Date:         Tue, 09 Jul 96 20:08:53 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: VW Customer Relations & reality check

my view of this mess is that VWOA (the u.s. arm) began going downhill,
in terms of customer relations and product support, when the headquarters
was moved from New Jersey to Michigan, and the people who were running
VWOA were touted as being "experienced u.s. automobile industry leaders"
... cause they used to work for GM.

well, the attitude of General Motors in the past and to some extent, still
today, was/is that "this is what we make; like it!". while this has also
been true of Ford and Chrysler in the past, it seems to not be the case
as much today. Chrysler has had TWELVE years of their miniature "van" as
a raving success ... and GM and Ford have been unable to "copy" it???
this, to me at least, is just another example of GM (and Ford) being unable
to provide the customer with what the customer WANTS.

and now, VWOA is run by these same people with the same mentality.

how dare they tell me i can't order a vanagon with rubber floormats! why
can't i get a panel van? a pickup truck? why didn't VWOA import buses with
dual sliding doors twenty years ago!!! the dual sliding door has been
available from the factory since 1966 or so.

what it boils down to is the same thing other people have said: it's about
money. the fringes do not make profit. it's the same in Wal-Mart or Sears.
if you are "average height" and "average weight", you can find all sorts of
clothes that fit. but if your body is a bit out of size or proportion,
you are out of luck or it costs 20 percent more. why? cause volume sales
mean larger profits. so average sizes sell quicker, cause there are many
more "average" sized people than us fatsos and biggos.

the same is true of cars. i personally cannot fit into a 1996 Ford Mustang.
my knees can't make it past the dash corners. i don't fit into a Chevy
Corvette.  but i fit fine into a Honda Accord. or Dodge Caravan. go figure.

i think the Japanese have paid much more attention to what the customer
likes and wants, with a touch of "how bout this?" thrown in. Chrysler had
to ... they were going under and really had nothing to lose by trying such
a radical philosophy. GM and Ford have yet to suffer the degradation that
Chrysler did, and so retain their arrogance. VW is the same. IN THIS MARKET.

and like William said, this is a strange market ... but i think part of the
strangeness is due to the large companies who are trying to control the
market. rather than adapting TO the market, they are continually pushing
the market, and causing it to get out of whack.

and, some of it is the German arrogance of pride in building good quality
machines. a good example of this (again, for the american market) is the
only-recent introduction of cup-holders in Mercedes cars. :)  and i believe
that Porsche still refuses to put cup-holders in their cars. well, it makes
sense if you think about it: if you are DRIVING, you have no business doing
so with a cup in your hand. in Germany, this is especially true. but in
the U.S., things are a bit different. ;)   my point being: they didn't
cater to the market. it's the details that count. :)

so what do WE do about it? write VW? call VW? fat chance that 600 of us
would even make a dent in their attitude. so we do exactly what we have
been doing: getting together on the internet and helping each other, with
advice, opinion, experience, parts, information, and anything else we can
think of.

... now, if only South Africa would start making Left-hand-drive models
and shipping them over here!!! ;)

joel