> Deliberately and cynically scamming millions of their customers could have something to do with VW's loss of brand value.
It definitely has. But the current issues seem to be more due to a number of other factors.
During the pandemic, pretty much every German car manufacturer tried to more or less get rid of their lower priced models and focus on the high end market to increase margins. As far as I know, this was largely driven by supply chain issues and shortages making lower priced models financially less attractive for the car manufacturers. VW is not a luxury brand so they suffered from this more than other German manufacturers. With inflation and recent world market developments (the Chinese levelling up their car manufacturing), this situation has only got worse.
But the most important factor may yet be electrification. VW doesn't have an edge in electric cars and their product lines (the ID3, 4 etc.) are not really competitive. They also failed to vertically integrate. German car manufacturing still is largely a supply chain coordination game, making it hard to innovate quickly.
Last but not least, I guess the current insane energy policies and quite literally cooling economic environment in Germany don't really help as well.
VW used to be the cheap option for the masses, hence the name "Volkswagen" = "people car". They could then successfully push out competitors by gradually raising quality and prices. But by now, VW is one of the most premium brands in Germany. So their usual "raise quality and prices" strategy has stopped working.
My parents' generation loved their VW Golf, which back then was a cheap car for students. But nowadays, a new VW Gold can cost €44000 which is completely out of reach for most students and young adults. Similarly, they used to have ads mocking the fact that a VW Transporter was an extremely popular family car used for vacations and camping trips. At €90000 for a Volkswagen Transporter (version 7), it's now become more of a status symbol or collector's item.
Actual families will buy a €8000 Dacia transporter. And in line with Christensen's talk, it looks like Dacia is now scaling up quality and raising prices, thereby pushing VW out of the budget market into the much smaller premium segment.
But the most important factor may yet be electrification. VW doesn't have an edge in electric cars and their product lines (the ID3, 4 etc.) are not really competitive.
They must be doing something right because the ID.4 sells like hotcakes in Scandinavia, Germany and other European countries. It was the #1 EV in 2022 in Sweden, and #2 in Germany behind the Tesla Model Y. (ID.3 was #3)
> Last but not least, I guess the current insane energy policies and quite literally cooling economic environment in Germany don't really help as well.
Who would have thought that pilling up incompetent energy policies one after an other would come back to bite them.. And if only the energy policies where the only bad choices they were making..
They used to make affordable cars like their nameplate implied (People's Cars) but these days you have to go Japanese, Korean, Chinese of heaven forbid French if you want anything affordable.
There is no city cars in their lineup - the Polo is now looks like and priced like a Golf from a few years back and the Up got canned.
I had two VWs in my life that I truly loved till they had driven 50k miles: A 1980 Rabbit Convertible and a 2000 New Beetle. The styling and handling, but not the quality. After each purchase, I swore I would never buy another. I want to love and own a VW again, but only when the quality is as good as a Lexus, Toyota, or Hyundai.
I hate them for that.
It's winter time now, so I have my car heater blower on all the time. Whenever I start smelling diesel in my car, a TDI engine is in front of me.
Trusting companies to do the right thing has always been humanities most shameful indulgence.
Having been lied to 20 times in a row and still trusting the 21st time is a sign of other problems. It is a good indicator of a populations submissiveness. Admitting to oneself that one has made a mistake investing a lot of money in a product, takes some guts most people don't seem to have. Same as admitting your oh-so-democratic government has obviously been corrupted by the same corporate elements.
The issue is admitting this leads to admitting one was a coward for tolerating it. That's why people double down on the most idiotic positions. I've seen flat earthers and corona deniers do it same as dieselgate apologists.
Unfortunately many of the top trading companies invest a lot of money into anti-regulation propaganda. It's the "trickle down economy" of the 21st century.
Nuking effectively everything except the Touareg, Tiguan, Atlas, Taos, Q7, Q8, and the entire Porsche lineup in the US has done them no favours. The Golf is dead, New Beetle is dead, Passat is dead, the A5 is being neglected, the A8 is just the previous generation with new styling in and out, the A3 still hasn't made it over here in enough numbers for dealers to actually sell them, the A4 is being neglected and hasn't gotten the Q7's upgrades, the Jetta's due to die, Arteon's due to die, and for a partner to the ID.4 the ID.2 hasn't even been launched in favour of slinging us the insultingly priced ID.buzz instead which dealers won't even take allocations for because they know a $60,000 (starting price, most trims hit $80,000) minivan that can't be used as a minivan won't sell. All of the discontinued models were slated to be sent behind the barn before the pandemic, so they can't even use that as an excuse. They tried to copy Ford's stupid move of dropping all sedans and hatchbacks save for the performance halo car and focusing on SUV and CUV sales, and they're seeing the same result of losing market share and being forced upmarket to cover the loss, squeezing margins.
Plus the financing plans where they're seemingly deciding to do almost the exact same thing Mitsubishi did in 2001 in offering 0% interest rates and no down payment to grab the Atlas and Taos because they want to eat into the market share that the Nissan Rogue and Kia Sorento have. Carlos Ghosn's stupidity in chasing volume via financing anyone who could breathe at shockingly low interest rates nearly destroyed Nissan and was the reason why he got ousted from both Renault and Nissan. Meanwhile the other manufacturers are seeing the dour consequences of abandoning the $30,000 and below segment and chasing the high end $70,000+ full size SUV customers, which is a tiny fraction of a market that's shrinking further because the upmarket push creates a feedback loop.
