audi future

[Jon Linkov]

Let's see...

5-door hatchback? They can't sell wagons here at all (really, the US market
doesn't like wagons yet), but a 5-door hatch is going to sell 30k units?

Pikes Peak...will be uber expensive, but Winterkorn thinks that they're
gonna sell 60k units per year here. During the Geneva show he told
Automotive News that Audi will move 200k units per year in the USA by 2008.
Yeah, right.

Dealers here still have a "can't do" attitude. Heck, my dad's getting a new
A4 on Monday. I sent 9 dealers an e-mail saying what I wanted, cash deal,
name a price. The dealer that is 5 (FIVE!) minutes away didn't even respond!
Wow, guess they're just selling like crazy. Funny, when I drive by their
remote lot they certainly have upwards of 40+ A4s sitting, white wrapping
paper in place, waiting for buyers. Guess they're all pre-sold (*wink).

Improve the ownership experience, boost reliability (and not by saying
"we're working on it), kick the dealers in the a*s to get a clue...THAT's
how you double your sales. Just throwing new product against the wall and
hoping it sticks is a sure way of remaining second (or third) tier in the
sport luxury class.

Oh, and kill Piech's Folly already. VW is a people's car....not a
limited-production power people's car. I haven't seen many late-model
Mercedes-Benz's on the dealer lots at the local VW stores...seems the rush
of people trading their S-Classes in on the Phaeton hasn't happened...yet
</sarcasm>.