When I was a young whippersnapper and did advertising for Volkswagen, we had a rule of thumb: “Over the lifetime of the car, you’ll spend the purchase price again.” In gas, oil, taxes, insurance, repairs, parts, you name it. We kept that rule to ourselves. We didn‘t want to shock the prospective buyer. Now, Volkswagen changed their mind. They are going for full disclosure.
Volkswagen’s UK agency DDB put together a website that “reveals the true cost of a Volkswagen,” says Campaign, the must-read for the propaganda professional. The site is part of the “Unbelievable Value” campaign Volkswagen runs in the UK. The Telegraph had choice words for that campaign: “In typically understated fashion, Volkswagen has just revealed its latest ‘Unbelievable Value’ slogan which must have taken an in-house VW wordschmidt all of five minutes to dream up and implement.” It wasn’t me. Two Ts in the end.
The website is one of those annoying Adobe Flash applications that take a lifetime to load. Once up, it presents you with a miniature modern village, populated with animated inhabitants, SimCity style. You can simulate lifestyle choices, and when it comes to cars, Volkswagen will tell you that the better choice is a you-know-what. The site itself is pretty boring, so if you have problems falling asleep, go for it. If you want to stay awake, the site will make you depressed with ever increasing numbers.
The site has a big enemy: Zonealarm, one of the most used personal firewalls. Wherever you go on the site, Zonealarm warns you not to entrust the site with any personal information. Of course, the first thing the site does is ask you for personal information. To sign up, it wants your name and email address. If you tell Zonealarm to shut up, and you complete the sign-up process, you will get an ominous “You’ll hear from us soon.”
Signed-up, I headed right over to the car part. Then the website crashed.
Never before has the customer experience of a Volkswagen owner been better simulated than on this site.
Flash is to the Web as an explosive belt is to fashion. But VW has always liked these cutesy however stupid and ultimately useless advertising gimmicks. Also, they do not seem to understand who makes up or what their market should be. Spend a few years moving the Jetta upmarket, and then decide to go decidedly down-market with a product featuring cheapness as its selling point. A Passat at 30 large is too steep for the US market? No problem, let’s bring over the Phaeton. Stack ’em high and watch ’em fly; Stack ’em deep and sell ’em cheap.
“Never before has the customer experience of a Volkswagen owner been better simulated than on this site.”
On the bright side, they probably just prevented would be owners countless hours of frustration. So thank you VW. Your good deed for the day is done.
My 1984 GTI, lovingly assembled in Westmoreland, PA was such a POS quality wise that I memorized the VIN and production date by repetition at the parts and service counters of arrogant VW dealers nationwide.
Was it the spare fuel pump relays I’d buy two at a time? The windshield frame that rusted thru by 1987?
I will never be able to forget my old VIN. 1VWDC0173EV000###.
Last VW ever for me.
My last VW was a Pennsylvania-built Rabbit, too. I remember well those fuel pump relay failures and the difficulty that the dealer had troubleshooting it, despite the fact the VW had put out a TSB on it.
Thing was, VW just kept sending more defective relays into the parts network rather than actually fix the problem. I’ve never owned another, either, and it’s not likely that I ever will.
I had an ’85 Golf that was actually pretty reliable and simple. Of course, the only two options I bought on it were AC and a manually-cranked sunroof. The Passat 4Motion wagon I owned briefly a few years ago was a money pit: peeling clearcoat, expensive parts, an intermittent CEL that even my top-notch independent mechanic couldn’t track down. The final straw was a bad rear diff at around 87K that would have cost $5000 to replace. The car was gone soon after.
I always found it amazing and somewhat ironic that the CEL was a part that never broke. That sucker never failed to light up. In fact it was a great traveling companion that I could always count on being there with me.
@crc:
Unfortunately, in NY a lit CEL is more than an annoyance: it’s grounds for your car failing inspection.
