Volkswagen Sales Rebound — a Little

The big bright spot for the company is its all-new Golf which, when combined with GTI and Golf R model sales, rose 81.2% year-over-year in October. Year-to-date sales of 25,277 Golf models remains 58% below sales of 26,836 in the first 10 months of 2013.

VW’s other redesigned car for this year, the Jetta, saw a rise of nearly 25% compared with October 2013 although year-to-date sales remain 4.6% below 2013 sales through October.

The company’s Beetle and Passat models sold fewer units in October and are also down for the year. Sales of the Tiguan compact SUV slipped more than 16% to just 1,803 in October, and sales for the year to date are down 17.3% at 20,923.

Volkswagen’s Audi division reported U.S. sales of 15,150 units in October, up 16.5% compared with October 2013. Year to date, sales are up 14.7% from 127,412 to 146,133.

Combined, the two brands sold 45,463 units in October, compared with an estimate for total October sales of 46,000 from Kelley Blue Book. That number includes Porsche sales, which have not been released yet, but which totaled 3,607 in September and 3,093 in August.

Volkswagen dug a deep hole for itself in the first half of the year as it had to wait to get the new Golf and the refreshed Jetta out. The Tiguan compact SUV is not very competitive with its rivals like the CR-V from Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) or the RAV4 from Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) in what is currently the hottest sector of the new car market.

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