JoulesThief said:
Voltron said:
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a 2018 eGolf in other countries while the US stays with the 2017. VW has always treated the American market as a poor stepchild: we get the card after everyone else and often with fewer features and trims. Must be hell to be a VW dealer; almost March and the 2018 Golf tsi is just now starting to ship. Meanwhile other makes are finishing my 2018 and building 2019 models.
VW always tests out their models in the Motherland and Northern Europe, letting the locals near the Motherland be the Beta Testers, before rolling out the hopefully debugged technology into the Americas and other foreign markets. That's their business model, it works for them, not you, the consumer. You want cutting edge, buy an American car here in America, and be a Beta Tester for the Big 3.
Sort of. Once production of a model starts, it is VERY costly to make changes to the design of a vehicle, especially to core parts like body, powertrain, etc. Fortunately, car design is so well-honed today that that all manufacturers (except for Tesla) are able to produce a high-quality product from job 1. However, there are changes to production processes over time. With VW, they typically start production of a new model in Germany or Europe where costs are high and then bring the production line up in other places for shipment to markets where they don't think they can command the premium price they get at home. These later production lines save them money three ways: 1 - Lower labor costs in places like Mexico and Brazil; 2 - Greater efficiency from what they learned early on in Europe; 3 - lower prices from suppliers as volumes grows.
VW's approach to the US market is understandable, considering their volumes, American interest in small cars, and the perception that VW is not a premium brand. I just don't like it.
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