WSJ Article on VW

Today's (9-26-2002) Wall Street Journal has an article on page D2 titled "VW Hopes Its Top-Down Beetle Brings Good Vibrations to Sales." Unfortunately, I do not have an electronic version, so you will have to find a hard copy unless someone else can post it. A thousand pardons if someone else has already posted some of this and I didn't see it somehow. Remember, I am only the messenger here.

Here are some choice quotes:

"Europe's biggest car maker is hoping an update of its hot brand of the late 1990s, starting with a Beetle convertible due during November, will revive its North American showroom traffic. With the Big Three rival automakers offering 0% financing and Japanese competitors pushing fresher models and aggressive discounting, Volkswagen's U.S. sales have dropped 3% so far this year. In August, while most of the industry celebrated blockbuster sales, VW's slumped 13%."

The article also describes how VW is trying to move upmarket. "Beyond the question of cachet, VW also has to boost the quality of its cars if its moves upmarket is to succeed. While VW gets high marks from rivals for the precision appearances of its vehicles -- particularly their interiors -- many rival executives question how long Volkswagen will escape paying a price in the U.S. for scoring well behind BME, Mercedes, and the Big Three in vehicle-quality surveys."

Here is a quote from Falko Schling, director of VW's group quality assurance (and it is sooo tempting to write zis vith a Cherman accent):

"'We have to improve our development processes,' he said. 'The customer care side is where we need to work as well.' Mr. Schling said VW's goal is to be 'in the range' of the best Japanese car makers and 'better than Mercedes and BMW.' He said 'In two years you will see a lot of improvement.'"

Hey, thanks for that article! I hope it has some merit where they say that in two years time, you'll see a big improvement. Of course, it's probably just corporate horsecrap. But at least VW clearly identifies the two areas which most of us will agree are the biggest problems with VW's currently, and that is the service, and small but numerous quality problems.

They say they want to be ahead of Mercedes and BMW, and want to be in the range of the best Japanese manufacturers, but I'm sure the Japanese don't stand still in this regard, and Mercedes will not stand still forever and let their quality drop from where it really should be ... the top.

Slightly off topic but I think one of the reasons M-Benz quality has been going downhill is because of all the electronic stuff they have added which has not been typical Mercedes.

Mercedes, IMO, was always noted for very elegant but yet simple cars that would run so long you had to put it in your will. Now that they are cluttered with electronics gallore, their quality has been moving downhill as they seem to be trying to compete with BMW for having the first car drive itself. Not that every other manufacturer isn't doing something similar but in any case I do believe this has something to do with it.

Take for instance the mid-eightees 300TD for examble. Simple but elegant and might even outlast you.

Originally posted by SilverJettaTDI:
Slightly off topic but I think one of the reasons M-Benz quality has been going downhill is because of all the electronic stuff they have added which has not been typical Mercedes.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Exactly. All the people who berated MB for being last to implement cupholders and electronic crapola are to blame. With the exception of safety systems such as airbags and ABS (available as early as 1979), MB tended to trail others in the area of gadgetry. Similar to VW, the engineers focussed on getting the basics right. The problem now is that the market (and emission regs) won't let them leave out the extras, and it's the extras that cause most of the grief! Can you say "Bosch"?

What can VW do so miraculously in two years? That's an interesting question. From some of the stuff I have read (well, Consumer Reports, which some of you take with a grain of salt), VW's quality has been on the upswing. Maybe that's why they improved the warranty. As others have noted on the thread, they'd better be pretty darned good if they want to attract upscale buyers with the Touareg and the Phaeton.

One thing I forgot to mention about the VW article. On the same page, but above it, there is an article about Jaguar (if you are feeling particularly British, read Jag-U-Ah). The article said at one point that Jaguar was the only luxury brand that did not offer diesel engines, but they were going to start in the near future.

What can they do miraculously in 2 years? I don't think they have any miracles to work out. They need better electricals and sensors. Their interior quality is exceptional, with only some parts that seem to break off too easily being an easy thing to fix. If their power windows are fixed as they claim, then that problem is already solved.

VW's are already excellent products, being solid, safe, and durable cars. They wont rust for a very very long time as well. If they change the electrics to match the reliability of the Japanese, then I feel they'll be the best cars on the market for reasonable prices.