Despite suffering from a market-induced sales conflagration at home and in Europe last April, Volkswagen can pat itself on the shoulder for outperforming the global market. In the first four months of 2010, the world bought 20.9 percent more Volkswagen Group cars than in the same period of last year. That versus an 18.1 rise of the general market.

VeeDub’s bacon was saved by China and Brazil, “where Volkswagen is particularly successful,” said a proud VW sales Chief Christian Klingler today. Looking forward, he’s hedging his bets. “Despite the very positive performance to date, we remain cautious about our forecast for the full year. It is still very difficult to predict macroeconomic developments,” a Volkswagen communiqué cites Klingler.

Klingler is right to be careful. (Read More…)