Why We Can't Have Nice Things (From Volkswagen)

Volkswagen's new ID.3 electric hatchback (below), which is about the same size as the Golf, is compact, technologically advanced, incredibly futuristic, and ergonomically friendly for driver and passenger alike.  It's a Tesla for the masses.

And we in North America aren't getting it. 

If you live in North America and you want an electric VW, it's either going to be a Microbus-styled minivan (fine) or a crossover (not fine, given that crossovers always look like station wagons designed by a committee).  Volkswagen of America's current president, Scott Keogh, says he regrets his decision not to offer the ID.3 in the New World on emotional grounds - he says his company car is an e-Golf - but he's satisfied with his decision on business grounds.  He says the compact hatchback class is simply too insignificant in North America to offer a $33,000 electric car in the segment for sale at a profit or even as a loss leader.

The same, of course, goes for the Polo, a car Volkswagen has manufactured since 1975 and has never been sold in the United States or Canada.  VW came close to selling it in North America after the 2008 financial crisis and a spike in gas prices.  My fourth-generation Golf was beginning to wear out.  A new fifth-generation Polo was coming.  I was ready to buy it!  I wanted it!  But it didn't come.  Gas prices went down, and so did the demand for small cars, even though the small-car market hadn't evaporated completely.  After all, Ford had the Fiesta and General Motors had the Chevrolet Sonic.

When the sixth generation of the Polo (above) came out in late 2017, Juergen Stackmann, the guy in charge of global sales at Volkswagen, explained why the U.S. wouldn't get it. "It doesn't make too much sense for us to bring a car like this, which has the substance of a class higher, into a segment that is so price driven in America," he said, explaining that the Fiesta, the Sonic and other subcompacts of the Polo's ilk cost less, and that the Polo was simply to well-appointed and too expensive to compete against them.  Since then, the Fiesta - a nice little car but one that was notoriously unreliable - has been discontinued, as the U.S. market becomes more dominated daily by SUVs and light trucks, though the Sonic remains available going into 2020.

Volkswagen itself is concentrating more on SUVs in the U.S. (and Canada) because, we are told, Americans like SUVs.  I don't.  I hate them with a cold passion.  And long-time Volkswagen customers don't like them very much either.  The people buying Atlases and Tiguans - now comprising 54 percent of Volkswagen's American customers! - aren't VW enthusiasts.  They're flexible buyers with no brand loyalty who could just as easily have bought a Ford Explorer or a Honda Pilot.  Volkswagen is a brand for people who love to drive; SUV customers aren't engaged in driving any more than they have to be. For them, driving is just turning a steering wheel and knowing when to stop for a light.  They buy SUVs because they want a family room on wheels. Complete with a TV screen for the kiddies. >:-(

Selling SUVs to suburban rubes was fine so long as Volkswagen of America pleased its loyal customers with small, nimble, economical driver's cars - the sort of cars that made Volkswagen so beloved in America in the first place - but Volkswagen of America seems to have walked away from all that.  The ID.3 may have more technology than I want, but its small size and its thoughtful layout would be a winner for Americans and Canadians who want that sort of vehicle.  The current Polo has the room and nimbleness of my mother's Honda Fit and the performance of my Golf - with a variety of engines to choose from, many of which have three cylinders.   A lot of us would be willing to pay more for a car like the ID.3 or the Polo because we find them that desirable.  But if Scott Keogh or anyone else doesn't think VW can sell enough of these cars in America and still offset its losses with all of those bug ugly wagons it's pushing, how can we convince anyone at the company to satisfy our preferences?

And then there's the base Mark 8 Golf (above).  You know the story; I won't repeat it.  Not being able to buy a Volkswagen you want because it isn't and/or never has been available here, like a Polo or an ID.3, is bad enough.  But the idea of dropping from the U.S. lineup a car that has been available in the States for 45 years, the only car I ever bought new, once in 2000 and again in 2012 - that's too much.  I'm not asking for the Polo or the ID.3 (not anymore, or at least not for now), but I continue to lobby Volkswagen of America to keep the base Golf in the U.S. lineup (and you know already about Canada), and I've even written to Wolfsburg, urging the parent company to ensure that Volkswagen of America continues to make the base Golf available in the U.S.

Maybe we can't have the quirkier, smaller and more interesting Volkswagens not sold on this side of the pond, but we should still have the base Golf, because there are still those of us VW loyalists who prefer hatchbacks and can't afford either a Golf GTI or a Golf R.  We have to stir things up and make some damn noise.  Contact Volkswagen of America at 1-800-822-8987, 8 A.M. to 9 P.M. Eastern Time, from Monday to Friday, and let them know that we VW fans won't stand for the base Golf being dropped when the eighth generation arrives.