Volkswagen of America boss man Stefan Jacoby speaks with the Detroit News about VW’s US strategy going forward while admitting a few missteps. Jacoby acknowledges, for example, that the Passat “is too small, and it is almost knocking at the doors of the premium segment. That’s not where the volume is. What we need to do is improve our competitiveness in pricing.” And how does that admission jive with VW’s plan to bring the Phaeton back to the US? Keine ahnung. The DetN never asked.
Jacoby’s primary diagnosis of VW’s US market woes is that the brand is “too much positioned in the corners, in the niches of this big market.” Which means VW’s lamentable (from the enthusiast perspective) trend towards offering blandified US-specific models will only accelerate. Jacoby envisions a car lineup starting with a Polo (“or a car in the range of a Polo”), and moving up to a “New Midsize Sedan” in the Civic mold. From there?
We are looking at the truck segment as well. The Tiguan (compact SUV) has been very well received, but it’s imported out of Europe so we can’t realize the volumes that we could get out of that segment. So we are investigating a second product for Chattanooga, either a compact SUV or another SUV model. Above the midsize new sedan, we’ll have another product, like the Avalon for Toyota. That’s our strategy, to have a lineup ending with the Phaeton (luxury sedan). We will bring the Phaeton back to the market.
Does this mean the new Phaeton will be more of a tarted-up Passat than its ego-fueled predecessor? That actually might explain the “competitiveness in pricing” thing. Except that this so-called Phaeton may essentially replace the Passat. So is the plan to keep the price similar and simply offer more room and call it a Phaeton? The conundrum reveals an underlying problem with VW’s whole approach to the US market.
Lest the boys from Wolfsburg forget, Volkswagen built its reputation in the US by offering genuinely European products at prices well below the true premium European brands. For example, Rabbit sales have been hurt recently by poor fuel efficiency from its lumpen standard drivetrain, while Jetta is rebounding on the back of its diesel and wagon options. In short, VW’s appeal in the US is fundamentally a niche proposition. As such, VW’s forthcoming product line of (likely heavily homogenized) US-only options run the risk of sacrificing VW’s European image.
Specifically, what will the “New Midsize” and “In the Range of Polo” be called? VW (essentially) admitted the the shortcomings of condescending to the US market by recently announcing that the Rabbit name would die. But the “New Midsize” won’t be a Golf, nor will it likely boast such Euro-tech as VW’s “twincharger” engine. The “Range of Polo” will likely be a four door with a possible MPV variant. And as for crossovers like the Golf Plus or Touran? Jacoby would rather get the dumb Americans to shell out for a small SUV.
VW’s new $4 billion plant in Chattanooga represents a huge opportunity for VW to make inroads into the US market. But if VW uses its capacity to produce crude US-only products with little relation to its globally-renowned European products, it could well gain some volume but only at the expense of long-term brand equity. Having tried to “adapt” its European products to the US market (from Merkur through Contour), Ford seems to have learned that too much of their appeal is lost in translation. The Blue Oval is now bringing cars like Focus and Fiesta to the US with minimal homogenization. Why is VW still heading in the opposite direction?
Jacoby’s primary diagnosis of VW’s US market woes is that the brand is “too much positioned in the corners, in the niches of this big market.”
—————————————————-
VW being in the corners is not a cause for its low sales, but actually a result of its uncompetitiveness (i.e. reliability) against Toyota/Honda.
If they want their sales numbers go main stream, their CR score better go there first.
Yes. Until the perceive quality is fixed, many of us cannot justify buying a VW. I still think they are in the weeds: “We will bring the Phaeton back to the market.”
Why? Why can’t they just be the affordable German brand and alternative to Toyota/Honda?
wsn,
I have some German friends and they said when they are buying a car the number one priority is the gas milage vs. size/performance. Reliablity is a secondary concern (not that it isn’t a concern it’s just not the primary concern).
If you asked an American: “In a $22k car would you rather have a 2.5L I-5 with 170bhp that gets 30mpg highway or would you like a 1.4L twincharger that gets 39mpg but in order to afford the $500 more expensive 1.4L, we have to buy lower quality parts?” The US consumer would say they’d want the 2.5L. European consumers would say they want the 1.4L.
lewissalem :
August 17th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Why? Why can’t they just be the affordable German brand and alternative to Toyota/Honda?
——————————————-
I think it’s due to a combination of union/government labor, bureaucracy and white man’s pride. Similar to GM, but not to that extent yet.