I had an ’85 Golf as well. It was a great car, really no issues. Traded it in on a ’87 Scirocco 16V which was another great VW, I put many fun miles on that car, the dealer sucked but then I didn’t need to visit very often.
Then a succession of Passats. First a 90 with a 4 cynlinder. Not too bad except a rear alignment issue that ate tires. Dealer couldn’t ever solve the problem so I traded it for a ’93 Passat with a VR6. Was great to drive when it was new but did not age well at all (BTW, who designs a $400 plastic thermostat housing – that failed twice!) and by 100k miles it was completely worthless, window regulators gone, sunroof shit the bed, ABS crapped out, radiator rotted out, headliner peeling off and various other issues. I fixed the egregious issues and gave it to our babysitter who needed an around town beater car.
Also had a 93 Passat GLX Wagon. Again, not bad when new but a POS by the time we were done with it.
Then I lost my mind and bought a 2001 Jetta. I hated that car, traded it in in with less than 12k miles (boy did I take a bath on that) and bought a Honda Element, which is now up to 140k miles with total repairs (outside of maintenance) being an idle air control valve and a clutch slave cylinder.
Bought another Element in 2008 and have a 2004 Odyssey and they have similar repair records as the first Element.
My 73 Triumph, I expect odd problems and frequent repairs (though not too bad really). Will never buy another VW no matter what.
I have owned two VWs – an ’03 Jetta GLS and an ’06 Jetta TDI. Both were nice cars that never had any major problems. What turned me off to to VW has the steep price of scheduled maintenance the prospect of even more expensive long-term ownership costs. I didn’t keep either car past 100k because I knew something big would eventually go wrong and I didn’t want to get stuck with the repair bills.
Yep, VWs are not cars for people that a) aren’t rich or b) don’t know how to work on their car. If you’ve got tons of money and don’t mind giving a lot of it to a dealership, no problem. If you’re not rich but don’t mind working on your car, no problem. If you’re neither rich or mechanically inclined for car work, you want a Toyota or a Honda.
I actually steered a co-worker away from a Jetta TDI recently because he’s neither a or b. He currently drives an Echo but was looking at a Jetta TDI or a Prius. I told him to get the Prius.
That website sounds like my last experience in a VW service department. Except my ex was the “blockhead” with the sad face for getting a Jetta serviced at the dealer in the first place.
Didn’t used to be that way, Sajeev. Back in the mid-80’s when I owned the Golf, the local VW dealership was honest, and offered reasonably priced service. When I had the Passat, I watched a service writer tell a young couple that $600 worth of “diagnostic tests” over a blown fuse was necessary because “fuses just don’t fail on their own.” I was there for a routine oil change, and the car wasn’t in the shop yet. I collected my keys, left, and never went back.
I think Sajeev and other commenters have hit upon VW’s biggest problem in the U.S. – its dealer network.
While I’m sure that some of the U.S. VW dealers offer great service (I personally know of one in my area) most are just horrible. Terrible customer relations coupled with poor technical skills seems to be the norm for VW dealer service.
I’m glad to see that VW quality and reliability has improved in the last several years, but I have not noticed any improvement in the dealer network. Sure, they’ve built many fancy new showrooms, but that cosmetic improvement was just lipstick on a pig.
VW will never hit its aggressive sales goals as long as it keeps allowing dealers to neglect customers, treat them like hell and fail to fix things properly the first time, if at all.
I’m too lazy to Google the name, but there’s a VW dealership in Plymouth, MI that’s good, or at least they were with me. Also in Holland, MI is a nice one. I bought my GTI from the one in Plymouth and my test drive consisted of the sales guy, who was a little greasy/creepy and kept trying to “relate” to me at 26yrs old, tossing me the keys and telling me where the cops hang out to make sure I got as familiar as I wanted with the car without fear of being pulled over. He was nice enough, knew everything about the car and had an R32 that he let me take for a spin. So kudos to you, unattractive small man with bad hair and a nice car.