Volkswagen set to be #1 auto manufacturer in 2009

[MikeMike]

http://www.canada.com/business...ker/1506286/story.html

VW has been releasing a LOT of vehicles lately to attain this position. They are one of the most global of all automakers, and it has taken them very little time to get to the top, though they have never been small.

 

[Strk]

Toyota's top markets, with U.S. sales falling 38% and Japan sliding 24% in January-March.

That's pretty bad (financially). The US and Japan alone are half of Toyota's sales. Add to that their rapid expansion has put them in a lot of risk, maybe as much as GM. Before the shit hit the fan with the global financial system, Toyota was forcasting that they'd produce over 10 million vehicles. I'm not sure if the 1.23 million includes Hino (reports tend not to include them), but even if it doesn't, if the global market doesn't improve, Toyota isn't looking at much more than half of their forcast.

I guess you can use the old analogy of the tortoise and the hare with Honda and Toyota. Honda has expanded at a slow and steady pace, and while they have made cuts to ease things through the tough time, Toyota has made a lot of drastic moves. VW should ditch their desire to be #1 and take a look at Toyota. I'd rather be the company that even in tough times is fairly stable (I.e. Honda).

 

[night]

i've always seen honda and nintendo as very steady "do your own thing and do it well" kinda companies.

i am an auto tech and toyota has always been good cars but in the previous 5 years they have had a number more problems that you would have never seen before.
i have of course still seen some cost cutting measures on hondas, especially the 01-05 civics since they dragged that body out one more gen, but they have still always been the same solid dependable cars.

 

[Thump553]

Well VW is certainly declining in the US, which isn't surprisingly given their well-deserved reputation for gremlin laden electronics. I have a used VW which would be a great car except that it needs a grand or more to fix non-critical, but very annoying, electrical defects.

 

[TheSlamma]

Garages all over will be happy in about 4-5 years. Especially ones that know how to fix the electrical nightmares VW's turn out to be.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: night
i've always seen honda and nintendo as very steady "do your own thing and do it well" kinda companies.

i am an auto tech and toyota has always been good cars but in the previous 5 years they have had a number more problems that you would have never seen before.
i have of course still seen some cost cutting measures on hondas, especially the 01-05 civics since they dragged that body out one more gen, but they have still always been the same solid dependable cars.

Haven't they been building a lot of those cars over the last 5 years in the US with non Union Workers?

 

[night]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: night
i've always seen honda and nintendo as very steady "do your own thing and do it well" kinda companies.

i am an auto tech and toyota has always been good cars but in the previous 5 years they have had a number more problems that you would have never seen before.
i have of course still seen some cost cutting measures on hondas, especially the 01-05 civics since they dragged that body out one more gen, but they have still always been the same solid dependable cars.

Haven't they been building a lot of those cars over the last 5 years in the US with non Union Workers?

now dont pull me into that :shocked:
but it's as simple as skimming through the tsb/recall list between years.


and i can see that with the VW comments as well. i think i can swear every VW i've seen with the mini-monochrome LCD display in the cluster has had random blank and dead spots.
but i still hold them up as very good cars. tight as hell to work on in the engine compartment though.

 

[Balt]

Originally posted by: Thump553
Well VW is certainly declining in the US, which isn't surprisingly given their well-deserved reputation for gremlin laden electronics. I have a used VW which would be a great car except that it needs a grand or more to fix non-critical, but very annoying, electrical defects.

One of my roommates in college had the exact same issue with his, particularly his dashboard. Eventually he just stopped paying to get it 'fixed' and drove around without even knowing his speed.

 

[PricklyPete]

Originally posted by: TheSlamma
Garages all over will be happy in about 4-5 years. Especially ones that know how to fix the electrical nightmares VW's turn out to be.

VW's do not have the same reputation in Europe that they do have here. In the UK for instance, VW's hold their value way better than Toyotas, Hondas, and even Lexus. It's all about perception. VW has had a bad run in the last decade here in the US, but their quality has definitely improved in the last few years and likely will continue to improve.

 

[Bitek]

whhhatatatatatatatttttt? VW sucks balls. Screw VW and their stupidly engineered gay cars.


lol

 

[GroundedSailor]

Originally posted by: Bitek
whhhatatatatatatatttttt? VW sucks balls. Screw VW and their stupidly engineered gay cars.


lol

Yup. Finally got rid of the VW which was the least mileage and highest maintenance/repair cost car in the family. What a POS.

 

[RU482]

Originally posted by: PricklyPete

Originally posted by: TheSlamma
Garages all over will be happy in about 4-5 years. Especially ones that know how to fix the electrical nightmares VW's turn out to be.

VW's do not have the same reputation in Europe that they do have here. In the UK for instance, VW's hold their value way better than Toyotas, Hondas, and even Lexus. It's all about perception. VW has had a bad run in the last decade here in the US, but their quality has definitely improved in the last few years and likely will continue to improve.

I also wonder if the quality has anything to do with where the cars are manufactured. Are the US VW cars built in N America, or Europe?

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: RU482

Originally posted by: PricklyPete

Originally posted by: TheSlamma
Garages all over will be happy in about 4-5 years. Especially ones that know how to fix the electrical nightmares VW's turn out to be.

