My Desultory Blog

Rich,

I’ve been enjoying your Volkswagen oriented feeds for about a year and have to admit that I’m concerned that adding another Rabbit type vehicle that has no margin will be bad for the company. We struggled as salepeople when VW tries to commoditize their cars and in the end get a blackeye by selling junk. Unfortunately I look as if I’m trying to bait and switch whenever I tell customers that they should spend a $1000 more to get the car they want. Keep up the great blog.

Jim

Thanks for the comment Jim. Good point about the Rabbit.

My favorite snark quote from the article:

our Jetta [...] was saddled with some of the cruelest, cheapest plastic dash and door materials I’ve seen in years. What an awful way for petrochemicals to die! The innards of this thing make a Chevy Cruze look like a Maybach.

(Did I mention I saw a Maybach this summer?)

Scott: I was interested in checking out the new Jetta, but hearing comments like that have me thinking that I might as well look elsewhere? Let’s hope the new VWs are not as bad as what Mr. Neil makes them out to be.

I just spent a day with the NEW Jetta, driving it through courses with the competitors cars along with it. The Jetta still blows away a Civic, Mazda 3 and the Corolla to name a few. in all ways..handeling,fit and finish,braking,and warranty.
Now..yes we now do offer cheaper models of the Jetta. But for our repeat customes,They will not be disappointed in our higher end models,and the price is still lower, they still have the same suspention..engines..and more features then our 2010′s offered.
So before anyone panics, drive one! you will see ..it is still a VW. There are a few things that are not there anymore..but it’s not the end of the world..big deal..back to a prop rod under the hood..not a shock…and no shocks on the trunk lid.
I know the dash is plastic now…but after driving one..it didn’t matter, still a much quieter car then the competition. and I never slept on the dash so the paded part isn’t as big of a deal as some make it out to be.
Enough said…Drive one! Then make a comment!

VW has completely alienated their core market with this car. They should recall the 2011 Jetta and promptly issue an apology.

Unfortunately, VW is repositioning the brand down market. I just bought a new 2011 GTI (which I love) because it stood out as a high quality piece of German engineering at a very affordable price (at 25,000, it is a truly fine car). I’ve driven Mercedes-Benz for many years, and I was amazed at the value offered in the VW GTI. Now, VW is cheapening their image by offering a substandard 2011 Jetta to compete with Toyota. I just test drove the new Jetta today, and it is so bad that I can’t even explain. My perception of the Volkwagen brand has now been altered. I just feel that in the long run, the new Jetta will cause more damage than good to the VW name. While VW is certainly not a luxury brand, it is still considered my many to be a “premium” brand. I think VW is making a big mistake with their new strategy. Futhermore, I think VW’s design team has become a bit too consumer-centric. Don’t get me wrong; listening to the market is certainly important. It’s just that collecting informatioin from the market cannot be taken too literally when it comes to design. Consumers are not car designers. My feeling is that designers should focus on creating products that the market doesn’t even know thay want yet. Companies like Apple understand this very well. Henry Ford once said ” If I’d asked the market what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse”. The 2011 Jetta looks like it was deigned by consensus, rather than a design team. The result? A car which has a striking resemblance to a 2005 Camry.

Suspension is NOT the same… It has freakin drum breaks… `When you nudge the doors from the inside the cheap plastic bends inwords… bad quality car…