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VW Toys with Giving Up the U.S. Mass Market, and Dealers Fume

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Re: VW Toys with Giving Up the U.S. Mass Market, and Dealers Fume

#41

Post by CalRobert »

redthrowaway wrote: post #19
skippytheroo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Jetta is pretty big. For some reason Americans seem to classify it as a small sedan in most articles.

Jetta, Corolla, 3-series, C-class, etc are all compact sedans in the US. The step up (5-series, E-class) is mid-size, and the step after (7-series, S-class) is full-size. Things like the Yaris, Polo, Fit, 1-series, etc are all subcompacts. North American cities are largely planned around cars as opposed to having bricks thrown down wherever horses used to walk, gas isn't nearly as heavily taxed, and historically stee…

"people like the comfort and practicality of larger vehicles."

Well, people who ride bikes like me detest larger vehicles, but your point is true.

Also, let's not pretend that America being incredibly obese has nothing to do with it.

Re: VW Toys with Giving Up the U.S. Mass Market, and Dealers Fume

#42

Post by CalRobert »

dragontamer wrote: post #35
douche wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can almost fit a Jetta in the bed of my regular-sized pickup truck... It's definitely a cultural difference - I always feel like I'm in a death trap, skimming along on the ground with no visibility, getting into a sedan or compact car. I also grew up in an area with a high rate of moose collisions, and you do not want to see what happens when you hit one of those in a vehicle that's lower than their center of mass.

Dunno why you're getting downvoted for sharing American culture. Your opinion seems to be the mainstream as far as I can tell "in the real world". I'll +1 you to counteract the downvotes. To serve as some counter-balance to your post, the bigger SUVs (which are more typical in America) feel unbalanced with abnormally high center-of-balance. When taking a corner at any decent speed, I feel like the car is ready to fli…

When I'm in a large SUV or pickup I'm worried about the far greater chance of killing someone else than when I'm in a smaller vehicle.

This concern, however, doesn't seem to bother many of the people in said vehicles.

Re: VW Toys with Giving Up the U.S. Mass Market, and Dealers Fume

#43

Post by redthrowaway »

CalRobert wrote: post #41
redthrowaway wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jetta, Corolla, 3-series, C-class, etc are all compact sedans in the US. The step up (5-series, E-class) is mid-size, and the step after (7-series, S-class) is full-size. Things like the Yaris, Polo, Fit, 1-series, etc are all subcompacts. North American cities are largely planned around cars as opposed to having bricks thrown down wherever horses used to walk, gas isn't nearly as heavily taxed, and historically stee…

"people like the comfort and practicality of larger vehicles." Well, people who ride bikes like me detest larger vehicles, but your point is true. Also, let's not pretend that America being incredibly obese has nothing to do with it.

>Well, people who ride bikes like me detest larger vehicles, but your point is true.

Non-consumers' preferences don't count.

>let's not pretend that America being incredibly obese has nothing to do with it.

America's preference for larger vehicles long predates the rise of obesity.

As an aside, you're really not doing much for the "self-righteous cyclist" stereotype.

Re: VW Toys with Giving Up the U.S. Mass Market, and Dealers Fume

#44

Post by grillvogel »

pcurve wrote: post #12

This may not be a bad idea, and it was a long time in making, even without the emission scandal. Ever since its decision to go mass market, quality of materials took a steep dive. They also looked very dull because engineering and production cost was putting constraints on design detailing. For the past 5 years, VW has been making cars that are duller than Toyota Camry of late 90s. They were given benefit of the doub…

the golf is the only one still made in germany

Re: VW Toys with Giving Up the U.S. Mass Market, and Dealers Fume

#45

Post by grillvogel »

arprocter wrote: post #38
bubblesorting wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with Golf being the exception. I love my (mk7) GTI, and still smile when driving it--a year after buying. Tried a (United States) Passat for about a week, and it felt like a waterbed on wheels :( not sure if it was "because rental" or if that's how they are; any owners care to comment??

That's a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. The Passat wasn't meant to be sporty (except for the R36)

no its generally agreed that the german passat had better handling than the new fat american version

Re: VW Toys with Giving Up the U.S. Mass Market, and Dealers Fume

#46

Post by skippytheroo »

dragontamer wrote: post #37
skippytheroo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A jetta would barely fit into my garage. If a "regular" pickup can swallow a jetta does that mean I can expect a "large" pickup to be bigger than my entire 5 bedroom house?

I dunno, what do you think? http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7182/6964996815_1f626fdbe5_b.j... That's a large pickup: F-450 Here's another shot of the F-450: http://www.tfltruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/car_trans... I see a good number of F350 or larger trucks used to tow a bunch of other cars around.

Wow. I've never seen anything that size on the roads here.

Re: VW Toys with Giving Up the U.S. Mass Market, and Dealers Fume

#47

Post by Tiksi »

dragontamer wrote: post #37
skippytheroo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A jetta would barely fit into my garage. If a "regular" pickup can swallow a jetta does that mean I can expect a "large" pickup to be bigger than my entire 5 bedroom house?

I dunno, what do you think? http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7182/6964996815_1f626fdbe5_b.j... That's a large pickup: F-450 Here's another shot of the F-450: http://www.tfltruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/car_trans... I see a good number of F350 or larger trucks used to tow a bunch of other cars around.

That's a bit misleading though, since above F350 isn't really considered "consumer" level but commercial work trucks.

If you want a big truck while still technically being a pickup, you might as well go for the F750:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/600x315/71/c4/11/71c411...

http://www.ford.com/resources/ford/f-650-750/2016/homepage/c...

That said, I wish the US had a better selection of small cars. They're either absolute bottom of the line crap or extremely expensive sports cars, there's no mid range small coupe anymore.

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