Volkswagen of America Does It Again

Volkswagen of America is once again preparing to get a new president. The current leader, Stefan Jacoby, is set to become the new CEO at Volvo, replacing Stephen Odell. This news came as a surprise to many dubbers in America, because Jacoby had done a great deal in the previous three years to keep Volkswagen on the right path in the United States.

After hitting rock bottom in America in the early nineties, Volkswagen was able to recover by producing a modern Beetle which Americans bought in droves and coming out with excellent redesigns of the Golf and Jetta in the latter part of that decade, as well as a new Passat that unexpectedly gave they Toyota Camry and Honda Accord serious competition. Sales peaked at at over 350,000 units in 2001 before falling by 37 percent over the next five years, although the drop was not as nearly as severe as the 64 percent U.S. sales decline between 1971 and 1976. Jacoby was able to bring about some changes, keeping Volkswagen's U.S. market share steady and getting VW to build a new plant in Tennessee to build an American replacement for the Passat while setting a goal to increase VW's U.S. sales to 800,000 within the next decade.

Jacoby made a few missteps, though, mainly by blessing us with the Routan minivan and refusing to bring over the all-new Scirocco. Some VW fans have even questioned the drum brakes and torsion beam rear suspension chosen for the new Jetta, which they fear will soften the ride. It is true that sales have slowly slipped from 2006 to 2009, but VW actually increased market share last year due to an overall slump in the market caused by the recession that began in December 2007 and is still very much in progress.

Jacoby wasn't a "car guy," someone who knew the products inside and out and focused more on the cars than on the marketing. He did a decent job in keeping the ship steady, but the next Volkswagen of America boss has to get more aggressive. VW fans have a long wish list of cars they want to see (bring the Polo! bring the Polo!) and while it's nice for VW to have mass-market products like the newly redesigned Jetta and the as-yet unnamed mid-size sedan to be built in Tennessee and have the mid-size sedan (I call it the Dasher) be aimed at Camry and Accord buyers, it's important that we dubbers get a say in the product line. We don't buy VWs because they're like Toyotas or Hondas. We don't buy VWs because they're mainstream cars. We buy them because they're nothing of the sort.

As VW's old mid-eighties slogan goes, "It's not a car. It's a Volkswagen." And as that decorative license plate says, "It's not a car. It's a cult." :-D

I don't know how Jacoby - who had hoped to lead VW's Škoda brand in Europe - will fare at Volvo. Whoever replaces him at Volkswagen of America will have his or her hands full, though.