Has Volkswagen Lost Its Way?

[@stickynorth]

They forgot the VOLKS part of their name and made their cars too unaffordable for the masses as well as inferior to other offerings from different OEM's... As soon as I heard the price of the VW ID Buzz Van I knew the company was sunk...

[@i20010]

All the EV's are priced ludicrously. No complex mechanical engine, no gearbox, no this no that, and it costs more.

[@Entertainment-]

@@i20010Raw materials of EVs are more expensive than just steel in a combustion engine.

[@LordNativist]

Yeah they forgot their nationalistic root and went full anti-German/consumer.

[@nemiloszorka1162]

No, they did not. They are just offsetting the losses they have in China's market in EU and US markets. A new Golf is 3-4 times cheaper in China, than EU. European consumers are paying the cost of poor VW management.

[@CBF2020]

@@nemiloszorka1162so true.

[@CBF2020]

Selling everyday car at luxury price. It’s suppose to be a car for the common men. They have Audi and Porsche but yet they still selling GOLF R at Porsche pricing. Their downfall isn’t EV adoption its their market segmentation.

[@martinzihlmann822]

EV transition was too slow for China and too fast for EU.

[@toyotaprius79]

EU/EPP is too thick you mean

[@APDM_Analysis]

Should've transitioned to hybrid a decade ago instead of faking “clean diesel”. Whomp whomp VW get what they deserve

[@scoty_does]

@@APDM_Analysis I had a a hybrid, NEVER AGAIN! The worst of both worlds.

[@redwhite_040]

VW was to dependent of the profits from sales in China. More sales in China than in EU (home market). Since Chinese people are buying CHinese brands more and more, VW and other big companies are losing market share rapidly.

[@Simon-dm8zv]

@@APDM_Analysis more like 2 decades ago and 1 decade ago EVs

[@wesamal6302]

Blaming it all on EVs transition is BS It has been a while since german made a decent car for a decent price. Most of german cars are overpriced over complicated and use a lot of cheap parts the quality is also questionable

[@NuSpirit_]

Yeah even their ICE were bad for a while. My mechanic said that their body is nice but engines, electronics and software is godawful. Even budget cars like Dacia (from Renault) has fewer issues that mid-to-highmid end VW cars.

[@SuhbanIo]

bro German cars are top quality, but price is high

[@AlexLYH]

Not a single mention of energy cost affecting the whole German manufacturing industry..

[@pondeify]

can't state the real reason because that might make ordinary people asking questions about the war.

[@quasii7]

@@pondeify Nuclear reactors never should have been closed.

[@kntrsh]

@@AlexLYH Who sabotaged NordStream…

[@ValentinMorio]

That is defenetly also a reason, but a minor one.

[@matthias8582]

Energy cost is just a small portion of manufacturing cars. Lamenting and whining is part of their business.

[@FenrirRobu]

Volkswagen is probably the prime example of the current manufacturing trends - build more exclusive, more engineered, higher quality products... that are pointlessly expensive. It seems that in Europe nobody even tries to make things to be cheap and affordable. The most shocking part of Chinese EVs is not that they had tariffs, but that they even upmark the prices in Europe, because the market is so overpriced. For peace of mind, I recommend not searching the EV prices within China itself.

[@quasii7]

Yeah, although most of the Chinese EVs are sold below manufacturing cost.

[@FenrirRobu]

@quasii7 For a long time Tesla was priced under manufacturing too. However, let's be clear, the Chinese EVs in Europe were not sold below manufacturing, Europe was the most profitable region for them. They do have subsidies, and there are the three indirect subsidies of China - artificially cheap currency, looser environmental restrictions, more competitive and aggressive job market (6 day work weeks are common). Nevertheless, Koreans have also entered the affordable market with KIA ICU cars, Japanese cars justify their price with absurd reliability, and the previously cheap and bad central European car brands are taking over the streets.

[@i20010]

They have cheap labor and state support.

[@nemiloszorka1162]

@@i20010 you are talking about Tesla, right?

[@santostv.]

In no country will you get Chinese pricing unless they are loosing a lot of money. We have cheap ev’s in Europe although with smaller batteries just not German ones, even for regular cars German ones are usually more expensive.

