sobering VW article

[David Eaton]

re: golf  read it again.  the golf *is* the *best selling*
car in europe over the last 6 months.  "tepid response"? 
huh???
 
re: the touareg, you miss the point.  the point is that the
touareg *is* part of the "premium brand" strategy of vw. 
and a highly successful one.  particularly at the
high-priced (v10) end.
 
to get a premium status vehicle you either exploit a niche
(touareg), or you differentiate on price while brand
awareness builds up. that is what phaeton is about, but it
has been done badly.  actually motor trend rates it ahead of
the bmw and m-b as a car, but it is going to need a lot of
those sorts of articles before the punters put their money
on it.
 
it is *exactly* where audi has been with the a8.  and only
now, with the d3, getting to altitude.  10 years after
launch (audi v8 notwithstanding).  it is also the path that
m-b has chosen for the maybach and good luck to them...
 
wrt bmw.  you need to look at the numbers.  bmw sales have
been *declining* in all their usual market segments.  where
they have been succeeding spectactularly is in exploiting
new segments (x5, x3, mini).  take those numbers away, and
it looks pretty sick (witness the new 5, and the rapid
tail-off of the 7).
 
$0.02
dave
'01 s8
 
----- Original Message Follows -----
 From: Jon Linkov <jon at audiclubna.org>
> 
> 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.
>