Talking about Phaeton, it’s priced too high. When Lexus just released the LS, it’s about 25% cheaper than a S-class of similar engine displacement.
Now that the “newbie” Phaeton wants to take on the established players, it needs to be cheaper too. Like 25% cheaper than an LS. Oh, not to mention the non-premium brand, reduce another 10%.
Listing the Phaeton at $50,000 with every option included probably works. But still no guarantee, since the Genesis is even cheaper than that.
jmo, we are discussing VW selling cars in the US. Whatever they do in Europe is irrelevant. BTW, VW doesn’t have any advantage in fuel economy vs. anyone either.
Vlad the Impaler fans really get off on the VW dealer experience, so don’t do anything about quality, reliability and durability.
The “fun to drive” factor of VW is way over rated. It’s not any better (if not worse) than a Honda or a Mazda.
Whatever they do in Europe is irrelevant.
How is it irrelevant? You can’t engineer cars for two different markets if the consumer preferences are too different. If Europeans want $22k cars that are high performance and have better gas milage at the expense of quality parts and Americans want cars that are lower in perforamnce and get worse gas milage but have higher quality parts, you just can’t make it work.
The only way to make it work is to do like Toyota and Honda do and engineer vehicles primarily for the American market.
@ wsn:
The “fun to drive” factor of VW is way over rated. It’s not any better (if not worse) than a Honda or a Mazda.
+1,000,000
They’re not BMWs.
Hell, they’re not even Audis.
Too bad VW can’t contract out its US production to one of the big three….that would seem to be a cheaper option to building a plant from scratch.
Another question:
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/WSJ_JDPwrVehicle_090318.pdf
Looking at that why do Europeans tend to shun Toyota and Honda when compared to Americans. What about VW’s lineup in Europe makes their vehicles so compelling vs. the competition from Toyota and Honda?
How is the Passat too small? I can easily sit in the front seat and enjoy plenty of head clearance (with a sunroof no less) and there is plenty of room for another person over 6 feet to sit behind me.
Contrast that to my wife’s A4 where my shoulders and knees feel like they’re boxed in, my head is mashed into the ceiling and my toddler drives me up the flipping wall kicking the back seat.
This is interesting in light of VW’s strategy in “developing” — i.e., backward, to varying degree — markets like Brazil, South Africa, and China. Those markets have tended to get VW’s dregs and castoffs. In China the A2 Jetta remains available as a new car (as far as I can tell; if it’s been discontinued it was only last year) — it was discontinued in 1992 in Europe and elsewhere. In South Africa, you can still buy a new A1 Wabbit Rabbit Golf. In Brazil and Argentina, they get the Gol.
As you (E.N.) noted in your end-of-the-Wabbit writeup and I noted in my turn signal piece, American-built and/or -market versions of VWs have tended to be crappified to varying degree. We already don’t get the Scirocco; is North America, then, to finish becoming another of VW’s table-scraps markets?
@slateslate:
Too bad VW can’t contract out its US production to one of the big three…
Y’mean like they do with the Routan?
Does this mean VW is developing even more advanced electronic gremlins?
I can hear the old man yelling at the crew, “Now that we have gotten rid of my dummkopf cousins, we’re bringing the Phaeton back to America and we will make them like it.”
i am sick of the supersizing of the old mid sized cars.
camry, accord, 6 etc, why must they be so huge & with shocking rear vision?
i can’t wait for the day when 90’s styled cars comes into fashion with low rooflines, long profiles & actually being able to see out the back when reversing or changing lanes
jmo: Looking at that why do Europeans tend to shun Toyota and Honda when compared to Americans. What about VW’s lineup in Europe makes their vehicles so compelling vs. the competition from Toyota and Honda?
Two big reasons:
1. People in Europe rely more on mass transit, and distances between most points are shorter, so they don’t put as many miles in a year on their vehicles. Thus, there is more time for use-related problems to surface than in America. With readily available mass transit, a breakdown isn’t the near-catastrophe that it is here.
2. In Europe it is common to receive a car as a job-related perk to avoid high income taxes. The car is owned by the employer, and traded more frequently than if it were owned by the individual. Under those circumstances, reliability is not paramount to the person who drives it.
Introduce those factors to large parts of North America, and VWs would probably become more popular here, too.
jmo :
August 17th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
What about VW’s lineup in Europe makes their vehicles so compelling vs. the competition from Toyota and Honda?