[@Shambles7698]

Germany cars right now in general are overpriced with low reliability and low quality

[@Tenniszogger]

Thats Not true

[@kuglepen64]

VW: Arrogance led to corruption in Dieselgate, and heel-dragging in EV development. The era of cheap Russian gas is over and all the structural and self-caused calamities have stacked on top of each other. I could imagine further nationalisation to keep it going, or marque fire sales. That would only delay the inevitable. They look mortally wounded.

[@reardelt]

Germany has stopped innovating. Before there were awesome Siemens phones. Now they are gone. BMW cars were top notch. Now they are being swept away by Tesla cars

[@slonkoo]

Wouldnt even swap my vacuum cleaner for an tesla. Sorry.

[@LeonidMalikov]

@@slonkoobut why? Tesla produces much less noise when it is doing its job 😅

[@issiewizzie]

The fact that base model of a VW Golf in 2014 was £14,000 in 2024 the base of Golf is £29,000. .... double in 10 years

[@Entertainment-]

The M2 money supply also doubled.

[@Melior_Traiano]

@@Entertainment- Inflation didn't double in 10 years.

[@Burito-tj5ry]

@@Entertainment- not how the economy works

[@talldave7799]

Double the price but SAME unreliable and components and parts! We have a 2013 Golf TDI and have never been able to synch and iphone to the stereo system!!!

[@zassakavuma5877]

£14,000 in January 2014 would be worth £21,745 in today's money. So they have become more expensive.

[@walsh20047]

German build quality has been a myth for well over decade at this stage. People are starting to catch on.

[@kensai7]

You have not been into many cars probably. It's the only real thing.

[@TheBossStudioZ]

Polo had atrocious quality, poor gearbox and interior

[@Iskelderon]

I remember when a young colleague bought a then new Mercedes A-class (the generation that went from a toy car to a real Golf competitor) had trouble with the wiper fluid assembly within days and the car didn't even spend its full first week at home before needing a replacement of something that should have been tested at the factory.

[@hkad6252]

Owned 1 BMW and 2 VWs. Bought them all heavily used. Never had any real issues with any of them.

[@jglg7238]

european cars are over price cars, not reliable, japanese, asians care are superior

[@adamwilliams4084]

When 2014 VW Golf build quality is much better than 2024 Golf, you know that something has gone wrong. Consumers can’t be fooled with shiny plastics. We want quality for the € we pay, if not we will buy something else. Now they have to deal with the consequences of corporate greed and dependence on ruSSian cheap energy.

[@admiralbeez8143]

Well said. I love my 2014 VW wagon with its non-turbo i5 and 5-speed manual, that takes regular gas. It’s was affordable to buy (costing about four month’s pay), remains reliable, has no needless tech and is fun to drive. Make cara like this.

[@madanto2394]

I saw a mk8 golf r that had a thermostat leak!! & they ask £50k for one.

[@CBF2020]

@@madanto2394crazy

[@Iskelderon]

Years ago, their CEO had to admit at an auto show that Hyundai did a better job with its i30 (the Golf competitor) than VW could, instead of learning from it and actually catching up, they decided on complacency and gaslighting.

[@benjamindover4337]

I had a 2016 and a 2023 and the old one was way better. VW has completely fallen off.

[@williamford9564]

The video doesn't mention that the German auto workers are THE HIGHEST PAID IN THE WORLD.

[@Vermilion2049]

Nokia of the car industry

[@dubaiwatches]

The German economy will be in a difficult position without the car industry.

[@larryc1616]

​@dubaiwatches so will Japan

[@csibesz07]

@@dubaiwatches Time to diversify, like China!

[@Hans-k9j]

They really asked for this. The diesel scandal, far to high prices and arrogance in Wolfsburg have damaged the company’s reputation.

[@Alex-pr6zv]

If their response to dieselgate would have been to roll out hybrids and EVs, rather than insulting our intelligence with a useless software update, they would be in a far better place today.

[@today05]

Dont forget they told us that the continuous development of the engines cost billions… yet they only made the software cheat. Where are those billions that were supposedly spent on r&d?

[@Mallen815]

Most of their customers don’t know much about dieselgate. But diselgate led to electrification which is the struggle.

[@davidfarrell1062]

Its not even an EV issue. Cars doubled in price in 10 years but customers got nothing for the big increase.

[@yangjyso]

It isn’t fair to say that. They did tried everything to but failed, miserably.

