VW Dealers Fume as Sales and Satisfaction Levels Tumble

LOS ANGELES — Volkswagen's U.S. management is trying to quell unrest among its dealer network after dealers accused bosses of supplying them with the wrong cars.

Dealers say this is the reason for declining U.S. sales and tumbling customer satisfaction levels. They have blamed VW for shipping too many high-end automatic transmission models instead of the cheaper manual-shift cars they say are most in demand. Bob Grace, chairman of the VW national dealer council, said at a time when demand for diesels was increasing, his Louisiana dealership had only two Passat diesels in stock.

VW dealers came in last in most categories in the National Automotive Dealers' Association's latest annual dealer attitude survey. But VW said its top priority was to restore its North American operation to profitability, even at the expense of sales.

Wade Walker, who represents VW's 900 U.S. dealers in the association, said: "The Germans have tried, but they don't understand the American market."

VW executives in Germany said the weak dollar meant America was not the best market for a European carmaker. VW has made a conscious decision to ship fewer cars to North America and focus on more profitable parts of the world. VW will hold monthly meetings with U.S. dealers in a bid to rebuild relations.

What this means to you: Sounds like you might have a hard time finding satisfaction in your quest for a car at VW. But this may be more a dealer problem than a customer one. The weak dollar is making life tough for VW. Its dealers want to sell cheap cars, but VW wants them to sell the expensive ones as those are the only ones that make money. Catch-22.

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So what has VW learned over the last 5 years? Apparently not a goddamn thing and here they are making the same mistakes AGAIN for 2005 going on 2006.

They still haven't realized... in NA, VW is an economy car. The market doesn't want to pay $22k for a friggen Jetta or Golf, nor do they want to spend close to $30k for a Passat.

They have failed to control their costs, so now instead of streamlining their operation, their main goal is going to be focused on increasing profitability and by how? By continuing to ship the high end models that nobody buys while not addressing the quality/reliability issues that have been inherited by the MK5 due to VWs cluster @!#$ engineering and poor initiative.

Obviously they are incapable of change... the dealers even agree "The Germans have tried, but they don't understand the American market."

Its almost like VW wants to pull out of the North American market

VW in North America will be dead by the end of the decade...

I agree. I love the Jetta's but would never spend what they are asking for them. They look great, pretty quick, comfortable to drive. They are just too un-reliable and expensive. If they were the complete oposite for reliability maybe. Like if they were one of the most reliable cars on the market. You never had problems with them and parts were reasonable. I might consider paying 22k for a Jetta fully loaded. But its not that way.

like ive said before, i broke the axle on my sisters passat by flooring it, just shattered all the bolts, that was quite interesting, looks like its time to look for a new job ryan


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"The end of VW is near...."
Good!
The only VW I ever really liked was the air-cooled beatles, espcially the Karman-Ghia (beautiful car).
Mostly because it was air-cooled.

On the topic... .
VW is forgeting what their name stands for.
Volkswagen: Peoples car.
Looking at their price, the only "people" they are catering to is the rich, not the common people. VW is tring to fool North America into thinking VW is a high-end car as Benz did. Big mistake IMO.




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-----The orginal Mr.Goodwrench on the JBO since 11/99-----

i can see where this is coming from....my friend just bought a passat, yea nice car but for a 27K price tag?? ehhh you could get alot nicer for that kinda money

if they were VERY reliable vehicles i could see maybe asking a little more then the competition, but they dont even have that

people think GM is in trouble, i think there a hell of alot better off then VW

for the price of a Passat you could get the way more gorgeous Toyota Avalon, and IT DOES come with reliability. or go the GM route and get an awesome CTS and at least get the power and so-so reliability. VW needs to bring it's feet back to earth, they simply ARE NOT BMW, and never will be.



"Formerly known as Jammit - JBO member since 1998" JBOM | CSS.net

01. they're too expensive
02. they have a flawed marketing strategy.
      (ie why is the A3 only available in FWD for its North American debut)
03. sometimes it seems they engineer more technology into their VW
      brand than their Audi counterparts (the A4 isn't availble with the W8
      but its an option on the passat if I'm not mistaken).
04. They're too difficult to maintain by 3rd party mechanics.





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