Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 15:05:24 +0000
Reply-To: joe trussell <vanagongl@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: joe trussell <vanagongl@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Going towards a new era...
In-Reply-To: <00a201c7867c$dfe82c30$9fb88490$@com>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
I don't think it's an accident--I think they're making a push to return to
the economy and value that they used to stand for, at least in a portion of
their offerings, and I think that comes directly from the top.
The big question mark, though, is actual value--are these cars well-built
and dependable? That's the most important part of the equation, and it's
too early to tell on these new models. And whether they're brand image can
be saved or not, who knows?
In any case, we love our Passat wagon and our Vanagon and my new old GTI,
(wait--the GTI is becoming a total pain in the ass) but that's about all I
can do to support VW at this point...
Joe T.
>From: Jim Akiba <syncrolist@BOSTIG.COM>
>Reply-To: Jim Akiba <syncrolist@BOSTIG.COM>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Re: Going towards a new era...
>Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 10:28:49 -0400
>
>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?
>
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