————————————-
No, it’s not the vehicles. It’s the buyers. They favor Caucasian built things.
Americans are more practical in car buying, because they nuked Japan twice before and don’t need to prove anything now.
I would be concerned about VW support. View my VW experience at:
http://www.reesphotos.com/VW/
wsn says:
“No, it’s not the vehicles. It’s the buyers. They favor Caucasian built things.
Americans are more practical in car buying, because they nuked Japan twice before and don’t need to prove anything now.”
I like this explanation. When Iraq starts building cars, we’ll totally get the drop on the Europeans. But I guess the English will beat us to enjoying Indian cars…
No, it’s not the vehicles. It’s the buyers. They favor Caucasian built things.
****
No, Europeans place a higher emphasis on design/aesthetics/ergonomics. Ironically in a country full of “individualism,” most Americans don’t care if the design of their car is the American copy of a Japanese copy of a German design (except vw owners who think that the jetta looks too much like a corolla, lol).
Americans want a car that supports our fat asses, not breakdown for the first 100,000 miles, have multiple cupholders and have sufficient power to merge onto the local interstate so that we can chug along for twenty miles down a perfectly straight roadway while talking on the cell phone, lol.
slatestate,
I think it’s hard to imagine how different buying priorities are in Germany vs. the US.
The best selling car in Germany – the 1.9L TDI Golf.
The best selling car in the US – Toyota Camry.
Now, think how different a 90bhp diesel Golf is vs. a Camary LE.
Why does VW keep trying to compete against Audi with luxury cars?
The “fun to drive” factor of VW is way over rated. It’s not any better (if not worse) than a Honda or a Mazda.
Obviously you haven’t driven a GTI recently. OK, I’m biased – I own an ’08. But I’ve also owned several Hondas and Mazdas, including a terrific CRX Si, a V6 Mazda 626 manual and a V6 Mazda6 manual, both of which were quite tasty. But I can say without reservation that the GTI is the most fun car I’ve ever had. It’s on a par with my old man’s late, lamented RX-7 in that respect.
As a VW fan, I find the prospect of dummed down “Americanized” dubbers quite distressing. I’ve been fretting ever since word first leaked that the Passat replacement made in TN would be decontented b/c we Americans don’t appreciate a premium driving experience. Maybe Alfa can fill the void if that’s where we end up.
Why does VW keep trying to compete against Audi with luxury cars?
Yeah, I never did quite understand that one myself.
wsn : The “fun to drive” factor of VW is way over rated. It’s not any better (if not worse) than a Honda or a Mazda.
As a VW owner I recently had the opportunity to drive a Mazda 6. I’ve heard much about Mazda’s drivability, but was very disappointed. The thing drove like every other Japanese car I’ve driven. It was bland, unresponsive, the interior was horribly designed and the outside looked like the spawn of Jet Jaguar–it was downright embarrassing.
I’m seriously looking to buy next year, but will not go with another VW as they appear to be abandoning their Euro heritage for something they conceive to be more in line with American tastes. Since most Americans are fat and lazy from eating too many cheeseburgers and drinking too much beer, I’m not impressed. I suspect VW is making a big mistake, but they’ve made so many mistakes in the recent past, why not a few more? Something inside me tells me to chunk it all and go Japanese–but I just don’t think I can pull the trigger. I guess I’ll just have to bite the bullet and get a BMW.
The gist of the article isn’t much different than the strategy of VW’s first factory in the U.S., located in Pennsylvania. The American-built Rabbits were less edgy and fun-to-drive than their European-built predecessors, even though the body was theoretically the same.
They’d been “Americanized.” So VW sold the plant.
“No, it’s not the vehicles. It’s the buyers. They favor Caucasian built things.”
Is it allowed here on TTAC to call Europeans racists?
mpresley: you take that back about Americans drinking too much beer. Beer is good, and should be drunk. Americans understand that, and so do the Germans. God bless us all.
blau : mpresley: you take that back about Americans drinking too much beer. Beer is good, and should be drunk. Americans understand that, and so do the Germans. God bless us all.
Come to think of it, you’re right. Why single out Americans, when Germans make Yanks look like pikers in the beer and schnitzel department?
I could live with ratcheting up the blandness level of VWs if Audis became proportionately edgier. But (as everyone seems to agree) having them compete against each other is just ridiculous.
