Volkswagen. Das Flop.

Volkswagen of America is in trouble again.

How much is it in trouble?  How about a 13.4 percent sales drop in the first half of 2014 from the first half of 2013?  How about the fact that June 2014 sales for its bestselling model in the United States, the Jetta, are a whopping 22.1 percent down from the Jetta's June 2013 numbers?  How about the fact that the VW brand has been in a sales slump for several months even as the Big Three (I no longer call the Detroit automakers the Only Three, now that I've concluded that Elon Musk's California-based Tesla company is for real) and the Japanese - along with the Volkswagen Group's luxury brands - have all seen sales increases of late?

The reasons for VW's slide back into irrelevance in the U.S. auto market boil down to the brand having too many aging models and too little of a presence in more lucrative American market segments like SUVs.  Quality control appears to have also remained a problem, though I've only had my 2012 Golf in the repair shop twice since I bought it - for repairs of dents and scratches caused by two different motorists on two different occasions driving into my car while it was parked.  Ever since losing its status as America's bestselling import brand to Toyota in the mid-seventies - it's now been an also-ran in the U.S. twice as long as it was on top - Volkswagen has had periods of moderate success undermined by subsequent slumps.  Now even VW's strategy to build cars in the U.S. and Mexico, for American tastes and wallets and with less costly materials and less sophisticated engineering, seems to have backfired - not only are sales of the Mexican-built Jetta down, but so are Passat sales - down 33.6 percent in June 2014 from June 2013.  The previous Jetta may have only looked like a Toyota Corolla, but, unlike the current Jetta, at least it didn't ride like one.  The Tennessee-built Passat is better, less watered down and more German in feel, but its overall conception may be too American.  Anyway, I get the impression VW has trouble balancing German engineering with American value, and these cars haven't captured people's imagination like previous Passats and Jettas have.  And anyone who wanted one of these cars now, apparently, has one.  VW loyalists like myself haven't been too enthused by them - while I accept the U.S. Passat as a legitimate Volkswagen, I'm not particularly impressed by the Jetta and I only tolerate it because it makes enough money to allow the Golf to continue as a loss leader.

Ah yes, the Golf.  Volkswagen of America is finally bringing out the seventh-generation Golf after an interminable delay, which should help spur some traffic in VW showrooms but, given the fact that the Golf - with that name and with the Rabbit badge - has always been an also-ran in the United States given Americans' preference for cars with trunks, it likely won't boost sales.  Volkswagen is already promoting the new GTI - now called a Golf GTI for the first time in America - in its ads, but one must remember that the GTI is a cult version of a car that, though mainstream elsewhere, is itself a cult favorite in the U.S. and Canada.

Although I suggested in my open letter to Volkswagen Group of America CEO Michael Horn back in January that he concentrate on bringing in more models like the Polo and Scirocco in addition to light trucks and understand that Volkswagen is better off in the U.S. as a niche brand with mass-market pricing, he's not likely to follow such advice, which makes the need for a midsize SUV and the need for a compact SUV that's more appealing than the Tiguan more imperative.  Given VW's new investments in modular platforms that offer more flexibility and efficiency in engineering new vehicles, producing such models shouldn't be a problem.  But VW can't even decide where and when to start making these SUVs, and the strife over unionization efforts (since defeated) at their plant in Tennessee hasn't helped matters any.  And the Jetta needs more than a freshening, which it's getting for 2015; it needs a complete redesign.  Ditto the Passat.  

In fact, here's the eighth generation of the European Passat, which was just introduced in the Old Country:

Though smaller and more expensive than the North American Passat, it's sleeker and more of a BMW 3-series-fighter than a German-American Camry.  You want one?  You can't have one!  For Europeans only!  We can only hope that the next NMS Passat (as the North American edition is called; the European edition is the B-chassis Passat) takes more of its cues from this baby.  

In the meantime, at least we Yanks are finally getting the Mark 7 Golf, the first all-new Golf in nearly a decade.  But until Volkswagen can get its American lineup gaps filled and its SUV plans worked out and fine-tuned, it's going to lumber along and fall behind.  Most likely not enough to withdraw from the U.S. market - if VW ever leaves the States, I'm going with them - but it still has a rocky road ahead here.  All I can say is, without sufficient growth in U.S. market share, VW is going to remain an afterthought among most American customers. 

Oh yeah, don't count on the Polo ever coming here unless the Islamic State proto-caliphate marches into Baghdad and instigates an oil crisis.  So I guess that means I'm saying there's a chance . . ..