Date: Wed, 7 May 97 11:44:24 UT
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "Thomas Niksch" <cct_tom_niksch@msn.com>
Subject: VW President Dr.Ing. Ferdinand Piêch's 60th birthday presents
>From: Thomas Niksch,
To: Thomas F. Forhan, USA
Dear Tom,
after some surfing on the VW linked pages, it is really amzing: Equally in
electronical or in printed media, you will find more hints for VW enthusiasts
than for any other manufacturers brand. And what do these guys up in Wolfsburg
do? They cancel even Westfalia Eurovan Camper deliveries to North America. We
thought mistreating custumers was a german and precisely a syncro speciality.
Anyway, it is not a real relief to hear that they behave like that over the
whole world.
These days was VW Chairman Dr. Ing. Ferdinand Piêchs 60th birthday. Lots of
articles appeared in all kinds of papers and almost everyone mentioned Piêch's
new "premium-strategy" for VW. Which means that after attacking BMW
succesfully with some sportive AUDI models, Volkswagen declares a new enemy.
Fell free to guess who it is: - Mercedes-Benz -. Piêch loves to talk about
mystical things like "more than six-cylinder" "bigger than a Passat" etc.
Which means in other terms they intend to build a luxory-class Volkswagen like
the A8 , to compete with a Mercedes S-class, Lexus or the BMW 7.
Last year braught some kind of revolution to the whole european dealership. As
a consequence after having aquired SEAT of Spain and Skoda of Czechia they
felt need to a repositioning of the traditional VAG brands VW and AUDI. So one
of the consequences was that dealers are no longer allowed to sell AUDIs
together with VWs in one shop. There have to be at least different show-rooms
in seperate buildings (!) and different service-counters, spare part selling
etc. Show-rooms have to match with a lot of expensive corporate-design
regulations, which means that many "mom and pop" VW shops will disappear
within the next year and only the big "mafiosi" remain. The basic argument was
that some appreciated customer who pays 120 000 DEM (... don't know why John
Grisham's yuppie lawiers always come to my mind at that point) for an AUDI A8
will feel irritated while he has to queue in the same shop together with -
lets say - some unemployed trucker, owning a rusty 1982 Golf.
So if you follow the "premium strategy" consequently, it must be an insult as
well for the "new Piêch shaped VW customer" to queue together with people
driving a "light truck" ... <vbg>
So from my point of view (or should I say nightmare) the day is not very far
away when some marketing f...-face at Wolfsburg will decide light trucks,
campers and minivans inadequate for the new Volkswagen image and in future
sell this kind of vehicle through the SEAT or Skoda dealership. To make people
forget quickly that such kind of vehicle was ever sold at VW, you probably
will be obliged to camouflage all the VW signs on your bus with a Skoda label.
<vbg>
(Ferdi's) Brave New World, you may call it.
Imagine e.g. that it took them more than three years to adopt an existing 2,5
TDI or VR6 engine to an existing T4 Eurovan. It had been promised to come
"soon" since 1993 and the first deliveries took place in spring 1996. Beeing
foolishly optimistic I dared to ask for a 2,5 TDI or VR6 in combination with
syncro last summer and the reply was that these engines were simply to strong
for the 4x4 transmission - they would have to reinforce a lot of parts (ever
heard of a tranny probs in a VW 4x4 ? <vbg>). So the answer was maybe, - maybe
- next year. (Looking forward to still hear this in the next - century -)
So there is one thing that sometimes comes to my mind: Why do we fools (myself
included) spend lots and lots of hours and $$ even doing advertising in some
way for a manufaturer that will greatefully take any oppotunity to kick their
coutomer's a..s. Maybe it's time to look for the assistence of psychiatric
analyst. <vbg>
That was just BTW ... unfortunately it is to serious to be posted on a friday
!
Your comments are appreciated !
Best regards
Tom Niksch
