VW shifts away from minimal four platform strategy

[DeWitt Harrison]

The March issue of Ward's AutoWorld has a long article called
"Rethinking Platform Engineering" having to do with a shift away
from cranking out as many models as possible from the fewest
possible number of platforms. VW is one of the main cases in
point.

"Critics say VW may have outsmarted itself. It's cost cutting
strategy to trim the number of platforms down from 16 eight
years ago to just four today has backfired on the German auto-
maker in much the same way that it did for GM in the 1980s
with its look-alike cars that crossed divisional lines. VW is suffer-
ing a buyer backlash of its own for spinning VWs, Audis, SEATs
and Skodas off identical architecture. It's small A-platform, for
example, is used on no fewer than eight models, from the VW
Beetle and Golf to the Audi A4 and TT, Skoda Octavia and
SEAT Toledo."

blah, blah, loss of sales, no real savings in production costs,
blah, blah

A lot of new products are on the VW drawing boards. In fact,
Herr Piech says 67 in all including a D1 (Audi I assume) to
compete with BMW and Mercedes. The new strategy will
be based on "modules" which are to be smaller design
units than "platforms."

"The first concrete example [of the new philosophy] may be the
next-generation Passat, which reportedly will break away from
it's Audi A4 twin by going to a transversely mounted, rather
than longitudinal, engine and sharing more 'modules' [my ' '
for emphasis] from the Golf/Jetta line."

I can hear a background murmur of told-you-sos already.

DeWitt Harrison
Boulder, CO
88 5kcstq