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Questioning the wisdom of VWoA killing all US Golfs aside from the GTI and R

Acadia18

Autocross Champion
Location
The Greater Boston Metropolitan Area
Car(s)
2019 Golf R

sterkrazzy

Autocross Champion
Location
United States
Car(s)
Turbo. Blue.
@El_bigote_AJ has never heard such bullshit before :ROFLMAO:

Just need one of these.
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https://www.audiusa.com/us/web/en/models/q8/rsq8/2022/overview.html
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Sparky589

Drag Racing Champion
Are you saying that the 184hp, heavier Tiguan would have been a really smart move? Both suck, so does the Atlas. VW builds one good car.
Absolutely agree with this. The golf (Mk7 at least) was comically ahead of just about everything else in the compact economy segment when I cross shopped it with just about everything back in 2016. I've found every other car in VW's lineup to be swing between thoroughly unremarkable to downright bad. At least VW didn't pull a Ford and we still get GTI/R stateside, the latter of which I'd seriously consider owning if they fix their UX experience in the 8.5 facelift. Given the cost of federalization + now having to import them from Germany, I can't imagine it's any remarkable profit driver - so kudos for them pushing through with it anyways I suppose.
 

El_bigote_AJ

Autocross Champion
Location
Las Vegas
Car(s)
2019 GTI bunny
The Tiguan is massive. all of which were more expensive and didn't offer as many toys as the Taos.
I wouldn’t say it’s massive… it’s 9” longer,2” taller, same width, and wheel base is only 1” longer. But I’m totally with you in regards to getting what you want, a huge factor (requirement) for me with getting the Tiguan was to have something in the low thirties and having the 3rd row - aside from personal looks preference the Taos has better toys/tech - and a much better trans, and if I wasn’t hard pressed for the 3rd row I can’t say I wouldn’t go for a Taos over the Tiguan for the ladies car either.

For me I’d say even compared to a GTI I wouldn’t call it massive, it’s still a small ass SUV in my eyes
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Are you saying that the 184hp, heavier Tiguan would have been a really smart move? Both suck, so does the Atlas. VW builds one good car.
All VW buys are dumb in the whole Spectrum… I’m just a glutton who truly love VW’s 🤷🏼‍♂️ It’s like with kids… sure I may like one of them better 😂 but I still love them all the same, hell I even like a modded Passat.
Yes,

You don't buy a SUV for performance driving.

@El_bigote_AJ has never heard such bullshit before :ROFLMAO:
Stage 1 sheer powerhouse on overly stiff suspension action shot from a friends rear view 😂😂.

Look at that thing hug the asphalt while the jeep about to rollover like they do 😂

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dtfd

Autocross Champion
Location
Massachusetts
Car(s)
MK7.5 GTI
I wouldn’t say it’s massive...
To be perfectly fair I also think the Taos is really big, but I'm the sort of guy who would buy a polo GTI if it was available here. I like my cars on the smaller side. Thankfully my S/O is a more reasonable person than me.....


Look at that thing hug the asphalt while the jeep about to rollover like they do 😂
The roof rack on a low SUV cornering like that just perfect. I love it.
 

bentin

Autocross Champion
Location
Austin, TX
Car(s)
23 Golf R - 3 Pedals
Big ass things. Tiggy is a foot longer than our XC40, two inches longer than our old Q5 and twenty inches longer than a Mk7. At the very least, it should have the GTI 240hp motor, and really should have the R motor as an option (which it does in the rest of the world.)
 

El_bigote_AJ

Autocross Champion
Location
Las Vegas
Car(s)
2019 GTI bunny
Big ass things. Tiggy is a foot longer than our XC40, two inches longer than our old Q5 and twenty inches longer than a Mk7. At the very least, it should have the GTI 240hp motor, and really should have the R motor as an option (which it does in the rest of the world.)
Xc40 don’t have a 3rd option, mk7 don’t have a 3rd row and is a hatchback car - that’s make both irrelevant to use as a comparison, may as well google how much larger it is than a fiat 500 while you’re at it 😂.

Q5 is the only comparison And it starts at 15k more base for base, so quite irrelevant again.

No disagreement that the GENB motor sucks for highway power… but unfortunately the U.S. and it’s consumers prioritize efficiency so that’s what it got and no doubt was a factor as well as price that they sold more Tiguans in 2021 than any other of their models in the United States let alone more than all their car/hatchbacks combined.



I bet you think 5” is average or even “a big ass thing” huh?
 

bentin

Autocross Champion
Location
Austin, TX
Car(s)
23 Golf R - 3 Pedals
Haha, got me on the last bit.

Q5 doesn't have a third row either. And of the 5,336 new Tiggys for sale in the country, only 34% of them have a third row. I don't really think of it as a three row car, at least for humans. Same goes for the CX9, why have a third row that puts human heads against the rear glass and renders your trunk space meaningless? Maybe it's just more difficult for my tiny unit to convince others to need enough space for a third row, just throwing that out there. My GTI is my family car. Actively planning to go throw my kid and his booster in the "back seat" of a GR86 this weekend.

