Comments by "Stephen Hendricks" (@stephenhendricks103) on "" video.

  1. I'm sure VW would like the public to believe that the cost of crash testing in the US was behind the decision not to export the new Touareg to North America. But that explanation doesn't ring true. In fact neither of the earlier generations of the Touareg sold well in the US and there is every reason to believe that the third generation would have done just as badly. The US replacement for the Touareg, the Atlas, on the other hand has significantly outsold the earlier generations of the Touareg. I've already seen more Atlases here in the Seattle area than I saw in a decade of the Touareg. It's a lesson VW should have learned with the ill-fated Phaeton years ago. They did learn it with the Passat. There's little doubt that the European Passat is superior to the US version but there is likewise no doubt that the larger, lower priced American version increased sales of the Passat several fold here. The bottom line is that the brand perception of VW in the US differs greatly from that in Europe. Though the Touareg is priced as a premium or even a luxury SUV, the American market simply does not see VW as a luxury brand. For example, Europeans happily pay the equivalent of up to $20,000 more for a GTI than Americans. In the US, a $50,000 GTI is simply not a viable offering. Put an Audi badge on the Touareg in the US and it might be a different story. It may be a bitter pill to swallow for VW fans in the US (like me), but Americans' priorities (including in SUV's) and brand perceptions constrain what VW is able to market successfully here.
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  2. I certainly would have loved it. My wife and I were shopping for a crossover earlier this year and ended up getting a Kia Sorento rather than a VW Atlas. Apart from the price difference for an equivalent trim, my wife found the Atlas simply too large. Apparently that's a plus for many Americans. Not for us. As I said, though, there seems to be much stronger price resistance for VW products in the US than in Europe. I suspect that slapping an Audi badge on the Touareg would make a big difference here. Unfortunately, it might well cannibalize Audi SUV sales.
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