[Vwdiesel] Polo TDI

[David Cook]

This thread and a banner ad that appeared while
reading it reminded me of a conversation I had with my
roommate last night.

We have been making fun of Ford for awhile for
advertising the new Focus:  "MP3s meet MPGs". 

He told me he sent Ford an email telling them to stop
advertising their amazing mileage because 35 wasn't
really that great.  We have decided that 40 was the
minimum before you could justify advertising it as
really great...

David


--- Keith Family <familykeith at comcast.net> wrote:

> Nawh, never happen.
> 
> TPTB (The powers that be) are doing everything they
> can to 
> prevent Americans from getting on the diesel
> bandwagon.   From 
> EPA "clean diesel" rules to NOx treatment to less
> than optimal 
> head geometry (to reduce NOx) to additional 8 cents
> a gallon 
> Federal Tax to sulfer removal to tax credits to
> hybrid green cars 
> (which is where the 8 cents is probably going)...
> 
> Need I go on.  Oh yeah, the one year moratorium on
> diesels while 
> the big three foreign diesel producers (VW,
> Mercedes, 
> Daimler/Chrysler) got together with the EPA on a
> direction for 
> the American diesel market to go.
> 
> And the  VW and world view of American motoring is
> that Americans 
> want BIG, fuel hungry, jazzed up tricked out power
> behemouths. 
> If you can't do 0-60 in less than 4 seconds,
> Americans don't want 
> it.   At least that's VW's view of the our motoring
> marketplace. 
> The VW marketing campaign with the little devil
> creature belies 
> their perception.
> 
> Certainly the push at VW for the years since the VW
> Rabbit has 
> been "upscale marketing."   From non-recoverable
> check engine 
> light trips to power windows to Monsoon Radios to
> sunroofs to 
> over the top engines mated to an automatic
> transmissions, to the 
> Toureg that can compete head to head with the Ford
> Expedition, VW 
> has missed the vast marketplace boat they ignored
> when then 
> dropped the A2 VWs and adopted the GTI as their pet
> project.
> 
> And yet the market they have left survives in an
> "underground" 
> modified form.   The VW Caddy pickup (that was made
> in Germany) 
> survives in the USA today with vehicles held highly
> esteemed and 
> typically selling for upwards of 50 percent of their
> original 
> value.   And although that value includes inflation,
> it still 
> tells you something about the market acceptance of a
> "bare bones, 
> function before form" sort of vehicle.    And it's
> an American 
> market that VW continues to ignore.
> 
> There maybe some change in direction on the horizon.
>   The "new" 
> VW Rabbit (Tricked out but simplified A4) is rumored
> to be coming 
> in a 4 cylinder TDI and intended to compete in a
> market with the 
> hybrid Honda Civic, the gas Rabbit supposedly
> competing with the 
> gas Civic.   But still there is that upscale drift
> with the '08 
> TDIs being offered first as option in the Passat -
> their first 
> pitch - and they'll wonder why it will become a foul
> ball when 
> all the 50 somethings who are the primary market for
> this car 
> pass it up because they see diesel at 50 cents a
> gallon over 
> gasoline?   How can you make a frugal statement when
> you drive a 
> Passat and how can you make an ecology statement
> when driving one 
> of those dirty diesels.   Passat with diesel is a
> no-statement. 
> Only niche motoring such as where the VW diesel has
> been 
> relegated in America since 1986 will buy it in that 
> configuration.
> 
> I just don't see the Polo or it's little sister the
> Lupo coming 
> to our shores.   Like the 1985 TD 1.5NA, you'll see
> them in 
> Canada before they ever get here.
> 
> Ford, who was the model for the "People's Car" made
> their 
> fortunes pre-WWII mass producing "acceptable"
> forward looking 
> cars.   Not behemouths, not cars for the velvet
> glove set, nor 
> cars for the Fortune 500.   The Model A Ford
> produced as a 
> chauffer driven car (The Town Car) and marketed at
> the height of 
> the depression at 4x the cost of the entry level
> Model A, flopped 
> miserably.   No doubt there were better cars - Ford
> themselves 
> occupied that seat with the upscale Mercury line in
> later years, 
> but there were few cars more widely sold - nor more
> widely 
> appreciated.
> 
> Today that position has slipped first to Honda and
> now to Toyota, 
> with Hyundai giving them a run for their money in
> that market. 
> And despite VW being poised to give all three of
> them a run for 
> the money in America - especially considering their
> expertise in 
> marketing "peoples cars" to a non-American market -
> I see yet 
> another miss and a strike.
> 
> And yes, the non-hybrid "econobox" is coming back. 
> Aveo, Echo, 
> and the others are pushing the 40 mpg threshold
> pretty hard.
> 
> VWOA is missing the boat as we speak.
> 
> Best,
> Joe
> 03 TDI Golf
> Gosh I wish I still had that 80 Westmoreland Diesel.
>  No body 
> squeaks on it - just a bit of rust - here and there
> and ..... 
> _______________________________________________
> Vwdiesel mailing list
> Vwdiesel at vwfans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/vwdiesel
> 


VW Parts for sale!
http://community.webshots.com/user/superdave5599


      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better sports nut!  Let your teams follow you 
with Yahoo Mobile. Try it now.  http://mobile.yahoo.com/sports;_ylt=At9_qDKvtAbMuh1G1SQtBI7ntAcJ