Buzz Off

The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is no more in North America.  At least for now.  

Volkswagen has announced that the electric retrograde minivan will not be available in the 2026 model year, though it could return for 2027 or later.

The most obvious reason for the cancellation of the ID. Buzz is the tariff Trump placed on products from the European Union, of course, but there was another thing that doomed the Buzz's fate - the price.  Excluding taxes, title fees, destination charges, dealer charges, and all that rot, an ID. Buzz had a base price of $60,000.  In 1968, the year the second-generation VW Transporter vans debuted in the United States, sixty grand in today's dollars was $6,442 - and the price of a Volkswagen passenger van in 1968 was about $2,500.  In other words, a van like the ID. Buzz would have cost in 1968 twice and half again what the then-new VW Bus cost.  The electric motor is no doubt the reason for the hefty price of the Buzz, but other factors like the dollar being worth less than the euro and the higher wages for German autoworkers also have to be considered.  Not to mention Trump's tariffs.

Now consider this:  Volkswagen was betting its future on electric vehicles, and the United States was part of that gambit.  The plan to turn Americans on to electric VWs (remember the "Voltswagen" name change joke?)  was doomed from the start.  The ID.3 was the same size and style as the Golf, so then-Volkswagen of America CEO Scott Keogh, recognizing the Golf's lack of popularity here, refused to bring it over.  The ID.4 crossover's performance in the ten-day sales report has been incredibly meh.  The ID.7 sedan was coming here . . . until it wasn't.  And Trump, who hates any EV that's not a Tesla, canceled the federal EV tax credit in the meantime.  Now this.  Meanwhile, as I've already noted, Keogh is running the Scout electric-SUV brand, and before one Scout has even been available for the automotive press to review, the brand announced that its vehicles will be hybrids instead.

So, if you live in the New World, you can have any electric Volkswagen you want, so long as it's the ID.4.  The gasoline-powered lineup for Volkswagen in North America, meanwhile, is wanting - just five models (unless I'm supposed to count the Golf twice because the Golf GTI and the Golf R, the only Golf variants offered here, are counted as separate models).  Three of them are SUVs, and only one non-SUV, the Jetta, is priced for the people as a people's car should be.  And the current Jetta is in its eighth model year.   As for the next Golf, the ninth-generation model will be electric, which means it's all but certain that we won't get it in any form, but VW currently has plans to start producing the current Golf in Mexico, which suggests that the base eighth-generation car could finally be available in North America at last.  But VW's current cash crunch, coupled with Trump's saber rattling against Mexico, means that this is all wishful thinking at best.  And it's a safe bet that if the Golf doesn't survive on this continent in any form, the Jetta will disappear as well.  That will be it.  That will really be it.  Even if Volkswagen stays in this market, it will basically be just another SUV-only brand like . . . Buick.

Buick.

I'm holding on to my sixth-generation Golf until I can't drive it anymore - when it's no longer operable or when I'm too old to drive and someone needs to take away my car keys (if they can find them), whichever comes first.

Auto Show Blues - 2022 Edition

I just realized that I went through March without hearing a word about the Geneva Motor Show, and, given all the news about annual events returning after cancellations or being held after postponements, I wondered if I had just missed the news about it.

I didn't miss a thing.  After being canceled due to COVID in 2020 and 2021, the Geneva Motor Show was canceled again this year.  Apparently, the third time an auto show in Geneva was attempted was not a charm.

It turns out that the cancellation of Geneva 2022 had only partly something to do with COVID and nothing to do with Omicron.  The decision to pull the plug on the auto show was made this past fall, when Delta was the COVID strain of concern and Omicron hadn't even been discovered yet, and another factor was the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage that has made producing cars so damn difficult.  Once again, our overdevelopment of the natural world, which let COVID happen, and our technological overkill, which led to cars that are really computers on wheels, did something only Hitler had previously accomplished - disrupt life as we know it beyond belief.

Meanwhile, here in America, where the feared Omicron BA.2 surge hasn't happened yet and may not materialize at all, the New York Auto Show is a go for this Easter Week.  I was thinking of sitting this one out, since I feared that a few of the German marques would not be present, as had happened before, and because too many brands have tilted to SUVs to the point where I had to rule out seeing the Buick, Ford, and Lincoln displays due to their SUV-only lineups (except for Ford's Mustang).

Then Volkswagen announced it would be showing its new ID. Buzz electric van in New York.

Oh, dear.  I love VW vans.  Even the ones that have never been sold in the United States.  I actually spotted a not-for-America Sharan minivan with New York plates parked on a Manhattan street and I left a note for the owner wishing him or her luck with this obviously gray-market vehicle.  And I'm particularly excited about this revival of the original Microbus concept.  Should I go to the show this year?  Should I risk traveling by bus to spend a few hours in a convention center with thousands of my follow Tri-Staters in a pandemic that has abated but not entirely ended just to have the opportunity to see the first Volkswagen EV to be offered in the States that I might actually want? 

Or would looking at a picture like the one above suffice?

I'm waiting to see how the COVID numbers look by the last possible day  I could go to the show, but don't be surprised if I stay home.  I can't think of much else that I feel I just have to see, and even the new Golf GTI is something I can wait to see until I visit my dealer for service on my own Golf later this year.  I may just give up on auto shows altogether.  Auto shows themselves were becoming less relevant even before the pandemic, and the auto market these days is something I no longer recognize as relevant to my automotive interests.  That, of course, would be in keeping with my penchant for giving up on so many other things, like a relationship, foreign travel, and a real career.  Heck, I've thrown in enough towels to stock a linen store.  Why should I stop now?

The folks in Geneva might be getting those towels out right about now.  Three cancellations in a row have cast doubt over the Geneva Motor Show's sustainability over the long run, and hopes for a more impactful show in March 2023 seem like pie in the sky . . . by next year, the shows organizers could end up feasting on humble pie.

With second helpings.