[@pabss3193]

@@davidfarrell1062 This!!

[@quackcement]

Simple affordable reliable, not anymore

[@IamTiper]

That's what asking for a high price, because 2 decades ago you used to make reliable cars, gets you. Then they thought they had any chance to compete in an electric market in China with said prices. This was all obvious and e.g. Toyota knows it.

[@jaehparrk]

real problem was that germany focused too much on car industry. not enough diversification, not enough small businesses

[@hkad6252]

I own an ID3 and love it. The best car I ever had. Toured all of Europe in it with bo problems and almost 200 kW of charging speed.

[@BendyDH]

I’m only a few months in but I have had an ID4 for 3 or so months now and I love it

[@okman9684]

Jaguar can go even lower

[@crosslink1493]

Like "six-feet-under" lower. 😵‍💫

[@batosato]

Germany fails to innovate so it was bound to fail.

[@diyunudemel8856]

Germany fails to innovate? i don't know what are you talking about and i think you don't even know that. Germany as country is one of the most innovative country and in fact According Global innovative index it is in the top 10 for consecutively many years

[@batosato]

@diyunudemel8856 really? Are Germans leading in AI, in battery technology, EV, manufacturing process and so on? Tesla and BYD did all that alone. Why is the German economy falling behind then?

[@Melior_Traiano]

@@batosato Who is leading in these sectors except for the US and to a lesser degree China?

[@Melior_Traiano]

@@batosato Ironically BYD started as a joint-venture between BMW and China...

[@batosato]

@Melior_Traiano Germany is not even near these two countries. It is an easy answer.

[@scoty_does]

Herbert Diess was right!

[@beatles4sale2007]

Too many brands competing, better options with their “lesser” brands (Skoda for example), interest rates shooting up, cost of living crisis, high wages, poor EV models, dieselgate…..the list goes on.

[@dnshable]

Have you seen the prices of the new cars? It is outrageous

[@southrichmondtofl]

The Tiguan is FAR more fairly priced than other brands in its class.

[@wise_lynx]

Short answer: yes

[@wdazza]

The problem with burying your head in the sand is that even when you take your head out of then sand, you may still find you have sand in your eyes!

[@davidsmyth8647]

Lot of talk about how legacy auto makers like VW didn't move to EVs quickly enough. Has anyone considered the problems may be how they are being forced to offer a product, EVs, not enough of their customers want rather than diesel engines which they do. You can't force a market, never succeeds. Love to see both sides of this discussed without the ideology of only EVs are the future.

[@cassis1018]

Long history, big workforce, and no more playing with the world economies/finances has caused this. Time to be for real competitive. Not a fixed game with all the rules in your favor anymore.

[@Rob-ss2jv]

ID Buzz - 95000 out the door in Canada - 200 Km range. Lost its way is a massive understatement. Could easily have been a hybrid or regular ICE, would have been infinitely better.

[@James-wp3zc]

I just bought a Mexican made 2025 Jetta and i absolutely love it.

[@larryc1616]

25% tariff soon

[@floro7687]

It is known to be a money pit, though!

[@Blandie-wm8mq]

​@@floro7687a jetta a money pit? How come? They've always been pretty reliable

[@michaelschneider-]

@@floro7687 Copy that. . My beloved MkV 2006 Jetta of 10 years was duck bites after duck bites of failed reliability. .. Loved that Jetta - but never again VW. . 4 decades a VW owner..

[@drwisdom1]

I started driving VWs in 1973 and have a 2015 Sportwagen TDI and a 1992 Corrado SLC, both bought new. But I am never buying another VW because I buy them for the manual transmission and repairability. Without a manual there is no reason for me to buy a VW over a Toyota/Lexus. VW is restricting access by diagnostic tools, so I will no longer be able to fix them. It's over.

[@michaelschneider-]

Copy that... My initial VW was a used '68 Beetle in 1973 also. Many neu GTI's later - never again Volkswagen AG. ..

[@Sammy-uv1kl]

Traded my VW golf for model 3 - best decision ever

[@daviddeclercq9998]

The fact that they had to pay hundreds of millions in fines for the emission cheating scandal makes their planned transition to evs more complicated. Furthermore, vws software is quite buggy

[@lazaro4357]

Keep a strong union and you end up like this.

