Dealer hints at retention rate for tdi customers, also increasing sales, supply issue

[Jimbo70]

I've owned 5 VW's and my TDI was purchased to be a high milage vehicle to keep the miles lower on my thirsty Touareg V8. I won't be replacing my TDI with another VW and my Touareg will be my daily driver since I fly more than drive for work. The TDI did it's job as my 8 year old Touareg has 42,000 miles on it.

I have no plans to buy another VW, but will keep up with them and Audi on future models.

I don't need to replace the TDI, but later this year will take delivery of a 2017 Chevy SS (Holden Commodore) as an V8 (LS3) powered, rear wheel drive, manual transmission sedan has become a unicorn in the US. It's the last year of Holden production in Australia, so if I want one, it's now or never.

It's bittersweet turning the TDI back in, but the probability for a future expensive repair is too high. In some regards, Dieselgate has done me a favor.

Nice ride. I picked up a used 2009 G8 GT last August to replace my gas Jetta at the end of its lease. After years of FWD 4-cylinders, 6 liters of V8 powah is refreshing.

 

[fucanay]

I finally found a responsive VW dealership that's giving me the price I wanted. Should be picking it up next Saturday if everything goes according to plan. I have to wait for the Chase EFT so I can pay cash for the new car and have to wait for the weekend to get a ride to the dealership as it's a bit of a drive.

 

[TDILeo]

I finally found a responsive VW dealership that's giving me the price I wanted. Should be picking it up next Saturday if everything goes according to plan. I have to wait for the Chase EFT so I can pay cash for the new car and have to wait for the weekend to get a ride to the dealership as it's a bit of a drive.

What model VW did you select and at what price point?

 

[fucanay]

Alltrack, S Trim, $27,250 out the door. It's a fair deal and the guy I'm dealing with is great. After the transaction is complete, I will post his contact information for anyone trying to a good deal in the Bay Area.

 

[MBellantone]

Alltrack, S Trim, $27,250 out the door. It's a fair deal and the guy I'm dealing with is great. After the transaction is complete, I will post his contact information for anyone trying to a good deal in the Bay Area.

Hey Fucanay: I know you said "out the door" so i'm assuming with tax? If so, that's one hell of deal.

 

[fucanay]

Hey Fucanay: I know you said "out the door" so i'm assuming with tax? If so, that's one hell of deal.

Yes, including all fees. Great deal indeed. Anyone in Northern California looking for a great deal should contact Dave Hsu at Sunnyvale VW (cell#) 818-939-6248. He was great to work with from start to finish and I'm really happy with this new car.

 

[atomicfront]

Yes, including all fees. Great deal indeed. Anyone in Northern California looking for a great deal should contact Dave Hsu at Sunnyvale VW (cell#) 818-939-6248. He was great to work with from start to finish and I'm really happy with this new car.

Same color as ours.

 

[gmcjetpilot]

DEALER SAYS.. has zero point zero value. The dealers are worse gossips
then a bunch of old ladies. They know nothing. They have too much spare
time. The 15% sounds like it comes from 85% of what VW needs to
buyback or fix. It does not matter.

No one knows the retention until end of 2018.

I am keeping mine until a fix is available and suspect it will not get fixed. I
will opt out. $5K extra is peanuts. I suspect my car will hold premium due
to supply and demand.

I will not say never, but I have a low miles TDI 2010 and it drives great,
has new suspension, new trailer hitch and vw trailer wiring.

 

[DanB36]

No one knows the retention until end of 2018.

Not the final numbers, to be sure, but a dealer's at least going to know how many of the people turning in TDIs to his store turn around and buy something else there. He might even have some idea of how many had already purchased another VWAG product (as I had before I turned in my first one). It wouldn't be broad-based numbers, of course, but it could be something.

Or he could just be blowing smoke.

