Date:         Sun, 31 Oct 1999 11:16:19 -0700
Reply-To:     Kent Christensen <lkchris@USWEST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Kent Christensen <lkchris@USWEST.NET>
Subject:      Re: VW Marketing in U.S.A.
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Don't agree with notion VW markets poorly in USA.  Fact is, they're
winning marketing awards and selling the vehicles they sell in growing
volumes.  That's with cars, of course, and at the low end they must
sell vehicles made in Mexico in order to compete.  Americans will only
pay for German-made at medium to high price levels, and some Passats
are being sold as well.

Regarding pickup trucks, which is what we're talking about, I think
also there is a large culture factor.  A clue can be found in studying
Toyota's attempt to compete in the USA full-size pickup market.
They're not going to have (and haven't) made much of a dent until
NASCAR lets them in or otherwise hell freezes over.  Closer to topic,
my experience is that in Germany the national truck is not a pickup
but rather an enclosed van.  (It might be something like the Caddy in
the UK.)  Don't think you'll see that many of the drop-side vehicles
over there (especially compared to vans) in commercial use anyway, and
I doubt the pickups-as-second-cars culture has arrived yet.  Also,
beyond 4 of the 900 folks on this list, no one is going to buy one in
the USA.  VW tried once.

Finally, and I just posted some information to this effect, Americans
can't afford pickup trucks made in Europe.  Leaving aside the "bigger
is better" mentality for a moment, despite the fact VWs have only 2
litre engines (that range) they are much higher quality vehicles with
higher technical content than Americans usually purchase and their
price reflects that.  Lots of times they're diesels, which make sense
in trucks and which are more expensive too.  Most Americans don't care
about that and want that big V8 or V6 because to them bigger is better
and, conveniently, it's cheaper.  And, see any diesels in the small
ranges?

This, again, is not a (pickup truck) marketing problem.  VW makes
apples.  The USA market wants oranges that VW doesn't make.  Mercedes
solved their version of this problem by buying Chrysler.