Passat sales surge though supplies are ‘constrained’

Source: Times Free Press
However, Browning said sales of the Passat diesel version is “constrained in some availability.”
Dale Smith, general manager of Village Volkswagen of Chattanooga, said if someone ordered a Passat diesel today, he would have to wait four months.

Passat....A tank of gas is good for 800 miles

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/...t-vw-a-good-problem-to-have/?opinionfreepress

Chattanooga Plant only builds 25% TDI's.

No wonder the wait........

My records indicate that there's a lot of TDI's for sale new on Cars.com, that aren't moving, the VIN remains the same week after week in the ads. Make of it what you will, I still feel the economic recovery has been soft to none, and some folks are still holding off on new car purchases, or opting for used car purchases for the additional savings. Used car prices are still at historical highs.

It seems dealers put cars on cars.com as soon as they receive a VIN number. I called on a few of these before I bought my TDI SEL only to find that the cars was on order and it would be in "any day now".

Black is beautiful... tons of them for sale... and not moving....

http://www.cars.com/for-sale/search...05&searchSource=GEO_SEARCH&pgId=2102&zc=85257

I purchased my TDI SE almost two weeks ago, and have been watching dealer inventories within 200 miles of my zip code for about four weeks. There has been quite a bit of inventory turnover at certain dealers, and not much at all at other dealers. One dealer has had one SE for weeks now...and they offered it to me for $300 over MSRP....plus a $275 doc fee. My guess is they'll either get right on the price, or keep it for many more weeks.

What I noticed here with the 3-4 dealerships withing 50 miles of my house, was that they have a few SEL's in black or white but that's about it. I checked inventory on the dealerships web sites about once a week. Many of them advertised cars that were no longer on the lot when I went to visit (or they were never there?) After a few months of watching this I jumped on the first SE that had the options I wanted and a color other than black or white.

My local dealer has had a black with tan SE manual no sunroof for sale now for 7 weeks. He offered it to me 3 weeks ago for $25,400. MSRP was $26,765. It was filthy dirty and never washed any time I went to see or test drive it. Looking through the dust and dirt, I knew why, the paint had horrible orange peel and was lumpy as all get up. The dirt hid it quite well if you didn't know what to look for. I guess they were hoping to get someone to sign the paperwork, then wash it up and prep it after the dealership had the deal done for the new owner to drive home, probably after the sun set. I hope that car isn't left with swirl marks when they clean it up for the new owner.

Derik said:

What I noticed here with the 3-4 dealerships withing 50 miles of my house, was that they have a few SEL's in black or white but that's about it. I checked inventory on the dealerships web sites about once a week. Many of them advertised cars that were no longer on the lot when I went to visit (or they were never there?) After a few months of watching this I jumped on the first SE that had the options I wanted and a color other than black or white.

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Interesting, what color did you get? Reflex silver? Which dealer did you go with? City Chevrolet /VW? That one sold maybe 1.5 to 2 weeks ago, I think.

Yes I got the Reflex silver. I purchased about a month ago. City had zero at that time, South Bay none, Bob Baker none, Drew VW I think they had a white one or maybe black, Kearny Mesa VW had a white, a black and the silver I bought. The LA/ Orange County dealerships had none or only black and white as well as did the Riverside/ Temecula areas. I wanted the SE with the DSG/Sunroof. I think one of the LA dealerships had some manuals and or some SEL's and I remember someone had a gray with a manual transmission.

After looking for a while it appeared that you had to act fast, and be flexible with colors if you wanted the SE with DSG and sun roof. I was ok with Silver but really wanted the dark blue.

*****

Oberkanone said:

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/...t-vw-a-good-problem-to-have/?opinionfreepress

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"It gets roughly 43 miles per gallon on the highway, and a tank of gas is good for about 800 miles."

More like 0.5 miles before the motor goes kaput.

I'll attest to the 4 month wait time. Order my 2012 Passat TDI SEL Premium (Night Blue Metallic, Black interiro) on November 19th and received it finally on February 29th (although told it wasn't coming in until March 19th the previous week).

Still Waiting

Cryptkeeper said:

I'll attest to the 4 month wait time. Order my 2012 Passat TDI SEL Premium (Night Blue Metallic, Black interiro) on November 19th and received it finally on February 29th (although told it wasn't coming in until March 19th the previous week).

Click to expand...

I ordered my TDI SEL Premium 11/27 and I'm still waiting. The latest estimate is for an Apr 9 delivery . . .

Guys I can drive by the plant any day, there are loads and loads of finished cars sitting in the lot ready to ship. I have former students that work in the plant they are currently producing over 500 cars a day.

Maybe a 150 cars that were in redo area have hail damage.
The hail nets are 40% up and the rail cars are ready to be loaded.

I do know that the TDI cars are rather rare only approx 25% of production, yes that includes employee's also. Many get tried of waiting and go with gas.

Stopped by one of the largest VW dealers in IL today. Only 4 Passats on the lot, zero TDIs. TONS of Jettas. Big banner: "1.49% on any new Jetta".