Not sure I completely agree with these figures. This meant that I was 1 of 6 peeps who purchased a Mk7 Golf R.. Regardless, Ok get your point..

 

Not sure you're reading what's up there.... 6 peeps in Dec of '17 seems very feasible.... 2706 throughout the year....

 

How much of that was related/due to dieselgate?

 

I am kindof surprised that the Touareg sold more than the CC. The still sell it here in Arteon form. A think a lot of it has to do with the price tag and the luxury class it falls in. People want the 4 rings if they are shelling out 60k plus. I think the Touareg was s bargain for the amount of tech and quality. But had there been a comparable Audi I may have shopped it. I didn’t want third row and the Q5 was just a little smaller than I wanted. And the lower row ratings was a possible factor in the future. Sad that it’s not sold here because the new ones are very nice. But I. It probably would have started at 75k here and only a few would have even contemplated it.

 

Barely any VWs are selling here these days.....

https://www.autoevolution.com/pdf/news_attachements/unimpressive-volkswagen-of-america-2022-sales-numbers-released-207857.pdf

 

Generally, North Americans want armchair seats, 7 seats and cup holders. Doesn’t matter what is under the skin and how well it’s designed, built, etc… hence not enough people want the Touareg here. Different in Europe.
Uneducate the person on the street and they will expect less!!
Look at the pickup as an example! It was a utilitarian workshorse! Now it’s an overweight , too soft suspension with comfy interior, aircon and that couldn’t pull skin off rice pudding! With antequated running gear and brakes, massive V8 with horsepower and very little torque!!
The Touareg was always understated and not marketed properly, couple that with techs not properly trained to deal with this and VW America or VW Canada denign everything that is a problem and people will go elsewhere
That was part of its appeal, very few people knew what a good design it was.
Long live the Touareg…!
Anyway… rant over!

“I wonder what I would buy next?”
Porsche, Aston…?

 

Pretty much to the T.

Most North Americans buy on looks rather than practicality. Some buy them to keep up with the "Jones" neighbors. Some are terrible with financial decisions and live beyond their means. Hell some some of mechanics that I work with don't know their ass from their elbow when it comes to their own vehicles. Even asking a simple question like fuel consumption is met with an answer like $100 per week.
Sigh....

The only regret I have with my Treg is that I wished I'd got one in a bit better condition but for $13k cdn what do you expect.

 

Wrong time or just too expensive ? The tiguan seems quite popular

 

Definitely agree with the dealerships not being able to support it. I tried to have a simple trim piece around the gauges installed that was damage the did on a previous repair and they couldn’t even do that right. Left it halfway installed and smeared grease all over the a-pillar and headliner. It takes me 4 trips to fix one miner problem and then they cause collateral damage on something else. They are close to worthless. Should have bought a macan. It’s ashame that such a nice vehicle is shadowed by terrible dealerships.

 

The Touareg no longer satisfies consumers with size requirements.
When compared to Atlas, Touareg looks more like a sub-compact SUV which is a huge detractor for behemoth-size-SUV hungry American consumers.

here is a video explaining the situation:
Click Here To Watch

Cheers...

 

I could but unfortunately the examples here are not really that much better and overpriced. Going futher afield costs time and money. So I'll consider that I got a good deal considering that it was a mechanic special and eat my cake.

Considering I got mine from a Ford dealership I'm not surprised about the traded in condition. The work order didn't even diagnose the DPF was hooped. And ford wanted to charge $500 to change a sunvisor clip which they failed on safety inspection.

Even the cheapest TDI here is a 2011 with 240k going for $15k. God knows what mechanical condition it's in....

 

I'm sure there might've been some side effect, but I doubt that anyone that was shopping for a dirty diesel would've all of a sudden considered an R as they next best option..... but who knows.

 

I would be that person. Outside of a 5 cylinder Quantum, my Volkswagens have always been diesel (Rabbit, Jetta Wagon, Touareg) or the highest performance model offered at the time (Scirocco, GTI 16V, Corrado VR6). I'm deeply regretting not purchasing an Mk7.5 Golf R, holding out instead for an Mk8 model and subsequently crossing that off my list once the actual car was introduced.

Volkswagen does not make mass-appeal generic cars very well, or at least they have held zero appeal for me, but that appears to make up 95% of their current North American offerings.

 

for fun I looked to import a T3 V8 TDI. They are still going for 20k Euro, so with the conversion fees (CAD sucks) + 5k$ for import I was at 35k$ CAD for a +100mi ride in an unknown condition

 

I've driven a bunch of recent VW models as dealer loaners while my TDI is fixed. I feel like VW has really lost it's way with the newer models... they are completely missing the aesthetic sense, quality, and driver feel of the Piëch era VWs. For example, the Atlas has fake exhaust tips on the back, and massive fake intercooler grills on the front. Interiors made from 100% brittle thin plastic, that look like wood, leather, and stainless steel from 20 feet away, but couldn't fool anybody that actually sat inside one. It's hard to pinpoint what is missing but most of them, most notably the Taos, don't "feel" like sporty german cars anymore, but have the overall driver feel I'd expect from the lowest end Japanese economy cars.

The Piëch era VWs were cool, and made for people that loved cars, and loved driving. They were what BMW was trying to be, but doing it better, for less money. Most of the current VWs feel like just cheap appliances for transporting people. Those type of vehicles serve a purpose and are okay, if (and only if) the design and marketing own this purpose honestly, and they are a simple looking utilitarian vehicle. The fake visual elements, and marketing gimmicks of the new VWs are insulting. It's like they've decided the consumers are too dumb to tell the difference, and that you're actually still getting what you used to get from a VW.