 

[bubbagumpshrimp]

Not the final numbers, to be sure, but a dealer's at least going to know how many of the people turning in TDIs to his store turn around and buy something else there. He might even have some idea of how many had already purchased another VWAG product (as I had before I turned in my first one). It wouldn't be broad-based numbers, of course, but it could be something.

Or he could just be blowing smoke.

Yup. It's not hard for them to establish a trend. ex. The girl that processed my buyback had done close to 100.

I turned my TDI in at the dealership I bought it from. Let's just say that the rest of those people did the same. If they only heard back from 10 customers after their buyback date and those customers bought another vehicle...that's their retention rate. 10%. And I doubt that number is far off.

The average person that's turning in a VW doesn't have a garage full of vehicles. They need a replacement vehicle. If they were interested in another VW, they'd have hit up the dealership to see what deals they were offering prior to going out the door. If they don't hear back from that customer within 24 hours....odds are they aren't going to.

 

[S2000_guy]

I would expect the retention rate among the early returns to be artificially low. Think about it: every owner who is dissatisfied with their car or VW filed a claim immediately. Not all early filers are dissatisfied, but all dissatisfied owners filed early. Then add the extra frustration caused by their clunky, overburdened process. We've all read posts where board members vent their frustration with the process and declare they'll never own another VW.

I'd expect VW's retention rate to be higher among the people like me who are waiting until 2018. I'm obviously not dissatisfied with the car or overly upset at VW or I wouldn't be waiting. I expect that the buyback process will proceed much more efficiently in 2018 than it did in 2016. So I, and others like me, will be more likely to consider a new VW than many of the people turning in their cars now.

 

[atomicfront]

I would expect the retention rate among the early returns to be artificially low. Think about it: every owner who is dissatisfied with their car or VW filed a claim immediately. Not all early filers are dissatisfied, but all dissatisfied owners filed early. Then add the extra frustration caused by their clunky, overburdened process. We've all read posts where board members vent their frustration with the process and declare they'll never own another VW.

I'd expect VW's retention rate to be higher among the people like me who are waiting until 2018. I'm obviously not dissatisfied with the car or overly upset at VW or I wouldn't be waiting. I expect that the buyback process will proceed much more efficiently in 2018 than it did in 2016. So I, and others like me, will be more likely to consider a new VW than many of the people turning in their cars now.

I planned to buy back at dealership we turned in. I even told the guy I would come in Saturday before buyback and put deposit on car and pick up The next Friday. He seemed to have zero interest in that. He wanted me to come in a month a head of time and buy car then. I waited to hear from as my buyback approached but he never contacted me. A guy at another dealer called me every couple of weeks to see how things were going. Had me come in week before. Let me have car them with small deposit and paid for it a week later.

No one in buyback dealership spoke to me when I turned in car.

We loved our TDI but wife wanted 4 wheel drive.

 

[jjvincent]

VW came out with the Alltrack and GSW 4 motion right when the TDI buybacks started. Along with that, you can get an Alltrack S and SE along with a 4 motion S in a manual. That was not by accident. Seeing that only Canada and the US are the only countries on the planet that you can get the gasser 4 motion and Alltrack in a manual, says that VW is trying what they can to get TDI owners to spend their buyback with them.

 

[S2000_guy]

Keep in mind that VW sold a total of 323k units in the US in 2016. I've got to believe that their supply chain is sized for around this number of units per year, with maybe 10% cushion built in to allow for a particularly good sales year. Certainly, 400k units would have to be a stretch.

With something on the order of 200k buybacks per year for the next two years, they likely can't provide incentives to former TDI owners without pirating a sale they could have made to someone else anyway.

And since their 2016 sales were up 7.5% over 2015 in the US, I don't think they're too worried. If the Alltrack and 4-Motion successfully attract some potential Subaru buyers, they'll be sitting pretty. And this makes it sound like the Alltrack/4-Motion have really taken off:
"Golf SportWagen delivered 3,332 units, a 271.5 percent increase over December 2015. This includes the all-new Alltrack."

http://media.vw.com/release/1320/

 

[bakdoor]

VW has lost me as a customer, and I've been in a diesel Jetta since 1999. While I love the cars, I also require a degree of loyalty, respect, and consideration from the businesses I patronize, and I'm just not getting that from my dealer.