Oh, and good sales don't make a car good. Camrys and F150s sell well, doesn't mean I want either. BMW is having record sales, and just look at the ugly things.
 

El_bigote_AJ

Autocross Champion
Location
Las Vegas
Car(s)
2019 GTI bunny
Haha, got me on the last bit.

Q5 doesn't have a third row either. And of the 5,336 new Tiggys for sale in the country, only 34% of them have a third row. I don't really think of it as a three row car, at least for humans. Same goes for the CX9, why have a third row that puts human heads against the rear glass and renders your trunk space meaningless? Maybe it's just more difficult for my tiny unit to convince others to need enough space for a third row, just throwing that out there. My GTI is my family car. Actively planning to go throw my kid and his booster in the "back seat" of a GR86 this weekend.

Oh, and good sales don't make a car good. Camrys and F150s sell well, doesn't mean I want either. BMW is having record sales, and just look at the ugly things.
3 kids in my household... 15-year-old girl and 2 boys at 10 and 9, they don't like sitting shoulder to shoulder for anything longer that 5 min let alone I don't want to hear it, Haha.

when I had just one kid the (current 15-year-old) the cars i had were the 93 trans am and the 1970 camaro and i did the same brag of putting the car seat in the back, lol.

I didn't claim the 3rd row was any connections to its sales numbers though. It was in direct response to your irrational concept of it being "big" and trying to validate that perspective by comparing an apple to an orange.

well considering car manufactures are in the business of selling automobiles - sales are a direct correlation to good product/offering for them. I didn't say good sales = the perfect car/SUV for you, me, jimmy, or Tommy's wants and needs - so that's irrelevant again.
 

bentin

Autocross Champion
Location
Austin, TX
Car(s)
23 Golf R - 3 Pedals
I'm an accountant and I hate the adage that making money is the only thing behind a good product. You can make money today and not retain a single customer tomorrow. Are underpowered SUVs going to keep VW customers coming back? Just this week they addressed that the Tiggy and Atlas will be getting more juice for the next generation. Good for them for not resting on good sales alone.
 

krvnked

Go Kart Champion
Location
USA
Car(s)
MK7.5
they should knock the cab off the atlas and just turn it into a pickup on the same platform for america
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
A Golf is still a premium small car, and it never got the love a Honda Civic has. Not as reliable, worse MPG, more expensive, not as many dealers, maybe other factors.
 

krvnked

Go Kart Champion
Location
USA
Car(s)
MK7.5
A Golf is still a premium small car, and it never got the love a Honda Civic has. Not as reliable, worse MPG, more expensive, not as many dealers, maybe other factors.
Toyotas and Hondas hold their value really well around these parts compared to VW, too. especially high mileage Toyotas ... its almost like an advertisement to invest in a new one for how long they stay on the Road. I wanted a Rav4 before I got my 2nd GTI because I did not want the worry of an expensive car with problems (my mk6 was giving me maintenance issues) but the truth was there isnt much competition for the GTI if you have an offer for a similar price, you have to really want a suv if youre spending the same amount of money because the GTI is just so much car for 30k
 
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anotero

Autocross Champion
Location
Hither and thither
Car(s)
Mk7 GTI
I live in the heart of Philadelphia. Every day I walk my dogs about two miles, and as a result, I look around quite a bit. Being a very old (by American standards) city, many of the streets are quite narrow with one one lane for traffic and one side for parking. Demographically, people in this neighborhood (the Italian Market) are multi-erthnic professional couples/families. One thing that I've noticed is that on virtually every block there is at least one Golf (occaisionally two or three). That's about 5% of the parked cars--far more than all the other VW models combined. The only other car model which is as prevalent here is the Honda Fit. Around here, full sized SUVs are not very common. VW never really marketed the Golf in the US for at least the past 10 years. You wouldn't even see the car's image in any on-line ads, yet it was the perfect city car. And while I'm glad that the GTI and R will still be sold in the US, there was an untapped market for all of the Golfs which VW was simply blind to. So sad. Well, that's my little rant.
I feel you. It's mostly jettas here in SoCal.

Side note: as i was driving yesterday, i saw a Renault. I was like "holy shit, did they start importing them?!" I felt a sting of nostalgia for my long gone european days. Nope, it had mexican plates. The disappointment...
 

anotero

Autocross Champion
Location
Hither and thither
Car(s)
Mk7 GTI
I have a feeling you can make the same case for a lot of other cars and not just the one you noticed. I never see Corvette or Camaro ads or marketing here in SoCal nor have I ever seen any ads for a Volvo V70R or the Golf either, especially the R. I honestly can't recall the last Accord ad I say for my wife's car. Other than enthusiast magazines or the internet, I've rarely seen in recent history any of the cars I bought in any marketing campaigns. Considering how many cars are bought around there, I don't think many manufacturers need to market anything anymore.
There are, however, plenty of camaros in SoCal.
 
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