sobering VW article

[Jon Linkov]

Uhm...

A) Nobody criticized the Touareg as part of Piech's ego-driven sales
strategy. The Touareg starts in the upper $30k range as well. That's a far
cry from starting in the $60K+ range and topping out near/at $100k

B) The Golf may NOW be the best selling car, but VW had to throw in
incentives (in the form of A/C) to get it to move. It has been welcomed with
a tepid response.

C) Many of the issues were listed in the article (including financial
issues, union costs, and the products), but VW also is demonstrating that
the overall product mix (VW, Audi, etc) have piss-poor reliability. Multiple
400K+ unit recalls don't do anything to help.

D) Badly conceived? The Pheaton isn't the status vehicle of an S-Class or
7-Series. BMW is knocking back record year after record year, and even after
all its electrical woes and pull-back of its 4 yr free service, M-B is STILL
selling a lot of vehicles. So, the expected defectors from BMW and M-B
haven't materialized.

Jon


On 9/2/04 9:50 AM, "quattro-request at audifans.com"
<quattro-request at audifans.com> wrote:

> Message: 4
> Date: Thu, 02 Sep 2004 20:48:47 +1200
> From: David Eaton <dave.eaton at clear.net.nz>
> Subject: Re: Sobering VW Article?
> To: quattro at audifans.com
> Message-ID: <4136de6f.7.48c8.29494 at clear.net.nz>
> 
> then explain why the touareg is selling so well?  as the
> article states, the phaeton has failed becuase it was bady
> conceived, not because it is a "premium vw".  the touareg is
> clearly a premium vw and they can't make enough of them.
> 
> also, despite all the doom and gloom, the new golf is
> europe's best selling car.  again.
> 
> the real issue is that, without the new golf and touareg,
> the product mix is in a slump and only the new car releases
> will help.
> 
> dave
> '01 s8
>