VW Toys with Giving Up the U.S. Mass Market, and Dealers Fume

Re:VW Toys with Giving Up the U.S. Mass Market, and Dealers ... by georgeecollins on Friday March 11, 2016 @03:34PM (#11269289)

The automobile market is not that simple. It's possible for a car to be moderately priced, sell in huge numbers, and make a profit. In the mid '90s Chrysler sold 100k+ minivans a year and made an average profit of $5k. I'm sure today someone is doing almost that well with cute SUVs.

VW has the wrong product mix for North America: no trucks, no popular SUVs. They got burned with US regulation because they cheated. It's easy to imagine that they would do better as a premium brand, but there is no evidence that they have the brand or the competency. Does anyone remember the Phaeton? Google that. VW has had this fantasy before.

Source on Chrysler : http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive...

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Re:VW Toys with Giving Up the U.S. Mass Market, and Dealers ... by joezydeco on Friday March 11, 2016 @04:36PM (#11269722)

It's easy to imagine that they would do better as a premium brand, but there is no evidence that they have the brand or the competency.

Yet, VW turned Audi around and made it into a luxury brand in the US.

The Planet Money podcast covers a little more into how they did it.

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/06/15/155039824/can-l...

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Re:VW Toys with Giving Up the U.S. Mass Market, and Dealers ... by Domenic_S on Friday March 11, 2016 @03:47PM (#11269389)

It's less simple than you think. Chrysler essentially invented the modern minivan and had a massive jump on sales in the 90s. Great competition like the Sienna didn't happen until the late 90s. When you have a popular new category and no competition, I'd expect to kill it like Chrysler did.

BMW doesn't have any trucks, and Honda didn't for a long time either. It's easy money but it's not the only way to make an auto brand.

(Fun side note: VW's minivan was a rebadged Chrysler.)

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