I read the article on The Car Connection.com from their resident mechanic. He owns a shop somewhere on the east cost. Sounds like he knows what he's talking about. The biggst thing I got out of the column was how easy it is to 'mess up' the software parameters on VW's. Also, noticeably absent was any mention of Audis having related problems.

 

The VW brand has a distinctly different market perception between Europe and USA.

VW have always maintained a good reputation for quality and reliability within the European market, where the cars are built in Germany, Austria etc. In the USA however, when VW started to out-source their manufacturing to Mexico/USA the quality of their product depreciated rapidly. The past 3 years have been a nightmare for VW(USA) and they are frantically trying to save the brand image within the USA. The problem has reverberated all the way up the walls to the top of VW management (I have a friend who works at VW corporate and confirmed this for me) and they know they have to rectify this asap.

The problem was complacency. VW(USA) thought that they could fly on the tails of the VW global brand image. Even though sales have been surprisingly good considering the circumstances, they were aware of issues and chose not to address them. Now it has come back to kick them in the ***. And VW Global recognize the trickle down effect it may have on its other brands)

As a VW fan I hope they can turn it around. And I certainly don't want the Audi brand to suffer for it.

 

True,

Still it makes me wonder how different the software may be considering many other components' designs are shared across VWs and Audis.

 

I totally agree with QuattroGT74,

Actually just recently a team of VW designer and marketer were sent to US to find the needs of US market as well as other issues. It's a fact that VW has been struggling with their quality control since they out-sourced assembling and other parts to Mexican plants. It's a pitty that many companies are doing this and end up frustrating/upseting their costumers. I hope all goes well with VW and they get back on track. It would be a pitty to have only American or Japanese choices in the lower end segment of American market.

 

That's a good read. 14 pages in the manual to check the auto-trans fluid! That's uncalled-for and is very telling.

 

Hadda friend who drove a Lancia D, back when I was in Italy. Cute little car. Cudn't phugk wit my Alfetta Quadrifoglio. Useta go out on teh Autostrada and mountain roads and EAT those crappy l'il 3-ers and spit out the fake leather driving gloves the Euro-trash wore, when I was done... RWD, a rev-happy 2-litre DOHC 16v-4. DeDion rear. A proppa 5-speed geared for a quick launch AND (relatively) high speeds. memories... I can almost hear the engine tearin its way to teh redline...

Personally, I ALWAYS wanted to get my grubby l'il mits on a Lancia 8.32 Maybe one day[&o]