VeeDub Is On A Roll
Speaking of German car companies doing exceptionally well despite a tanking German car market, there is of course Volkswagen.
The Volkswagen group sold more than 3.5m units worldwide in the first six months of 2010, besting the pretty darn good numbers of the same period in 2009 by about 15 percent, Martin Winterkorn said to Reuters. He predicts (and that’s an easy call based on the half year results) that the Volkswagen group will see record car sales in 2010. What’s driving the new Wirtschaftswunder? The weak Euro, of course. And the strong position of Volkswagen in boom markets such as China.
Nevertheless, VW doesn’t want to rely on the vagaries of the foreign exchange.
Meanwhile in India, Volkswagen seeks to enlarge its footprint in the promising market. The Hindu reports that VW wants to jointly develop products with Maruti Suzuki. VW had bought a 19.9 percent stake in the Suzuki last year. Both companies are jointl working on projects and a car for India could be one of them. Volkswagen’s Christian Klingler told the Hindu: “Of course, there is a possibility of developing products together, but I cannot confirm it.” Volkswagen has good reason to band together with Suzuki.
Said Klingler: “Suzuki is very strong in the Asian market, including India and Japan. They have knowledge in the small car segment, which is pretty unique. They make small cars and make money. Lot of manufacturers make small cars, but they don’t make money.” True, true, and true.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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VW still needs to prove they can manufacture a decent* gas engine. The 1.8t was crap, the 2.8 produced unimpressive power, the 2.5 drinks too much fuel and the 2.0t was a disaster reliability wise in its first few years (improved now?). Plus, the two bad turbo engines have been mainstays in all of their major models. Not good. *when I say decent, I mean reliable. Engines should be good for the life of the car plus reasonable regular maintenance in main-stream cars. While VW's engines are nice when new, the rest of the equation falls to bits.
electrical gremlins have popped up in a few friends with various models of VWs. Some are fairly benign, such as a bad ground in a factory stock system which caused a speaker or two so you hear a buzz that gets louder as the car revs, to power locks that loose the power, to constant barrage of idiot dash board lights that keep comming back on, to the ignition not working due to theft prevention issues, etc. I will never forget the 1999 Jetta that I drove one winter regularly that would regularly have its doors freeze.