First off, the local dealer network should have been bombarding TDI owners by mail--something along the lines of "we're sorry about how Dieselgate has impacted you as our customer, we've got your back, we want to keep you in the VW family, give us a chance to make you a good deal, etc.". Then, when a TDI owner walks into a dealer's lot, there should be a specific protocol in place, a script, on how to deal with and treat that customer. The script should not include treating the customer like a burden because they're going to have to take your car in the buyback.�� It should also mean getting you into a new gasser VW for a test drive, offering you a great deal, and making whatever concessions necessary to make your buyback go smoothly.

As you might guess, none of the above happened in my case. The salesperson at my dealer, whom I had spoken to on a prior visit, allowed me to walk off the lot without getting a plate and getting me into a gas Jetta that I was interested in because he was in the middle of another sale and (I'm guessing) didn't want to turn me over to another salesperson for fear of losing a commission. So instead, they lost the sale, and future sales and service.

I'm now in a 2016 Ford Fusion Titanium Ecoboost. It'll never get anywhere near the mileage a TDI gets, but it's a nicer car in every other category. My buyback is set for 2/2, and I'm done with VW after that. I fully intend to relay this story to their sales manager at that point as well, not that it'll make much difference. Nice cars, bad company.

 

[drsven]

Yes, including all fees. Great deal indeed. Anyone in Northern California looking for a great deal should contact Dave Hsu at Sunnyvale VW (cell#) 818-939-6248. He was great to work with from start to finish and I'm really happy with this new car.

Congrats on the new car! Thank you for posting the dealership contact as well. Most of the East Bay dealership pricing has been absurd to say the least.

 

[atomicfront]

Keep in mind that VW sold a total of 323k units in the US in 2016. I've got to believe that their supply chain is sized for around this number of units per year, with maybe 10% cushion built in to allow for a particularly good sales year. Certainly, 400k units would have to be a stretch.

With something on the order of 200k buybacks per year for the next two years, they likely can't provide incentives to former TDI owners without pirating a sale they could have made to someone else anyway.

And since their 2016 sales were up 7.5% over 2015 in the US, I don't think they're too worried. If the Alltrack and 4-Motion successfully attract some potential Subaru buyers, they'll be sitting pretty. And this makes it sound like the Alltrack/4-Motion have really taken off:
"Golf SportWagen delivered 3,332 units, a 271.5 percent increase over December 2015. This includes the all-new Alltrack."

http://media.vw.com/release/1320/

Talking to the salesman who sold us our car that was almost all Sport Wagons. He said almost every person who has a buyback who stays with VW wants a Sportwagon and they can't keep them on the lot. He said the lack of incentives on the All Track has really held down sales. They have 1 SportWagon total for their 3 dealerships and 28 All Tracks.

 

[Jimbo70]

Talking to the salesman who sold us our car that was almost all Sport Wagons. He said almost every person who has a buyback who stays with VW wants a Sportwagon and they can't keep them on the lot. He said the lack of incentives on the All Track has really held down sales. They have 1 SportWagon total for their 3 dealerships and 28 All Tracks.

Sounds about right for Volkswagen. The shortage of All Tracks at the beginning gave corporate the impression that there was enough demand to not make the incentives good enough. They did the same thing with the GSW first came out.

 

[razorrod]

And somebody said America doesn't like hatchback and wagons. I guess this research was asking wrong people.

Talking to the salesman who sold us our car that was almost all Sport Wagons. He said almost every person who has a buyback who stays with VW wants a Sportwagon and they can't keep them on the lot. He said the lack of incentives on the All Track has really held down sales. They have 1 SportWagon total for their 3 dealerships and 28 All Tracks.