Just Move On Up!

I'm watching Volkswagen of America with great concern. Not because of their 18 percent sales drop last month; that's part and parcel of the recession. I'm more concerned about the possibility of the German character of its cars being compromised.

While VW will continue to sell its volume model, the Golf, in the U.S. market, and will even produce a second-generation New Beetle, the American division is going more in the direction of aping the Japanese strategy to increase its presence in the American market. That is, offer cars designed more for comfort than for driving. It turns out VW's new mid-size sedan, or NMS - I'll call it the Dasher, after Volkswagen's family car from the seventies, from now on - will be bigger than the Passat, not smaller, and it will compete directly with the Toyota Camry. The Dasher, to be built in Tennessee, will be just as well-appointed as the Camry and will likely perform and handle as well as the Camry.

Dude, if you want a Camry, get a Camry. Some American car buyers prefer the more refined and more finely engineered ride of a Passat.

Then there's Volkswagen's small up! car.

The up!, originally displayed at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2007, was originally designed as a rear-engined, rear-drive small car in the spirit of the original Beetle. (No aircooling, though.) But because of concerns about the possible tail-happy behavior of a rear-engine car, and also to cut costs, the engine was moved to the front for the production version, driving the front wheels. Some wags have even suggested that VW erred on the side of conservatism in deference to the American market. The up! had been designed with the possibility of offering it in the U.S. in mind but Volkswagen hasn't committed to such an idea completely out of fear that it might be too small for American tastes.

If Volkswagen had had the same attitude toward the American market in the fifties that it has now, the Beetle might never had been sold here. Volkswagen didn't just change people's minds in the United States about foreign cars; the German company changed people's minds here about small cars, and it got Americans to appreciate the economy and frugality of a small, basic car like the Beetle. Plus, the taut suspension and stiff shocks the Beetle had and most of its watercooled, front-engine successors have had changed many American attitudes about how a car should ride.

The cheap gasoline of the past thirty years, alas, re-established American preferences for bigger and softer cars, and Toyota and Honda have been all too happy to follow suit with their ever bigger and softer Camry and Accord models, respectively. To be fair, their small Corolla and Civic models continue to be perennial favorites in America, though they're rather unexciting. That said, American-style engineering and Japanese banality are not what Volkswagen customers demand from their cars. VW became a part of the American landscape by letting the market come to them. I understand the need for car companies to respond to market demands, but there's a reason I'm a Volkswagen owner and chose a Golf over the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic. I like driver's cars. If you just want a car to get from one place to another, you buy a Japanese or domestic car. If you want to enjoy the trip, you buy a Volkswagen. Will we still enjoy the trip once Volkswagen tries to Americanize or Nipponize its U.S. product? Volkswagen of America president Stefan Jacoby insists that the Dasher and the smaller subcompact positioned below the Golf - to be called the Polo but having little in common with the European model of the same name - will be Volkswagens in every sense of the brand name, but I'm skeptical.

I still have bad feelings about the Americanized Rabbit built in Pennsylvania in the early eighties.

As for the up!, which may actually get here in 2012, there should be a market for it here once gas prices go up again. (Oh, they will, man , they will!) And as far as I'm concerned . . .

Heck, I'd buy one! :-)