[@Murat-d9m]

I believe the primary issue is that German companies struggle to adapt to innovation. A typical German company without immigrant employees may take a year to develop software, while a multinational or Chinese company can accomplish the same in just three months. Given their financial resources, a more effective strategy would be to acquire a Chinese electric vehicle company and rebrand it under the Volkswagen name.

[@surfspark]

They already have joint partnership with Chinese manufacturer for software.

[@i20010]

I prefer a vw without the giant ipad screens and touch buttons.

[@Entertainment-]

@@surfsparkOnly for Chinese market vehicles. Internationally it’s likely they will use Rivian’s software.

[@LordNativist]

>Immigrant employees No thanks! VW should only hire Germans.

[@santostv.]

Every European auto maker is making deals with Chinese car companies, stealantis with leapmotors, Renault Dacia spring is a Chinese car rebadged, smart #1 is Chinese,mini ev is Chinese, audi partnering with a joint venture with the Chinese ect

[@kamerafi]

I still remember how bad VW build quality was in 2008. In 2024, they seem to get worse. Then came the dieselgate. Then EV and SDV. I can't say I didn't see this coming. But again, EU as a whole is simply not a business friendly environment. When did they last time you see a startup grow into juggernauts like what you can see in the US and China?

[@yuluoxianjun]

Its not they lost too much now,its they earn too much before.Their price is way higher than its production cost.

[@csibesz07]

"Innovation for all." should be changed to "Innovation if we have to."

[@toyotaprius79]

VW was arrogant theor executives and leadership arrogant, cheated their diesel emissions to gain its dominance. They ignored the writing on the wall with regards to EVs and made them premium SUVs with less-expensive base options coming 3 years after lsunch. . Look at VWs focus on its entire lineup diesel or EV - they have trapped themselves in an SUV malaise

[@talldave7799]

My impresson of the ID4 launch in US where they made these mistakes!

[@nadmoi]

The German government has reacted very well to existential threats to its economy like energy scarcity and aging population by shutting down nuclear plants, escalating wars as much as it could, put sanctions on its main energy supplier, threaten tariffs on it's main car market, etc.

[@marvin3935]

German auto troubles started long before. Only were masked by 2010s China boom, German workforce subsidized for more than a decade now.

[@grongrod]

All car manufacturers went wrong when they sudenly started to think that cars are throw away items. They are appliances for most people. Replaced only when nedded.

[@robindehood207]

All this because Tesla dicided "To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy". Talk about disruption 😅

[@michaelschneider-]

+1. Copy that.

[@jasondisney]

Here to appreciate the thumbnail!

[@rogue13131313]

At these prices and lack of reliability, it is no longer The People's Car

[@compguy1121]

They wanted to charge the value of the car to replace just the headlights when they failed. Nah. Ridiculous.

[@Slickpete83]

*yes lost its way because they are too expensive to repair, save your time & money, and buy a Toyota*

[@Viva-El-Kaputtalismus]

Japan all the way baby!

[@crosslink1493]

I like to work on my own cars, and Volkswagen (and other German manufacturers) lost their way when they went through an engineering transition in the 1990s. The 'old guard' with a keen sense of functionaility and maintainability was pushed out and the 'hi-tech' newbies let loose in the design group and maintainability was forgotten. A simple example of this is their Audi cars had no oil dipstick in the engines for a few years, so owners couldn't do the simple task of checking the oil level in their cars. Water pumps and alternators in locations that required disassembly of entire portions on an engine down to the block. Turbos for small engine "city cars". I remember when the 'Rabbit' came out in the USA in the late 1970s and it had problems, but VW jumped on it immediately with re-engineering and fixes that worked. Those days are gone, VW has turned into a joke.

[@dwylhq874]

The detail of the Union + Gov have a majority of board seats is such a spanner for them being able to make the necessary changes to survive. 😬 Always saad to see job losses. 😢 But a handful of short-term strategic cuts (including incompetent management!) will be a lot less painful than a bailout/bankruptcy 💭

[@jamesroy791]

Scammed its customers with diesel cars than they didn't even know how to make EVs and Software

[@priteshpatil5363]

Thumbnail designer deserve raise❤❤

[@brootalbap]

ai made 😂

[@priteshpatil5363]

@brootalbap 😂 lol

[@bearimo2867]

Not AI

[@ls_812]

I don't know about Germans, but the majority of us Americans don't want electric cars. They're impractical . At least here in America if you want to take a trip which takes 12 to 13 hours, having to stop and charge adds a lot of time to your trip.

