VW really need a changing of the guard. Too many legacy people with legacy attachments making legacy decisions.
Shit like this is one of the reasons why we’ll never be able to buy cars for a decent price. The parasites at dealerships will set markups to go through the roof
When the ID.4 first came out in the US you could direct order from VW. That was probably the best car buying experience I ever had. Dealerships have way too much power and none of that benefits consumers.
And that’s the problem. DTC is the future. But the dealerships were crying and pulling on heart strings. VW need to decide if they’re more interested in selling cars or propping up businesses that are dying.
Even looking at their inventory, VW are citing low sales but as of yet, the cheapest they’ve brought to market is the ID3 for £40k. Meanwhile China and Korea are servicing lower price points and are growing market share as a result.
The way VW does direct to consumers in Europe is to have the dealerships sell you the car and getting a comission for doing so. However they earn less money from selling EVs then from selling combustion engine cars, so they focus on the later. So they plan to change that. But if you want to go into VW theme park to buy a car or do it online, then you can still do that.