VW's do not have the same reputation in Europe that they do have here. In the UK for instance, VW's hold their value way better than Toyotas, Hondas, and even Lexus. It's all about perception. VW has had a bad run in the last decade here in the US, but their quality has definitely improved in the last few years and likely will continue to improve.

I also wonder if the quality has anything to do with where the cars are manufactured. Are the US VW cars built in N America, or Europe?

Passat and up are mostly German. I believe the Toureg (however it's spelled) is Slovakia. The smaller cars are mostly from Mexico.

They do have plans on opening two factories in the US. I believe TN gave them a huge chunk of land for free already. I believe it was VW anyways. $81 million worth of land or around there, if I remember correctly.

 

[ScottMac]

I have an 05 Touareg (V8, loaded) that's been perfect since I got it new, with only the routine maintenance needed (every 10K miles). Last week, I lost the serpentine belt (@ 53,000 miles), and had two "combination valves" in the pollution control system replaced while it was in. No complaints.

Before that, I had an '04 Touareg (first year it was out, V6, Loaded) that had some electronics issues, mostly with the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). A factory note came out on it, they repositioned the antenna, and it worked pretty well after that.

I traded the '04 because some twerp in a Camry made a left turn into my rear passenger door and wheel. It scratched the paint and made a slight crease in the metal. There was also a gouge (~3" long, up to 1/4" deep) in the alloy wheel. The Toyota was totaled; the front end (bumper to engine compartment) detached, and the frame was twisted enough to call it a total.

A couple friends have Jettas, Passats, and an R32 ... all appear to be working perfectly, no unusual maintenance, no complaints with the cars at all.

The traditional problem with German electronics is that they're German electronics. German manufacturers are great with mechanical stuff, optical stuff, even woodcraft, they have some great mathematicians, musicians ... lots of great things ... but their electronics suck, they stink, they are some of the worst in the world (behind Lucas, God of Darkness ... "Why do Brits drink warm beer??? Lucas refrigerators!). I did field service work for a German company for four years. They suck, they overuse relays, they daisy-chain relays, they use some of the stupidest, ugliest, most poorly-designed circuitry ever created. Anything that is electronically good from Germany was borrowed, bought, OEM'd or stolen from somewhere else.

Back to the point, with the exception of the V10 pump deuse diesel Touareg (the 50 state diesel is rumored to be exceptional), I haven't seen or heard of any bad VWs in recent history, even considering the usually / frequently stupid German electronics.

Some folks at work have had some serial problems with their "Jap" cars (possibly made in America) ... cars is cars, there's good ones and there's bad ones from all of the manufacturers. It's just a matter of how they handle their PR.

 

[Acanthus]

Honestly the 1st thing i think of when i think of VW is electrical issues.

(the same with BMW and Pontiac)

Im running purely on personal experience and talking to mechanics.

Another suprise boom on the list of automakers is Hyundai. They have REALLY stepped up the quality of their vehicles... Because the general populace hasn't caught on yet the price on the used vehicles is still falling like a stone and you can catch some great deals on em if they are a couple years old with low mileage.

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: TheSlamma
They do have plans on opening two factories in the US. I believe TN gave them a huge chunk of land for free already. I believe it was VW anyways. $81 million worth of land or around there, if I remember correctly.

yeah, my hometown of Chattanooga gave them a 400 million dollar incentive package to build a plant there. Its currently under construction at break neck pace, so it seems they want to be building cars here ASAP.

As for quality though, I don't know that it will improve from down here, I know alot of other car manufacturers wouldn't come to TN because the work force was far less educated then they were used to. Basically its kind of sad when they turn down hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives because the public schools in the south are so bad that we pump out a bunch of retard babies who can't build a car as good as they can in Canada.

Not sure if the land was worth 81 million though, its a brownfield site and used to be an ammunition dump, there were concerns over toxic contamination that also diswayed other bidders.

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: BrownTown

Originally posted by: TheSlamma
They do have plans on opening two factories in the US. I believe TN gave them a huge chunk of land for free already. I believe it was VW anyways. $81 million worth of land or around there, if I remember correctly.

yeah, my hometown of Chattanooga gave them a 400 million dollar incentive package to build a plant there. Its currently under construction at break neck pace, so it seems they want to be building cars here ASAP.

As for quality though, I don't know that it will improve from down here, I know alot of other car manufacturers wouldn't come to TN because the work force was far less educated then they were used to. Basically its kind of sad when they turn down hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives because the public schools in the south are so bad that we pump out a bunch of retard babies who can't build a car as good as they can in Canada.

Not sure if the land was worth 81 million though, its a brownfield site and used to be an ammunition dump, there were concerns over toxic contamination that also diswayed other bidders.

I can't find an article that breaks down the incentives, but the total is apparently $577 million. It also sounds like they're aiming for 2011 to get the thing finished and it will produce 150,000 vehicles annually. They say it's going to produce a midsize sedan (Passat, I guess).

VW wants to double its sales in the US, which may sound like a lot, but to double it, that just means they're selling 800,000 a year. The top three in the US (GM, Toyota and Ford) are all normally over two million a year (normally as in not in this shithole economy).