[@marvin3935]

You know about Germans. Even though impossible to drive 12-13 hours straight and still in Germany. And even though dense railway network in Europe, highly electrified.

[@stunstar4553]

Electric vehicles are mainly used for daily commuting and urban tourism, not for long-distance travel. The advantages are cheap, quiet, and no exhaust. In China, the cost of electric per kilometer is about 1/7 of that of gasoline car. If you don't care about fuel costs, then you don't need to consider electric

[@Apurvanotfound]

Give thumbnail designer a raise

[@laxxayy]

The thumbnail is genius

[@juanes1235]

4:04 this sentence summarises the German mentality and behaviour, not only VW.

[@samuxan]

When you notice that the problem is not as bad as other brands of the group like skoda, audi or seat you can pinpoint that the problem is the missplace focus on software and absurd touch controls on the new models and no so much with the slowness on adapting to EVs or foreign competitors

[@tamirleibovich]

Best thumbnail ever ⭐️

[@rwdplz1]

VW lost their way when they tried to cheap out and build their cars in Mexico. The quality and the reputation tanked. THEN Dieselgate. They're done.

[@mingyuhuang8944]

To give you insight into VW in China, it's biggest market. Chinese people think of these brands as Nokia in 2009 😂 doom is coming if they keep churnning out average trash

[@GavinQuan]

The key issue is youth in China regards car as same as a digital product. The whole system of VW, and also US / Japan brands, is too huge to make the change for this new vehicle concept.

[@coastofkonkan]

My favorite car brand. VW management knows very well what happened to NOKIA. No hybrids focus, over reliance on Diesel, half hearted EV focus. It will bounce back but at a cost.

[@sambowks]

As a VW owner and previous fan, they also don’t listen to their customers, they don’t respect their customers. They alienate their customers. Along with that I find the newest generation design very un-VW, as if someone took a great design and just melted it. I was previously a massive fan of their design language, stylish, subtle, and somehow just German. No longer sadly. Also, we don’t want black gloss plastic, gloss black keys, touch controls for basic functions. I’m looking at a new vehicle but looking at the previous gen (referring to Tiguan)

[@TheCanadianFromBC]

I remember when they cheated in US with diesel engines. I personally never forgot, blocked couple of my friends when they were about to purchase VW vehicles.

[@erfquake1]

To be fair, VW is very similar to Tesla in that neither company ever had the slightest interest in making a people's (i.e.: affordable) electric car. This created the opportunity for China to move in to the vaccuum and now threatens both companies.

[@williamjohansson1963]

Everyone saying that they made a misstake by not going EV earlier, but the truth of the matter is that relatively few companies have actually been able to produce these cars with any significant margin. The problem lies in the politics of todays Europe. They are unclear about how stuff will pan out. Just 5 years ago, they told all auto makers that their cars would be illegal to sell past 2030. That created a panic to push out relatively uneffeicient and arguably bad EVs. If todays German parties would have gone together and told automakers that this is the plan, this is our contribution for the next 20 years, what policies to drive etc. It would have gone better. I also have the opinion that hybrid veichles would have been a better investment. Beacuse, when people take up China as the example, they forget that they manufactured EVs for more than 10 years purily on state subsidies, cars that they lost money on to push the actual technology and the manufacturing forward. No other brand that constantly has to deliver profits would be able to do this.

[@jkbbumblebee]

Volkswagen Group owns: VW Passenger Vehicles VW Commercial Vehicles Škoda SEAT CUPRA Audi Lamborghini Bentley Porsche Ducati Why not sell one of these brands to Mercedes or BMW? This will give the money needed for restructuring and vertical integration for progressing into the EV (Electric Vehicle) market! Škoda and Audi lost their way after being hit by the Diesel Gate scandal. Both are iconic brands in Europe and other markets…

[@shkim652]

Driving the 2020 VW ID.3 now. Will never get any car manufactured by VW AG.

[@ideatorx]

Have they considered making cars people want to buy? Because making cars with lack lustre design from the early 2010's and bottom of the barrel quality EV's isn't going to cut it.

