Re: Audi Product Idea: A5 Minvan

["George S Achorn III" <coolidge@nicom.com>]

Psycho Bob <honge@creighton.edu> wrote:

>First, what would a minivan accomplish for Audi? MB tried the SUV with the
>G-wagon previously, it didn't work. BMW tried the ix and it wasn't a
>sales success. By dipping into the market the marque ain't known for, and
>you're talking about lame sales.

	I disagree and I site the Dodge Viper, Plymouth Prowler, '83 Quattro
Coupe, new MB SUV, new BMW SUV, Z3 etc etc etc. You never win if you don't
try. Besides trucks are a huge part of the automotive market (atleast in
the US. The G-Wagen (MB) SUV was never brought to the US by MB. It's a
private importer.
	What Audi has to gain is growth through providing something new to the
market. VW needs a cheap replacement to the Sharan and possibly the
eurovan. MB and BMW are focusing on upmarket SUVs, and no one except
Chrysler has an upmarket minivan. No one has a high performance minivan.
This leaves a canyon of an opening in the market. Audi could easily
capitalize on this, and selling numbers is what they want.

> For image-making, loss-leader sort of
>thing (Audi already got one -- it's called A8), what does the minivan
>further the Audi image?? (Frankly, I don't think I'd like Audi to have ANY
>sort of image in the minivan market....) And there's the Avants to think
>about -- the precise reason that Audi is still backing off the idea of
>SUVs and such. And by going for the minivan proportions, you're not going
>to get any serious performance out of it.

	I don't think it would be a loss leader. There is no super luxury minivan
out there. A 30-40K minivan would certainly make money, and would be a good
testbed for audi's technology image. And, if minivans could not be
performance tuned, why is it that Porsche wants to get into that type of
vehicle. Look at the GMC typhoon and that's a freakin' Blazer.
	LAter-G