* This post is taken, mostly, from the July 2011 issue of Automobile magazine.
In 2010, VW sold 260,000 vehicles in the U.S. By 2018, it wants to sell 800,000. How do they plan to do it? By making cheap cars that attract the lowest common denominator. This is going to piss off every American VW fan. So how does VW plan to sell more Passats? (Keep in mind that a 2010 model has a base price of $27,000. The 2012 will start at $20,000.)
- Uninspired design so as to not offend anyone (and thereby offending many).
- Climate control knob no longer spins fluidly.
- Glove box no longer lined with soft material.
- Hood has prop rod instead of gas struts.
- Turbo 2.0 liter replaced with less powerful 2.5 liter 5 cylinder.
- Wider seats for bigger butts.
- Softer ride.
Essentially, we have a VW Camry.
The interesting bit is while they'll offer a 20.000 base version, they also have pricier Passats that will please those buyers looking for "content", and even other engine choices.
ReplyDeleteSo it sounds fair to me.
vw is doing the same thing to the jetta.
ReplyDelete@MCB: Yeah. My neighbor bought his kid the base Jetta and it looks like a 10 year old Hyundai rental car.
ReplyDelete