@johnrees:
View my VW experience at: http://www.reesphotos.com/VW/
Yishk. This reminds me of our miserable experience with a 1990 (A2) Jetta bought new (and, for those who babble about such things, made in Germany). That pathetic excuse for a car was very nearly as problem-plagued as an ’80 Stinkoln Town Car I had the misfortune to have to try to keep on the road for awhile in the late ’80s. In particular, I’m thinking of an incident (read through; the punchline’s worth it) in 1992 in which the Jetta failed to start for the teenaged-girl member of our family after she and some friends inadvertently pulled into an abandoned gas station many secluded miles from somewhere between CO and UT.
In those pre-celphone days, the emergency call for help came from the station’s decrepit payphone. She described the symptoms for me, and I had her direct one of her friends to grab hold of the battery cables and flex them whilst she tried to start the car, then spoke to the appointed friend to assure her there was no danger of electrocution. Both talks were successful; the car started and my diagnosis of faulty battery cables was confirmed.
On her return from the road trip I replaced the chintzy factory cables with very sturdy heavy-duty Belden 2-gauge items. Some months later, the aircon quit blowing cold (again) and the radio would play for only five minutes or so before locking in on 87.7 and refusing to budge. The dealer blamed both troubles on the “American-made battery cables, which aren’t compatible with VWs because American cables don’t conduct electricity the way a German cable does”.
Every few years, I begin to get my hopes up that the cars and dealers have improved; fortunately a story like yours always comes along to keep me away from VWs, no matter how appealing their designs may seem.
@ talkstoanimals:
Obviously you haven’t driven a GTI recently.
I probably should’ve mentioned the GTI/R32 as the exceptions to wsn’s observation about VW.
Other than those vehicles his point stands.
I think this is a smart move on VW’s part. They’ll never catch the Japanese, nor the emerging Koreans, nor even possible American survivors and Chinese upstarts, without attempting to mix it up in the thick of the market. Trying to stay out of the heat by sticking to niches, is similar to maintaining a lossless record in boxing by never taking on a serious opponent. Over time, it only leads you to fall further and further behind. And sooner or later, one of the big bruisers are going to decide they’ll want whatever little niche you have been holing yourself up in, and casually knock you flat on your face as if your weren’t even there.
I’d be happy with “the niche” that is Euro-spec VWs (Canadians moreso than Americans I might argue). I can’t tell you how offensive I found it that VW continued to sell us the Golf City instead of just bringing us the Polo as is. Maybe we’re an “emerging market”. Nice.
Perhaps the posters arguing for mainstreaming make a point.
Look at the marketing geniuses at Volvo: “We’ve spent years cultivating the image of the perfectly safe family car. Here’s the niche: Let’s continue to market family vehicles, but price them beyond the means of a family to afford them.”
That worked well.
wsn: The “fun to drive” factor of VW is way over rated. It’s not any better (if not worse) than a Honda or a Mazda.
I have owned seven VW’s, and now own a Honda. The Rabbit craps all over the Honda Jazz (Fit) for NVH, quality of interior bits and pieces, road noise, and interior fit and finish. We have a top of the line Jazz (VTI-s) which is only a couple of thousand dollars shy of the cheapest Golf available here.
The only thing that is better in the Jazz is the fuel economy. Which is not hard considering how lazy and retro the US only I5 2.5 engine is. It had the fuel consumption of an eight and the power of a four. At least the Honda has the fuel consumption and power of an engine of its size. That said, the 1.5 Honda engine is very buzzy and thrashy when asked to do basic things.
I drove a US spec Mazda6 in the USA care of Enterprise a few times. The road noise at 70 mph was unbelievable. That will warn me to always test drive a new car on the freeway before buying. I am surprised that more folks don’t complain about that. Although the drive was good, well sorted and perky, the interior was a light shade of fake aluminum and bright work which looks okay for about two minutes or until you touch it the first time (which ever comes first).
VW are signing their own death warrant here. Folks buy Toyotas and Hyundais if they want good value and reliable transportation. VW will not win many buyers with the Polo sedan. The car is small to start with – a segment that is not big business, and because it’s so compromised a design (making a hatch into a sedan), the trunk is even more useless than your average sedan. The Polo GTI hatch looks good and is very perky with the twincharged engine. In fact, I think it will be my next car.
It’ll be a shame if they don’t bring that car to the USA.
Andrew
A couple of pointers from a European perspective. I am sure Bertel will pipe up shortly and correct any errors in my perception here :)
First of all, in the eyes of VWs management, they see themselves as being above Toyota, Honda, the Big 3 and similar manufacturers and firmly perceive VW products to be premium products, on a similar level to Audi, BMW and Mercedes.
