Don’t forget that not everyone has convenient access to a luxury dealer. I would not purchase a brand outside of a 10 mile radius.

I think the CC is a winner.

I think this car will fail because at it’s price point, the interior isn’t special enough. I have a 2003 Passat GLX w/ leather and my father (a car nut) and my sister (a heterosexual female) both love that thing. The seats and leather are great and it drives suprisingly well for the underpowered 2.8l v6. I got in a 2008 3.2GLX (not the CC) and was flabbergasted at how cheap the interior materials were. I felt like I was in a Rabbit, from 1987.

Lastly, the Jetta isn’t really a competitor, it feels quite a lot smaller on the inside, even in front.

If you boycott Chinese Made products you are likely to lose. Sorry to say Americans has no option but buy Made In China.

Even a Original DKNY or Tommy Hilfinger jeans are made in China but are original jeans by those name brands.

I speak for the average American consumer.

Maybe you’ll disagree but isn’t buying cheap what helped America lose it’s manufacturing base? The race to the bottom? Not saying anybody needs to spend $40K on a VW to save a job. Am saying that buying cheap just supports Wal-Mart and China.

If you are only referring to cars then I agree b/c I am a used car man myself. My used VWs have been fine. Not as good as my Hondas but the VWs have been okay. Plenty of budget aftermarket repair parts if you have the internet and alot of those parts are sold as OEM – somewhere.

Also, I am no branding expert, and I don’t put nearly as much stock in it as some of the other folks around here, but I also believe it’s a bad move for VW to try to go too far upmarket. I wonder if any of that demographic research really supported this move, or if it was the execs trying to stretch their demographic. Doesn’t sales of these come largely at the expense of Audi?

Perhaps they will sell a bunch to MB lovers who can’t afford the original, and that would be good. However, I don’t think it will work that well. They should learn from GM and purposely move prestige buyers up to Audi rather than trying to keep them.

They should concentrate on selling style and functionality on a budget. Clean up the reliability issues, sell a couple appliance cars with character (beetle, rabbit, microbus), as well as some budget euro cars (jetta, passat, cc?).

Here is a question for the branding folks. Wouldn’t they be better off trying to sell a single car to every multi car family than trying to be a full line player? I remember when VW’s were very often the second or third car next to the family sedan or wagon.

This car may die the same fate as the Phaeton.

I think the $45,000 Genesis or the MKS will sell better in the overall lifespan.

Compete with the Accord?
HAHAHAHAHAHA
That’s ridiculous. The Accord has no competition besides the Malibu, and STUPID GM didn’t include a Navigation system option for the dashboard.

This car will compete with the M35, MKS, Genesis, BMW 5, C350 and Nissan Maxima.
Thus far, I see nothing here worth spending that kid of money on.

Then I am in a perfect world already, because I like the new TL styling. The Passat styling is not bad, but too boring as compared to the TL.

And this is why I can’t bring myself to buy a VW – all the interesting engineering and designs stay in Europe, and never make it to North America.

As for the CC, it appears that there was a surplus of 3.6 ltr engine manufacturing capacity as well as automatic transmissions – as the rest of world moves to smaller engines and DSG tranny’s.

BINI
BMW X5
Audi Q7
Any BMW 3-series, especially 318s
Mondeo STs

It’s darn refreshing to read prose that cuts straight to the point (”I did not find it to my ergonomic taste”) rather than strained efforts to excite the snare drum.

I’m late to the party, so I’m probably just re-hashing a lot of what has been said, but I’m quite confused by your take on the car… I understand you got the fully optioned one, which, I’ll agree, is hideously expensive. That said, the CC starts fully $1500 under the regular Passat. Assuming we agree on its looks (knockout, IMHO), the car you’re test-driving is a relative bargain. It sounds from your review like the interior holds up as well.

Would you consider adjusting your expectations to suit the non-luxury tier of manufacturers and trying the entry CC with the 2.0T and the 6-speed manual? I think that you’d be looking at a very different car (for the price of one of your optioned up Jettas).

Signed,

European cars have not traditionally been engineered for long-term love; they’re built be to great out of the gate. That’s changing, especially with Toyota, Honda and Hyundai gaining traction and making better cars; their products have always been more reliable, but compared to European offerings, they’re just not very good.

Europeans will put up with crap that North Americans would never, ever stand for. VW is probably the best of a bad lot–Fiat and Renault are atrocious–but when the standard is so low, you’d be hard-pressed to notice.

Now I wonder, are the cars that are delivered to the US really that bad, or is there a massive perception gap going on on at least one side of the Atlantic?

A bit of both.

They’re the same cars, usually. It’s not, as VW fans are wont to claim, the Mexico factor (the always-assembled-in-Germany Passat sucked, too) but VW did cheap out on quality control at their Mexican and Brazilian assembly plants.

The other problem is VW of America. Whether it’s the head office putting the screws to them, or VWoA’s own malice, they’ve made a habit of the tradition European, ahem, virtue of screwing customers and dealers out of support resources. Parts are rare and expensive and warranty claims are fought tooth and nail. Dealers, of course, after having been boinked by VWoA for decades are in the habit of doing the same to their customers.

I don’t mean to single out VW as all the European marques do this in North America. It’s the reason the Italians and French were chased off, and why, when they let their quality slip, Benz, Volvo and BMW suffered far more than might be expected: bad product and good service can work (Saturn), as can good product and rotten service (Mazda, pre-1995 Benz). Rotten product and rotten service are a recipe for customer perception shitstorms.

People credit Toyota and Lexus based on their high quality, which is largely true, but their other innovation was setting up a solid logistics network and fair warranty claims process. The Europeans couldn’t see past their supposedly perfect engineering to the whole customer experience, and consequently VW et al have a sliver of a presence in North America.

Which, this year, isn’t actually a bad thing.

Now I am bracing for the VW fanboys to start throwing their murses (man purses) at me. :)

If VW attacked quality, they would have to spend $$$. Sexy interiors and good marketing are much cheaper.

But there’s not only the reliability issue, but also what BEAT posted, saying that VWs are a pain in the ass to fix. Over here, it’s exactly the opposite (for all I know). Mechanics might not be happy to see a VW, but that’s mainly because they’re usually easier to fix, which means less time and therefore less money for the mechanic.

Now I wonder, are the cars that are delivered to the US really that bad, or is there a massive perception gap going on on at least one side of the Atlantic?

The thing about fixing the car could be due to the fact that VWs are just not very common in the US, while they are virtually everywhere in Europe. Hence European mechanics are way more accustomed with them.

But the quality shouldn’t be that far off. So either Europeans overestimate them, or Americans underestimate them, or both.

No, it’s not. I think it’s perfectly hideous. Granted, it’s not as hideous as the Benz CLS it’s aping, but it looks like a Hyundai Azera that’s started to melt in the sun.

The CC would be a great seller if VW just stuck to its original (pre-Phaeton) demographics.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/opel-insignia-wins-2009-european-car-of-the-year/

If that ever materializes, you could probably get one with GM’s 3.6L V6 for $25K.