Ultimately, most american consumers aren't as dumb as they seem to think. I predict VW will exit the North American market entirely by the end of the decade, unless they get some new leadership, and start making good cars again.

 

Totally different country but the same experiences. All my vehicles are Audi except for the ring in VW but they are all from the earlier era. I don't find any of the new offerings to be worth the money or to be enjoyable to drive. If you can keep them on the road and with the very mild weather conditions contributing to long body life, the earlier ones are right on my sweet spot for cars.

 

Seems now VW is changing focus to the electric vehicles but wont be “in the real market” until their 2024 models come out. Sad. Their designer have probably been working on electric for a while already and shutting the door on real quality vehicles.
when will they be bringing back horse and buggy days to reduce pollution? I sold my horses years ago. Will the price for horses be going up? I know the price of hay is skyrocketing already. I dont know any covered wagon builders. Oh no, will I be forced to stay home for lack of transportation in the next few years. Yikes

 

Seems now VW is changing focus to the electric vehicles but wont be “in the real market” until their 2024 models come out.

Based on what? You can buy nearly half a dozen different trim levels of the ID4 today. And quite a few versions of it's platform mates as well.

 

Shanks pony!!! There is a potential business begging here with the collection of the by product of this high quality hay for those who will be growing their food at home while they have no where to go.
Why does this seem like days of Yore?

 

VW ambitions started many years ago with cars like the Phaeton and Touareg. I personally like Jeremeys take on the Phaeton VW Phaeton
Since the years have past VW ambitions changed direction and instead decided to go mainstream and sell in volume to compete with Camrys and such. Thats when the Passat went to hell.
Since then with events like diesel gate, and now e-cars, VW still around but clearly the market has softened in the US. Interesting to poke around and see the cars that VW offers in China including the Touareg and other luxury models.

 

ID4 is for people that spend most of their time in city traffic, which is the perfect place for them. Not like the 10% or less of truck owners that actually use their trucks for their intended purpose instead of being pavement queens.

Test drove an ID4, while it isn't an exc line touareg comfortable, it's not trying to be. Because it doesn't come with touareg price point. It's an affordable daily for the vast majority. And running costs are next to nothing. A big plus for the vast majority.

I'm a heavy duty diesel mechanic and I welcome change such as electrified cars.

 

I'd rock (and could easily get by with) an e-golf or ID4 or whatever for my daily commute\routine\majority of needs..... they just aren't financially feasible so I stick with 2 ICE vehicles in the driveway instead.

 

Had a 2018 E-golf for 5 days while my jetta was getting damage repaired from a hit and run which I asked very nicely as a loaner. Only option it didn't have was the digital cockpit. The heat pump is soooo nice in cold weather and it was quite peppy for a small single motor. Only thing I didn't like was the usual mk7 fat ass compliant base seats. Zero support

 

I could live with all that eco feel stuff.... I just can't see ROI on a 50k EV...... ever....

 

Holy... they were selling them for $30k with 20k on the clock here. After the pandemic it shot up

 

I don't know what they go for, but I just looked up the entry level ID4 and it's 45k before tax.... no incentives over here either.... so that's 50k out the door...... and I'd still have slow charger if it even comes with one.... I couldn't look at it long enough to clarify if you get some normal plug in cord to charge for 30hrs at home or if you need to have $1k+ of dedicated charger installed on top, etc.

That kind of coin buys a lot of dino fuel at any price... and covers a lot of the other repairs that come with an ICE.

 

3 or 4 years ago the government was giving you $12k -$14 k ( I think…) if you were buying a new electric car. I briefly thought about the eGolf! My wife didn’t like the idea … on the other hand, I was just thinking of the cash back🤑! We settled on the GTI instead for her!

 

Even if that rebate was still a thing.... rough 1 min calculations tell me I spend about $4k in fuel a year based on current prices\driving patterns\amounts over the last 4 years..... so even if we assume that I could charge the EV for free due to whatever, and having one would completely eliminate my diesel costs, it would still take me a full decade to break even.

No matter how liberal I try to be with my math, the EV never makes sense.... not at what it costs to get into it....

 

E-golf was $30k , yes ID4s are $50k.
VWs only saving grace is they have nowhere near the same amount of battery fires as Tesla, GM and Hyundai/Kia. They've got that right

 

I leased a 2016 Egolf for a few years. It was a year old slow charge model they couldn’t get off the lot, so they basically gave me a new car for free. I want to say the lease payments were about $60 a month after rebates, a tiny fraction of what I spend on parts for my Touareg. It was a good car, I regret not taking the $10k lease buyout option. Plenty of range for city use, coupled with also owning a TDI for road trips, it was perfect. A virtually zero maintenance car- even the brake pads would probably last 400k miles due to regen.

 

Pretty sure it was more like $36k, and even back in the day when the incentives were around, it would've still taken over a decade for your typical driver to break even...... now, if you don't already have a vehicle, and need to get into one regardless, the math looks a lot better.... or if you drive way more than the average bear but still within the EV's typical range...... there's a lot to consider

Review: 2017 Volkswagen e-Golf | Canadian Auto Review

Forget diesels or gasoline, this is the Golf to get. By: Calvin Chan | Canadian Auto Review

www.canadianautoreview.ca