Volkswagen of America For 2024

 In a word, this is pathetic.

Officially,  Volkswagen's U.S. lineup is down to ten models with half of them being sport utility vehicles. (Various trim levels inflate the number of models to sixteen.)  In reality, it's down to eight models with five of them being SUVs, because the Web page counts the Jetta twice - once for the base model and again for the GLI - and also counts the Golf twice - once for the GTI and again for the R, with - of course - no base Golf for Americans anymore. 

This is Volkswagen's weakest U.S. lineup in over thirty years.  And the European character of the brand - small, economical, taut ride, sophisticated handling - has mostly been watered down in pursuit of the objective Herbert Diess set for the U.S. before he stepped down as CEO of Volkswagen AG - to sell American-style vehicles to VW's American customer base.  As a result, five out of six VWs sold in the States are SUVs.  This is and remains a slap in the face to loyal American VW customers who bought Volkswagens for decades simply and primarily because they were not American-style vehicles - because they specifically were the sort of fun compact runabouts you'd see in pictures of Parisian or Roman streetscapes. 

Yes, Europe has Volkswagen SUV models we don't get, but more importantly, Europeans get the base Golf, the Polo, the ID.3, four station wagons, and a choice of vans ranging from the Touran to the Transporter.  No up! anymore, Volkswagen upped! the last one from its factory this past October.  (I'll elaborate on that in a later post.)  But the European Volkswagen customer still has twice as many choices as the American customer, even though they don't have the Jetta anymore.  But Europeans, never big fans of trunks, hardly miss it.

Bad, bad, very bad.

Well, not entirely.  There are bright spots in Volkswagen of America's future.  The ID. Buzz is coming soon, and Volkswagen's first van for this market in over a decade will soon be followed by the midsize ID.7 sedan, an ostensible replacement for the Passat.  But if you want the sort of small, compact, no-nonsense car that the Beetle or the Golf had always been, you're either going to have to buy a late-model Golf or modern Beetle used or get a new Jetta before VW gives up on that model as well.  Me, I'm going to keep my base Mark 6 Golf, now soldiering into its thirteenth year (the longest I've ever owned a car), on the road for as long as I can.