Volkswagen Won't Cut Prices to Chase Market Share in U.S.

Mark Stevenson
by Mark Stevenson

Even with a depressed euro and sales falling 2.7 percent in April, Volkswagen is staying the course.

According to Automotive News, Volkswagen has no plans to change its current pricing strategy to chase market share. The brand has seen steady declines in the U.S. even as the market overall has been growing.

“We believe it’s the right strategy over the long term,” Christian Klingler told AN.

He stated Volkswagen has a long-term approach to protecting profits and won’t try to chase volume at its expense. Similar problems are being experienced in other markets like Brazil. Also, even with the euro down versus the American dollar, most U.S. sales volume comes from North American-built vehicles, negating any possible positive currency impact.

Much of Volkswagen’s sales slump can be attributed to their current model mix. The brand does not offer a competitive crossover between the long-in-the-tooth Tiguan and much more expensive Touareg, a segment currently experiencing significant growth.

Mark Stevenson
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  • Sportyaccordy Sportyaccordy on May 03, 2015

    I bought my wife's 07 Rabbit with 80 or so K miles and it's been pretty problem free for the 30K miles we've had it. As long as VW keeps making the Golf and Golf wagon I'm OK. Hoping to replace it with a GSW SE 1.8T lease once the Rabbit turns over 150K. With an APR chip, Neuspeed suspension, some sporty tires and brakes and HIDs it will really be a jack of all trades.

  • JSF22 JSF22 on May 03, 2015

    Wouldn't Mr. Klingler's strategy have made more sense a few years ago, when VW's volume cars were real VWs, had some high-end features and excellent driving dynamics, and their idea for competing against the Asians was to offer a lot more car for a little more money? Unless I'm mistaken, they just went to great effort to re-engineer the Passat and Jetta to take out much of the most desirable content, making them drive like every other boring car, so they could cut the prices to match the Asians. Charging a premium price, for cars no better than the competition, with a horrible reputation for bad reliability (whether still justified or not) doesn't seem like the formula for success.

  • Delta88 Delta88 on May 03, 2015

    This is the most tedious comment thread I've had the displeasure of browsing through for a long time. "My friend's girlfriend's stepmother had a 2002 Beetle that exploded over and over again horribly disfiguring the poor woman to the point that the VW dealer would just lock the doors and turn out the lights whenever they saw her in the service lane. I would never buy one of those money pit/death traps!" Three VWs bought over the last seven years. About 110k miles driven in total among the three. Two repairs (one was a sunglasses holder latch the other a loose suspension piece rattling)

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    • Drzhivago138 Drzhivago138 on May 04, 2015

      @30-mile fetch Okay, see, that's valid. I have no horse in this race--I don't necessarily see VWs as any less or more reliable than the next car outside of any measurable data points. My friend's '87 Jetta was a complete POS, but that was more because he bought it for $750 than because it was a VW.

  • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on May 04, 2015

    "If you don't want a Volkswagen for $23,000, then we'll sell you one for $23,000!"

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