Vanagon EuroVan
Previous messageNext messagePrevious in topicNext in topicPrevious by same authorNext by same authorPrevious page (April 2007, week 4)Back to main VANAGON pageJoin or leave VANAGON (or change settings)ReplyPost a new messageSearchProportional fontNon-proportional font
Date:         Tue, 24 Apr 2007 10:28:49 -0400
Reply-To:     Jim Akiba <syncrolist@BOSTIG.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jim Akiba <syncrolist@BOSTIG.COM>
Subject:      Re: Going towards a new era...
In-Reply-To:  <BAY103-F27ED0EFC6F91241ECE887BA4A0@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

BTW I was ranting about that the other day.. wasn't the original point of VW to be affordable, efficiently mass-produced, practical vehicles for the "volks"? Now with their new marketing it's almost an admission of "We went so off track to the point where now, having 3 VWs that are actually almost affordable is a big deal... woohoo"

There's nothing quite like your own marketing dept pointing out serious fault in upper management by accident.

I still dream. My dreams are of either a Chinese company that decides to build the vanagon chassis again, or a small American startup non-profit car company(which would be a first also) that makes a competitive, practical, flexible, efficient, and utilitarian vehicle for people that want them. It might fail like every other small auto manufacturer that has come and gone, but we still all know what a delorean is for instance.

Jim

-----Original Message----- From: joe trussell [mailto:vanagongl@HOTMAIL.COM] Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 9:00 AM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Going towards a new era...

I dunno, they are advertizing the new Rabbit, Jetta, and Beetle for under $17k, which relatively isn't bad. The tradeoff is that the fit and finish of the new Jetta is not nearly as nice as the last version.

>From: Geza Polony <gezapolony@SBCGLOBAL.NET> >Reply-To: Geza Polony <gezapolony@SBCGLOBAL.NET> >To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM >Subject: Re: Going towards a new era... >Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:41:18 -0400 > >Remember that marketing is not about selling a product but selling an > >idea or vision. > >Absolutely. It's just that the concept VW was founded on is "cheap," >"basic," "casual," "informal," "fun"--all good ideas, but not something >that appeals to people with huge amounts of money to blow. That's why VW so >clearly dissociates itself now from its past. Looking at the new Jetta, >you'd never dream the same company once produced 40 hp air-cooled >Beetles... >Any marketing plan to attract affluent buyers would have to take the >hippy-bus image (which I and a lot of others here like, of course) into >account, and either update it or do the same dissociative work VW has done. > > >To find > >$1400 busses with good bodies, etc., and turn them around for $6000 for > >coachwork - who knows if it's possible. > >Ben would... > >What would your retail price point be? You're not talking about $6,000, >right?

_________________________________________________________________ Need a break? Find your escape route with Live Search Maps. http://maps.live.com/?icid=hmtag3


Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main VANAGON page

Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!


Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com


The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.

Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.