Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing the VW can do well with it's Audi brand in USA, but struggles with the VW brand in USA?Most Americans love German styling.

VW screwed up by not following the Beetle with the Micro Bus concept.
The bus would have sustained the excitement from the Beetle and brought greater focus to VW. The Bus should have been followed by the new Scirocco. I don't see much value in bringing the Rabbit name back after all these years.

And why is it Audi can build a quality car but VW struggles?

In my opinion, VW needs to improve quality, extend warranty as Hyundai did to bring back buyers and improve the materials in it's interiors. This combined with offering smaller models in USA should help VW. And unless they can reduce the price of the Passat, then drop the line, or give it the luxury interior it deserves at this price point. Don't bring back the Patheon. VW offering a luzury brand under it's name would be the same as a Lexus under the Toyota name - American buyers won't accept it.

I belive the new American chief may be correct in that VW should focus on lower priced cars and market to Gen XYZ. The EOS is a great car, but $38K fully loaded? Too many other options at that price.

 

I don't think the difference in quality between Audi and VW is as great as you perceive it to be. I think both brands are fairly poorly made cars underneath - Audi just does a better job of hiding it with a nice looking surface. Both brands rate fairly poorly in terms of number of problems over the course of ownership according to JD Power, CG, CR, and so on..

And I don't say that with any sort of bias against Audi or lack of knowledge - look what I drive at the moment...

 

Audi still entices a lot of American buyers because of the Luxury + Sport aspect of their vehicles. Luxury buyers have extra $$ to blow on a sporty car with higher maintenance costs. Only BMW and Infiniti can provide such performance capabilities, with Lexus and (comprably priced) MBs a little behind [class for class, for example, the 3-Series, G, IS, C-Class, and A4].

VW tries to entice buyers with value, but when you consider non-luxury people thinking about gas efficiency, maintenance costs, and reliability; VW cannot stand against Japanese (and even American) cars. Unless if VW can prove that they are gas-sippers, easy to maintain, and will last a long time (as a daily driver, not a once-in-a-while driver); then VW will succeed.

 

lol
VWs are usually priced higher than its competitors here in Canada
thats why they dont sell as well
the only models that sell well are Rabbit, Jetta and GTI
new Passat sales have been terrible, Camry totally pwns it

 

VW has been starting to screw up down here (and Mexico used to be VW land), but Audi is doing phenomenally well here. I see them equally on the road with BMW and a friend who works in BMW admitted as much to me that that is their fiercest competitor, not MB.

Where I live, quality wasn't seen as much. Mexicans tend to keep their vehicles much longer than Americans, but until Japanese imports start to hit the markets in the late 90s, everyone always had a goodmechanic they could call on in the neighborhood (my Uncle Antonio is one of those) and fixing a vehicle was a fact of life. As Japanese brands continue to hit the market here, VW is really starting to tank.

 

Audi isn't really all that successful in the US. Look at the sales numbers and they lag waaaay behind the likes of Lexus, MB, & BMW. Audi and VW are actually scaled pretty equally in their respective segments.

And as mentioned, Audi's quality is nothing to be proud of.

Audi and VW provide some nice styling and interior quality but not much else of their cars excels.

 

Actually both struggle in the USA.
VW-Pierch trying to move them upmarket vs Benz is a failure. Their recent cars are styled like Toyotas. Their interiors were a big step above the competition but not anymore. You add crap quality and **** poor dealers and its a mess.
They simply don't know what they want here. Explain to me why a "Beetle" is a 20k car?????
Audi-Piech wants to move them sportier towards BMW. More adventurous styling as well. Their products continue to improve but their marketing here is crap. Dealers are okay at best. Their AWD advantage is lost, we can get AWD Lexus, Acuras even Saab's now. Their interiors are still some of the best in the industry. The Q7 is actually helping them. THe A3 is overlooked here.

I honestly don't think the managment in Germany is caring much about how they fare in America.

 

Have you guys seen the new VW commercials where they compare standard equipment between their models and others?? It's quite a joke.

They compare a Jetta to a Corolla (and Civic), lol. Jetta's price range is $17-29K!! Corolla starts at about $14K. And they go on listing features that the Jetta has and claim that the Corolla (and Civic) don't (but actually do).

 

VW and Audi's reliability have both been about average for a while, though VW (and especially Porsche) took a precipitous drop overall with the release of the absolutely ABYSMAL Touraeg/Cayenne. Expect Audi's ranking to drop similarly now that the Q7 is on the market.

If you leave the SUVs out of the mix, overall reliability of both brands is about the same. The Audis obviously have more polish, as price and target market dictate, but overall the VWs are no more trouble-prone than their more-expensive siblings.