Volkswagen does not have the cheapness of Nissan and Kia to make up volume, and they don't have the perceived robustness of Toyota to build a base to move upmarket. They're stuck, and they're slinging Taos' and low financing out like candy hoping it will save them and bring back former Golf customers.
Been looking at under 30k entry level crossovers/suvs and the reliability reviews I see are pretty bad. Volkswagen Taos was given a 37 by consumer reports, their entry level crossover/suv seems to be ranked pretty low.
But they have great reviews for 2024 Taos and its under 30k, buts its new, so who really knows. So much new tech in 2024-2026 coming out, models are changing pretty heavily during refresh.
I was in the market a couple months ago (US). If you haven't given the 2023 Id.4 a look, you might consider it. They're practically giving them away right now due to surplus inventory. The lease deals are especially attractive. My monthly is about what I was quoted for a Honda Accord or a Prius.
Software is atrocious. Everything else, extremely happy. While everyone else queues up in an endless Costco line to save $10 off their $100 gas bill, I just relax and order sushi while my car chugs free Level 1 electricity outside.
Readit News
It definitely has. But the current issues seem to be more due to a number of other factors.
During the pandemic, pretty much every German car manufacturer tried to more or less get rid of their lower priced models and focus on the high end market to increase margins. As far as I know, this was largely driven by supply chain issues and shortages making lower priced models financially less attractive for the car manufacturers. VW is not a luxury brand so they suffered from this more than other German manufacturers. With inflation and recent world market developments (the Chinese levelling up their car manufacturing), this situation has only got worse.
But the most important factor may yet be electrification. VW doesn't have an edge in electric cars and their product lines (the ID3, 4 etc.) are not really competitive. They also failed to vertically integrate. German car manufacturing still is largely a supply chain coordination game, making it hard to innovate quickly.
Last but not least, I guess the current insane energy policies and quite literally cooling economic environment in Germany don't really help as well.
VW used to be the cheap option for the masses, hence the name "Volkswagen" = "people car". They could then successfully push out competitors by gradually raising quality and prices. But by now, VW is one of the most premium brands in Germany. So their usual "raise quality and prices" strategy has stopped working.
My parents' generation loved their VW Golf, which back then was a cheap car for students. But nowadays, a new VW Gold can cost €44000 which is completely out of reach for most students and young adults. Similarly, they used to have ads mocking the fact that a VW Transporter was an extremely popular family car used for vacations and camping trips. At €90000 for a Volkswagen Transporter (version 7), it's now become more of a status symbol or collector's item.
Actual families will buy a €8000 Dacia transporter. And in line with Christensen's talk, it looks like Dacia is now scaling up quality and raising prices, thereby pushing VW out of the budget market into the much smaller premium segment.
They must be doing something right because the ID.4 sells like hotcakes in Scandinavia, Germany and other European countries. It was the #1 EV in 2022 in Sweden, and #2 in Germany behind the Tesla Model Y. (ID.3 was #3)
Who would have thought that pilling up incompetent energy policies one after an other would come back to bite them.. And if only the energy policies where the only bad choices they were making..
The last beetle sold in Brazil (1986) was worse than German beetles from the 1950s.
Plus, they helped the military dictatorship; probably because it secured their market.
I see VW as nothing but evil, but in spite of all this, its brand remains popular in Brazil.
There is no city cars in their lineup - the Polo is now looks like and priced like a Golf from a few years back and the Up got canned.
This is a problem across most manufacturers. Ford recently canned the Fiesta, the best selling car in the UK.
Having been lied to 20 times in a row and still trusting the 21st time is a sign of other problems. It is a good indicator of a populations submissiveness. Admitting to oneself that one has made a mistake investing a lot of money in a product, takes some guts most people don't seem to have. Same as admitting your oh-so-democratic government has obviously been corrupted by the same corporate elements.
The issue is admitting this leads to admitting one was a coward for tolerating it. That's why people double down on the most idiotic positions. I've seen flat earthers and corona deniers do it same as dieselgate apologists.
Unfortunately many of the top trading companies invest a lot of money into anti-regulation propaganda. It's the "trickle down economy" of the 21st century.
Know exactly where you're coming from. Have been intrigued by the e-golf recently, but
Plus the financing plans where they're seemingly deciding to do almost the exact same thing Mitsubishi did in 2001 in offering 0% interest rates and no down payment to grab the Atlas and Taos because they want to eat into the market share that the Nissan Rogue and Kia Sorento have. Carlos Ghosn's stupidity in chasing volume via financing anyone who could breathe at shockingly low interest rates nearly destroyed Nissan and was the reason why he got ousted from both Renault and Nissan. Meanwhile the other manufacturers are seeing the dour consequences of abandoning the $30,000 and below segment and chasing the high end $70,000+ full size SUV customers, which is a tiny fraction of a market that's shrinking further because the upmarket push creates a feedback loop.
Volkswagen does not have the cheapness of Nissan and Kia to make up volume, and they don't have the perceived robustness of Toyota to build a base to move upmarket. They're stuck, and they're slinging Taos' and low financing out like candy hoping it will save them and bring back former Golf customers.
But they have great reviews for 2024 Taos and its under 30k, buts its new, so who really knows. So much new tech in 2024-2026 coming out, models are changing pretty heavily during refresh.
I think word of mouth is to avoid them.
Software is atrocious. Everything else, extremely happy. While everyone else queues up in an endless Costco line to save $10 off their $100 gas bill, I just relax and order sushi while my car chugs free Level 1 electricity outside.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1186629/workforce-major-...
https://www.statista.com/statistics/316786/global-market-sha...
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-s...