mmarshall

As I see it, part of VW's problems in the U.S. stem from two sources. First, the reputation that their vehicles have for electrical/hardware problems, and, second, the ever-more-limited line up here in the U.S., which seems to offer fewer and fewer vehicles each year. Case in point......there are NO 4-Motion AWD sedans/coupes/wagons here in the U.S. market other than the CC, where in Europe they are available almost across the board. You also have a number of VW models available in Europe (Sirocco/Corrado, Polo/Lupo, etc....) and drivetrains/body-styles in Europe that simply are not available here. I've long said that you cannot sell what you do not offer.

Sulu

"You cannot sell what you do not offer" is only one side of the coin; the other side is "What if you offer but no one (or very few) buy". This too is happening with VW.

Case in point is the Routan. Few bought VW's older Eurovan so they partnered with Chrysler to offer a North American minivan based on the Dodge Grand Caravan / Chrysler Town & Country. After 4 years of terrible sales that never met sales goals, VW finally decided to stop production.

As for the other models mentioned (Scirocco/Corrado, Polo, Phaeton, wagons, 4Motion, etc.) the same holds true: VW forecasts very low sales of these models in North America so that it is not worth the extra expenses required to certify the very few that they could sell (due to emissions differences, crash safety / bumper differences, lighting differences, etc.).

Small, mass market-based sporty cars do not sell in great numbers (which is why Toyoto stopped selling the Celica).

Subcompact and smaller cars, as well as wagons, and AWD (unless they are niche vehicles or luxury vehicles) do not sell well in the USA. They may sell in Canada, but our market, without the Americans, is not large enough to justfy the expenses for VW to sell these small cars here.

The Phaeton was too expensive as a VW.

If no one wants to buy your imported products, why go to the extra expense of certifying them for sale, only to sit on dealer lots collecting dust?

Another problem that I see with VW in North America is their lack of gasoline engines suited to North American drivers. VW does not offer any gasoline engines (especially non-turbocharged) that are comparable to the engines that drive the Camry, Accord and Altima. VW's 2.5-litre engine was old, underpowered and inefficient. If you do not offer a smooth, powerful AND efficient non-turbocharged engine for your mid-sized car, you will never be able to compete with the Japanese here in North America. Diesel and high-tech engines, such as turbocharged engines will not sell in comparable numbers to regular gasoline engines.

VW has yet to convince me that they know what to sell here in North America.

mmarshall

That's true, but how do you know the public will not buy it if it is not offered in the first place? The only way that VW found out, for example, that the Phaeton wouldn't sell here was to actually try it. But the Phaeton's American sales-flop was not necessarily VW's fault.....I'll expand on that more below.

There have been a number of requests, for example, especially in the auto press, for the Corrado to be sold here in the U.S., but VW remains firm on not bringing it here.

The problem with the Celica was that the beautiful, classy 1994-1999 version DID sell very well (in fact, I owned one of them myself), but then they screwed the car up for 2000-2005 by markedly cheapening its materials, downsizing it too much, and making it look like a toy Hot Wheels product.


Well, the Routan wasn't a VW. It was an overpriced Dodge Caravan...minus some equipment. Still, it might (?) have sold if VW had done the right thing and dropped the price.

Actually, no, it wasn't. Where else could you get a 12-cylinder sedan, with an interior worthy of Buckingham palace, this side of 100K? Buy one with a BMW or Mercedes emblem on it, and you'll pay almost 40K more to start. NO, the problem with the Phaeton is that the stubborn and imperceptive American public didn't even go look at it most of the time....so, yes, VW had little choice but to drop it. But that wasn't their fault......they offered a bargain, and the public simply turned it down.

Have you driven either the 2.0L gas-turbo and/or the 2.0L TDI diesel VW/Audi engines? Both, IMO, are absolute gems for their size....have been for years.


The lack of 4Motion AWD in anything but SUVs and the CC sedan is a good example of that.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

VW is allegedly going to attempt round 2 with the Phaeton Stateside or so rumor says