For some time, under Piech, it was the stated strategy to get VW upmarket to the same level, which worked to some extent in Europe. There were to be two pipelines, if you wish, within the Group, the conservative, starting with Skoda, and including VW and Bentley as later upgrades, and the sporty, with Seat, Audi, Lamborghini and Bugatti. In that scheme VW was to be positioned as an alternative to Mercedes, Audi as an alternative to BMW, Seat was to be the Spanish Alfa Romeo, while Skoda was to compete against Volvo. In some ways it seemed preposterous then, in some ways it worked (partially).
With that in mind, the Phaeton was to beat the S-Class and had to be the technofest it was.
Where did it work, where didn’t it? Audi was arguably successful in its goal, as it grew to 2.5 times its size, built brand equity and expanded into areas previously unoccupied. With rare exceptions (RS4, R8) it’s still not as good as a BMW dynamically, even after most of BMWs chassis engineers were poached (story was Piech wanted Richard Parry-Jones but he got paid more in his role at Ford than Piech did as CEO, so that did not work out).
Seat continued to languish in the weeds and has still not come out of there. The current Exeo – a reskin of the previous generation Audi A4 might just work to get the brand going but I would not hold my breath.
Skoda was the successful one, in that it pretty much obliterated most iron curtain era jokes and arguably provides more compelling products at a lower price than VW does. With better reliability and a better ride to boot – the former as a result of using proven components, the latter as a result of Czech roads being worse than German ones. While it’s not quite achieved the goal of being seen in the same light as Volvo, it’s perhaps only a handful of years away (to a large extent Volvo’s to blame for this as well).
VW is a bit of a mixed bag. After Lopez finally made sure Opel’s brand catchet in all but Eastern Europe was more or less burried for decades to come, VW assumed the role of being the most premium of the mass market bunch. In terms of product, the Mk 4 Golf and the Passat that followed shortly afterreally raised the game in terms of perceived quality, interior parts design etc. Unfortunately, profitability suffered as a result, something Bernhard tried to correct with the Mk V, which was leagues ahead dynamically (producing the much lauded GTi, the first one since the 80s worth the moniker), and which had to make corresponding savings in other areas, such as the interior.
I think VW definitely succeeded in positioning themselves above the mainstream competition in Europe but at the same time fell short of being mentioned in th same breath as MB, BMW or Audi.
As for the lack of success of the Japanese in Europe? Partially down to ignorance, partially down to automotive nationalism, as well as peer pressure. It is simply wrong to drive something Japanese and the perceived wisdom is stil ltat the only theing they are capable off is copying the good German designs. It’s a perception in part stemming from a different approach to introducing innovations that the German manufacturers use (can expand on that if anyone is interested), partly just plain German arrogance (French / Italian / etc.).
The ignorance bit comes in the form of statements such as – Japanese cars are prone to rust (has not been the case for the last 20 years), spare parts are difficult to obtain and expensive (ditto), the cars brake down for good as soon as the warranty expires, etc. These all have an impact on some actual facets of owning a Japanese car in Europe – as a result of such perceptions resale values are a lot lower and finding a buyer for a used Japanese car is just plain hard, irrespective of all the qualities they have. This suddenly makes something like a VW, with a much broader service network, larger installed base and much better perception – ergo much lower depreciation – a rational decision, even if it will break down a bit more – at least the plastics in the interior, something you are in contact with all the time, will look nicer.
When I grow up, I want to be a corporate sales VP for VW or an American brand. Then I will be paid handsomely for doing careful research to design and market just barely tolerable (or not) cars that drive the drivers nuts, while ignoring any input about how lousy the design and manufacturing is or whether Americans might want something else. In the case of VW, I will ignore that they have killer products in Europe and refuse to import them, while demanding that the mother ship spend a bundle to develop a new product in order to bring it to market just as the demand for it tanks (the SUV).
Is this a great country or what? Don’t answer that.
Love the choice of picture for this article. Looks like they’ll be resuming production of that POS in October. http://bit.ly/p5sWa
I’ve been driving VWs for about 11 years now. 4 Jetta diesels, and one gas Golf in that time. If VW decides to bring over ‘mericanized supersized cars, I’m out. I’ll just keep driving my current Jettas as long as I can and by then maybe Ford will be offering some diesel engines in their Fiesta or Focus. VWoA and GM executives have a lot in common. They don’t understand the market, and even if they do figure out what people want, it takes them way too long to introduce a competitive product. (See the Touareg, Tiguan, and Routan.) Stefan Jacoby will probably be at GM before too long f$cking things up over there.
