VW Brand Sales Down in July
The Volkswagen Group announced that global July sales for VW branded vehicles were down half a percent from last year, to 466,100. Reuters reported that July joins March 2013 as the second monthly decline this year.
Christian Klinger, head of VW sales used words like “uncertain” and “challenging” to describe the near term situation. Sales for the first seven months of 2013 were up almost 4% from last year, with 3.38 million units sold, with strong Chinese sales offsetting the continued weak European market. Sales in Europe were down 6.8% and in Volkswagen’s home country of Germany they were off by even more, 9.1%. The Volkswagen Group’s array of cars and brands across the price spectrum and overseas growth are seen as helping the company withstand the decline in it’s European base.
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"Exactly the right decision"? The strategy is "fine"? Is the VWoA PR department posting on TTAC now? The competitors being stronger than expected means you failed at forecasting. Making the Jetta and Passat look boring and also identical is a double fail. I can't believe VW would make such a costly mistake in their second most important market, after that enormous investment in Tennessee. On dramatically missed sales and profit goals it always starts off with "it doesn't matter when we get there, what matters is that we are on the right track." Translation: Expect a major management shake up soon. VW's failed N.A. strategy has set the company back 10 years.
I see many new Passats near O'Hare airport with bar code and 'no smoking' stickers on them. And it real hard to tell Jetta and Passat apart from the back.
Maybe people Europeans are figuring out that Scodas are basically the exact same car for less money?
I hope VWoA's sales continue to decline. We're looking to get a deal on a 2014 Jetta because the 1.8TSI is a much better engine than the 2.5. They're apparently offering 0.9% on 2014s in August, but I'd prefer 0% and would like to pay well below invoice. I'll start shopping in the last couple weeks of December and see if they want to sell a car or not.