Volkswagen Starts a Comeback

Cars and Drivers

Published: September 27, 2014 8:25 am

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After years of struggles in the U.S. market, Volkswagen’s September sales are a small beam of light. Up 3.9% from the same month last year, they will hit 50,000. The increase will be less than the entire industry, which is expected to grow by 9.1% in September to 1,240,000, according to KBB, which posted the numbers. So, VW’s market share among the largest manufacturers will fall to 4.0% from 4.2% in the same quarter a year ago.

VW has several things that could push its sales higher for the balance of this year and next. Among the most important ones are the overall, extraordinary health of the industry. KBB management observed:

The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) for September 2014 is estimated to be 16.4 million, up from 15.3 million in September 2013 and down from 17.4 million in August 2014.

During the recession, when annual U.S. car sales fell below 10 million a year, the industry could only imagine, barely, such a comeback.

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VW’s sales for the first eight months have been a challenge. Sales fell 13.4% to 244,878. August was nearly as bad, with sales off 12.8% to 35,181.

VW’s U.S. management believes it has a formula to turn the sales trend in its direction:

The 2015 Jetta will go on sale this fall. Total Jetta deliveries for August, including SportWagen, accounted for 15,361 units.

The all-new, seventh generation Golf is off to a strong start with the Golf TSI and TDI Clean Diesel models are now more readily available in dealer showrooms. The all-new Golf and the all-new GTI are continuing to earn high praise in the industry including a Top Safety Pick + rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and most recently an “A” rating in the Edmunds.com Top Rated Awards, the highest rating handed down by the editors and evaluators at Edmunds.com.

Although these vehicles are sold in the highly competitive low-priced, high miles per gallon segment of the industry, it is not unheard of for new models to capture the car-buying public’s attention.

In addition, VW continues to do what nearly all manufacturers do to improve sales — offer incentives. VW’s current deal is 0.9% APR for 60 months through Volkswagen Credit. Not free credit, but close.

If one or more of VW’s new models begins to sell well into the end of this year, its U.S. fortunes could finally start to mend.

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