but if you market it right, you can make a mint. --chuck http://chuck.goolsbee.org
User comment: By: Sammy HagarWell I think part of that is that EU warranties are shorter and there is a built-in cash generator for dealer work thanks to inspection agencies like the TUV. The fact of the matter is that Germans will take their car back to the local dealer for work long after a vehicle is out of warranty; reminds me a bit of the blue-hair crowd and their Buicks. That said, I had a Bora (Jetta) that came w/a 2-year warranty; at year four I failed TUV for brake line corrosion...not an unheard of thing in Germany. Alas, I was told by the TUV inspektor that I had to go to the dealership to have my repairs done; otherwise, I would probably fail again based solely upon not having used the OEM parts installed by a factory-certified VW technician. It's a huge game...and cash cow for VW. Contrast this w/America, where the warranty is longer, there are relatively few state regulatory agencies inspecting vehicles, and the American penchant for arguing and litagation, and I can see why VW has a headache. NOTE: Giving your vehicles the absolutely worst names in the automobile industry does not help sales much either.
User comment: By: mennoPerhaps Volkswagen should sell rebadged Chrysler Sebrings as the Volkswagen Nuckinfuts model line. Personally, after owning a used Audi 15 years ago, and realizing the massive and many problems it had (and the huge costs of parts only made easier by the fact that my pal was a VW-Audi mechanic and we also tapped salvage yards for part after part after part), I would not bother with a VW product again. Read Consumer Reports and you'll see the cars test well, but reliability of VW products suffers, and Audi is only marginally better. Though I understand Audi interiors are to die for, and even 15 years ago, my Audi had a really nice interior compared to the competition. But the electrics constantly broke down, which was maddening and annoying.
Visit here to subscribe to these commentsUser comment: By: KixStartWhy don't they just rebadge more Chryslers? Easy, quick, cheap to do. This plan helps Chrysler out with their overcapacity issues. This gives VW more access to non-Euro-based manufacturing, so costs can be kept appropriate to the US market without the capital involved in building a new plant. And the rebadged Chryslers should be just about as reliable as regular VWs, so this looks like a big win all around (*). I figure 99% of the effort on the rebadge will be spent coming up with names for the vehicles. Someone clearly put in a lot of overtime to come up with "Routan." (*) - Am I still bitter about the quality, reliability and durability of my VW? Yes.
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