Originally posted by cbope Ah, you must be from the states. VW's sold "over there" are cheaper and much less well-equipped that the models sold in Europe. Plus most US model VW's are manufactured in LCC's (low cost countries). If I compare my last VW with Highline trim level, it was much closer to an Audi or BMW in terms of build quality and materials. And it was built in Germany, to order.
The US gets the higher end ones/better equipped. I think your view is rather distorted.
You might not have seen the stripped down VWs in Germany, then. You're also incorrect about the assertion of being "cheaper and much less equipped".
1. The US doesn't tax these vehicles like crazy. In fact, they are cheaper for me to buy in the US, comparably equipped, than in Germany. The same goes for me buying most German products in Germany. The first part of the puzzle is the shady value added tax (19%). The next is all political and not for this thread.
2. The US is a larger single market than the segmented EU market.
3. Every manufactured car is made in part or whole in LCCs. Take apart any of your cars to repair them and you will see "China", "Malaysia", "Phillipines", "American Samoa", "Czech Republic", "Slovakia", "Kaliningrad", "Belarus", and so on. In fact, go to Bad Schandau on the CZ-De border, stand over the train tracks, and one will see freight trains over and over with thousands of German cars coming IN from eastern Europe to Germany. Thousands of assembled Mercedes, BMWs, VWs, and so on. Not to mention their parts, like for the Phaeton, which receives final assembly in my former city, Dresden, but the parts are all trained in from Eastern Europe, transferred before the main train station to special trams, then sent directly into the factory's basement.
At this point, the vehicles are mostly only assembled in Germany and this trend will increase now due to Germany having the highest energy costs in Europe (again, another discussion topic).
4. They equip cars for how they will be bought. For instance, the golf in the US covers everything from low operating cost transport to upscale sport. The exact same in Germany and in fact, one can buy such things as an E-class mercedes, stripped down, cloth seats, 2.0L engine, and so on in Germany.
There's a wide market VW covered successfully in the US. Not entirely not due to the US rebuilding the company, by the way and under an official plan of deficit spending to prop up German manufacturers. But that's another topic.