[@fredericoamigo]

I hope VW pull through and actually commit to the EV transition and battery technology.

[@stefanlundblad7693]

If one thinks that a company will expand perpetually; one shouldn’t start a company.

[@lastsovietspy]

man it hurts. it is not that electric cars are expensive, germans want to buy german cars. it’s that they’re in a recession and getting poorer every day , compared to usa is even worse

[@Tourian]

There is ZERO reason why we can't buy an affordable electric VW Golf in the year 2024.

[@santostv.]

You didn’t mention the fact that Germany reduced incentives for buying ev’s, the lack of tech inside their cars that the Chinese prefer. Legacy automaker don’t want ev’s to succeed and in doing it they are all failing and will not disappear but be a lot smaller companies in the future, they are shortsighted and arrogant

[@XxXenosxX]

Most western manufacturers have lost their way, our American ones aren’t any better. ICE manufacturers have enjoyed a lack of competition for way too long

[@Iskelderon]

When a company whose name literally means "people's car" thinks asking 70k Euros even in its home market for a decently equipped station wagon, outright fights progress and clings onto outdated technology to the point that they even defrauded customers with Dieselgate and then fought attempts at accountability tooth and nail, it really deserves to get what it has worked towards with that.

[@Gabor-y3h]

A standard passat estate should cost around 25K as base modell..... it is a family car and should be affordable especially for a family of 4 or 5..... also older Jetta and passat from the 90s were reliable works horses.... you could put 500K km in their diesel engines if you were driving them as you should an old style diesel ;)

[@Iskelderon]

@@Gabor-y3h With their current pricing in Germany, you'd end up at over 50k Euros for the combustion one (after getting a few necessities the base model leaves out to pretend it's cheaper and not just a bad PR joke) and over 70 for the EV counterpart. US-made ones would probably be cheaper, since they often just sell junk from the previous generation in a new chassis over there.

[@dawidlijewski5105]

Meanwhile Skoda sales are booming...

[@lil----lil]

Hint: When money is TIGHT, they're going buy "reliable" cars and it's NOT Volkswagen. Certainly not the first thing comes to my mind.

[@jglg7238]

the time has come 👍

[@hankmoody7521]

3:00 sorry Bloomberg, your reporting is just wrong. VW group BEV sales are down by -4.7% worldwide and in Europe by -14% in Q1-Q3 24. VW as a brand lost sales of 0.7%. VW group BEV registrations in Germany are slightly down, because subsides were cut, but VW is outselling other brands by far (45% market share in Oktober and about 35% this year so far). Tesla as well as french car groups were affected stronger due to cut subsidies. Teslas market share is around 10% in Germany this year so far. The current VW issues aren't BEV related, but production costs, insufficient utilization of factories (just compare operating costs to Toyota...) and loss of rents of their Chinese JVs. ps Trump should check his priorities, BMW is the US biggest car exporter and VW is now building a new plant to build Scout trucks... all German car companies are producing in the US, maybe Europe should ask how many jobs Apple, Google, Microsoft and SV are creating in Germany and where they're paying their taxes.

[@biggkoz]

Volkswagen forgot how to be simple.

[@talldave7799]

VW's management has launched an EV MiniVan (ID Buzz) that barely gets with 231 miles range starting at $62,000 in US is all you need to know

[@madanto2394]

The i.d3/4 range would be unheard of if the dieselgate scandal had never have happened. The i.d is awful.

[@vincentcollins1017]

how about the EU/Germany cut all these punitive taxes to make manufacturing competitive like the Chinese

[@today05]

Vw cars got incredibly expensive in the last decade or so. Even compared to other legacy automakers. They priced out their market, and now they are wondering why people dont buy their cars. Also they make the stupidest decisions, like making a cabrio-suv on a polo platform: the definition of an useless overpriced garbage instead of a sensible, reasonably priced car. And yeah they make spar-models: those are literally worse than their base models from a couple generations back, with rock hard plastics. I guess profit was above all for the last period, and now it caught up with them.

