VW Losses in North America

kaboomie

If you're a VW guy like me, then you may have visited VW Vortex.com. Over there you can link to a forum called the Car Lounge, where just about every make of car is discussed. In the Lounge, there are many VW bashers; some even say that VWoA will cease to exist by 2012! While it's true that, say, Nissan sells more Altimas here in the US than Volkswagen's entire available lineup, I think you'll see a dramatic change in 2006 for VW. The New Jetta arrived late, and the first examples were all fully-loaded models with the highest prices. Now all trim levels are available and sales of the New Jetta are now past 2004 levels, despite the twentysomethings saying that they're ugly...(That's what they said about the Jetta IV, too, by the way....) The New Passat is here, and sales have begun to climb, although too late to reach 2004 levels. The redesigned New Beetle with the 2.5 liter engine has already been described as a dramatic improvement over the old model,and sales of this should climb again, especially the convertible when spring arrives. The New Golf will be here in the spring. By early summer, so will the Eos, another convertible. They killed the Phaeton, but I believe this doesn't go in effect until 2007. (it didn't sell, anyway). The glitches in the early Toureags should be solved now, but I suppose SUV sales all across the board will depend on gas prices. All of the Doomsdsay "anaylists" in the Car Lounge bring up the 4 year sales decline, which indeed has dropped 40% since 2001, which fuels their ultimate demise theory, but what people don't remember is that VW had a much worse drop from 1970-1976. They went from 500K+ sales in 1970 down to 200K sales 6 years later. Since that time, VW has never been able to compete with the Japanese over here, and they shouldn't try. It can't be done. However, as long as VW has a niche group of loyalists, such as myself, they will continue to sell cars in the US. We are a unique group. Rather than drive a "me, too" Camry or Accord, we choose to be different. The German driving experience is indescribable.

Only if you're incapable of it.

The Good

There's a still solid feeling to my A3 that I didn't find in many of the newer Japanese or American cars. You turn the wheel, it follows you. You don't get the settling of the suspension before it starts to go. All the controls have a more positive feel. The manual transmission shifts into gear positively. In the Toyota I drove, the manual gear shift was more like a slot machine lever. When you touched it, you didn't quite know what was going to happen. That's compared to a car with 10 years and 100kmiles under it.

No rust, except where there's been other damage.

Engine still runs great. Burns no oil. Got new the rated economy on my last road trip (just before Christmas) without having done anything prior to than an oil change.

Quite easy to repair. Well thought out assemblies that for the most part don't get noisy after a couple years.

The Bad

To follow the last point above, you'll find out how easy it is to repair the various body mechanical and electrical systems. I don't think I've had everything repaired and totally functional on this car for more than about 6-9 months in the 10 years I've had it. That includes the warranty period.

VWoA seems it couldn't really care less after the check clears. IIRC it took a class action law suit to get them to fix the obvious problems on the A4, engine oil sludging, somehow WORSE window regulators than on the A3's, coil packs... From talking with BMW owners, both auto and motorcycle, the arrogance of the factory is amazing.

Bottom Line

While I like the car, I expect a car to have many fewer problems than VW has had in the last 10 years or so. With new leadership, perhaps this is changing, but I've yet to see it in the quality surveys (JD Power, Consumer Reports, etc). I sincerely hope they not only get better, but lead in this area.

Mark '95 Jetta GLS