The only reason I ever got into VW was because of their diesel engines, which they do very well. If they suddenly dropped those, there would be no reason to ever look at a VW in my opinion. I still can’t understand how they ever thought that the 2.5 litre engine was a good idea for the Jetta and Gabbit.
But if VW uses its capacity to produce crude US-only products with little relation to its globally-renowned European products, it could well gain some volume but only at the expense of long-term brand equity
And that’s sort of the point. VW’s brand equity in North America really hasn’t amounted to much. You can talk about the value of it among enthusiasts all you like, but if they’re not making money, the “brand” is worthless and needs to be updated.
There’s a niche in North that VW could crack open: the semi-premium “normal” car. Mazda currently has this section of the market all to itself, what with Saab and Volvo’s self destruction and Honda’s total misfire on Acura. VW could play here if it did three things:
* Rationalized the price of it’s products. They’re nice, but they’re not as nice as VW is asking, and when they’re stripped to affordability they’re really not that pleasant.
* Fix the quality and warranty performance issues—especially warranty. Getting your German car fixed is like getting a root canal without the courtesy of anaesthetic. The fault here lies with VWoA and VWAG: they’ve traditionally treated their American dealers’ warranty claims as if they were handled by lepers, and as such you can hardly blame the dealers from passing the screwjob down to the customers
* Develop products people want to buy. VW only begrudgingly acknowledges that perhaps North Americans don’t want to buy what they have to sell, and they only admit it after they can rationalize selling the same product in Europe. There’s nothing wrong with offering Europhile products, but you have to make a concession to North American tastes as well. This means that you cannot price the Passat to Audi levels and have it run premium fuel only, or that you can get away without a mid-size crossover.
All this smacks of arrogance: that VWAG knows what’s right and the North American market just needs to be led towards the light of their brilliance.** In Europe they’ve been sucessful largely because everyone else is just as bad or worse, because they benefitted from artificial barriers to entry (the diesel gap, which is now closed) and because they have incredible momentum. But Toyota and Hyundai are making inroads in Europe; VW needs to make hay in other markets to compete. In North America, this means making some changes, and yes, those changes will probably mean more Americanized products.***
The problem with what I’m hearing here is that all VW will do is produce cut-rate versions of it’s current products (say, a generation or two behind, or significantly decontented) and assume all is well. This is how VW treats developing markets, and it will work right up to the point someone else makes something better for the same price. And at that point, Hyundai, Toyota or (eventually) Tata and the like will eat their lunch. Doing that in North America, which is already a mature market, just won’t work. People will not buy an NMS Passat or Jetta, not when there are a dozen better cars for less.
** Rather like GM, actually.
*** They don’t need to sell Yukons, but they could offer a Passat with cloth seats and the 2.5L four, or a Jetta that could compete with the Civic in price, or a seven-seater that doesn’t suck like the Routan.
I have owned seven VW’s, and now own a Honda. The Rabbit craps all over the Honda Jazz (Fit) for NVH, quality of interior bits and pieces, road noise, and interior fit and finish. We have a top of the line Jazz (VTI-s) which is only a couple of thousand dollars shy of the cheapest Golf available here.
Wait, you’re comparing the Rabbit/Golf with the Fit/Jazz, and even admitting that the Fit tops out several thousand below the Golf? And not even mentioning the car that it actually competes with (the Civic)?
I think you’re being a little disingenuous.
The Polo GTI hatch looks good and is very perky with the twincharged engine. In fact, I think it will be my next car.
It’ll be a shame if they don’t bring that car to the USA.
It will not sell. Everyone who calls for these Euroboxes to be sold in the US needs to print the following out and post it above their monitor:
North Americans do not buy diesels, sporty cars, or small premium cars in volume. They never have, and they never will. It’s been tried, sometimes very well and certainly by people who won’t half-ass it like VW would, and we’ve always preferred comfortable and reliable to sporty and “soulful”.
No matter how much enthusiasts wish it wasn’t the case, it is. Even in Canada, where small cars do well, VW’s nod to the small car market was to decontent the MkIV Jetta and Golf. You’re dreaming if you think they’ll try to send a high-buck Polo over here.