[@talldave7799]

VW made a HUGE mistake with the ID4's launch in US by intorucing a car that was heavy, had poor range, and slow-charing! An EV that could barely compete with best selling ICE SUVs let alone the expectations that were already set by Tesla! Piano Black surfances, cloogy User Interface and lack of integration between charging stations and charging software were other huge misses. It was the car that German Engineers built if they were the buyers and NOT an EV the US market was demanding! To make matters worse, ID4 was Over-Priced for US market and now California dealers can't give it away! And from the launch of the ID Buzz it appears VW brass has not learned their lesson either where the California version will start at $60,000 and will have a comical range in 2025! I don't very rocky times for VW in US market specially if BYD and other Chinese enter our market.

[@frostcb2]

I’d rather buy a Tesla and did buy one. I wouldn’t buy a vw due to the lack of quality and lack of ev choices.

[@changshu6463]

Just tried VW ID3 ID4 and ID7 in a mall in China, surrunded by other brands such as Li auto, NIO, Tesla, Xiaomi... VW cars feel like plastic toys, sell 1/3 the price now as in EU, and nobody wanted it before slashing the price.

[@floro7687]

Consumers in the US and Canada are constantly advised not to buy VW products, the Chinese are deserting the brand. All German brands are more or less in the same situation.

[@AndrewInverness]

Volkswagen literally translates to ‘People car’. VW appears to have lost sight of that. Gone is the entry vehicle the Up! which was a wonderful cheap car and they stuffed up the Golf 8 which was inferior to the previous Golf 7. I like VW and have had these models. Unfortunately there’s nothing in its current range that offers solid reliable German engineering for a reasonable price. Get back to the basics VW.

[@urbanstrencan]

This is a huge problem for EU because so many suppliers from different EU countries will be effected 😢😢

[@ЦзинКэ-ы5х]

Management, management, management. Prevalence of short-term planning over long-term, inability to capitalize on RnD, extreme blindness to market trends, outsourcing and cuts instead of investments and development.

[@dedollarizer]

Such large companies need to learn from startups and start new initiatives as a start-up with new young go getters.

[@explorelondon3695]

No, but Skoda is getting better day by day. Why pay VW money when you can get the same car in a Skoda badge. Dont VW it, Skoda it😂

[@Nikolasz1173]

Skoda is VW

[@explorelondon3695]

@Nikolasz1173 My point exactly

[@thwsify]

Germany are having their Margaret Thatcher moment.

[@johnbee7729]

Volkswagen is merely following the examples set for them by both General Motors and Toyota. They were, at different time the #1 volume auto manufacturer and then stuff happened. Both pivoted slightly to make fewer cars, but with higher profit margins. Volkswagen saw the chance and successfully.grasped the #1 position, and now stuff has happened again (this time China has its own auto industry). Volkswagen will suffer and shrink, before rebounding as a more lean and more profitable entity.

[@justayoutuber1906]

Car companies think you should be buying a new $80K car every 3 years....

[@RubiaStorm]

3 years? Where did you get that stat?

[@lominiski]

The Jetta was my first car and I hated it.

[@TheShepTV]

In Ireland, a fully-optioned Golf R will cost you €99,450. Thats a 2L hatchback for 100k. Its demise is its own doing. I am sad, but if your'e not going to compete in a market economy, you're going to fail.

[@GURken]

oh come on we all know that it's also a sportscar equal to 997 gt3 so that's why it's so high-priced

[@Andy-pu1gx]

In Germany the Golf R starts at 60k. Normally you got on the cars 15 to 20% Discount.

[@Entertainment-]

@@Andy-pu1gxIt just means you pay generally 15-20% more if you’re not aware of the discount, that is why people hate dealerships.

[@Simon-dm8zv]

Highly exaggerated. The Golf starts at 35K Euro.

[@Andy-pu1gx]

@@Entertainment- No, every big company have a List price and a Sales Price.

[@zSion]

Volkswagen should rebrand like Jaguar, it's the only way.

[@Skylla54]

😆 . Please don't! :D

[@kentstructures4388]

A lot of German engineering and automotive companies get a lot pf their revenues from their Chinese Operations.. With the US-China trade war and EU being dragged along, and with the lost Russian energy and raw materials source, it's a double stab to Germany's Economic Heart..

[@sjkba]

Make energy expensive then act surprised that your competition eats you alive...

[@veryCreativeName0001-zv1ir]

should've invested more in renewables & nuclear. In the short term russian gas was cheaper but look what happened in the long term

[@curlsalot91]

that's okay. VW disqualified themselves. Someone else will rise instead, or maybe not. Who knows really.