Volkswagen defends Golf quality

VOLKSWAGEN Group Australia (VGA) managing director Jutta Dierks has pointed out that none of the so-called quality issues concerning the current Golf, raised recently by one of the brand’s own senior global executives, relate to cars sold to customers.

Volkswagen AG executive vice-president Detlef Wittig made headlines at last month’s worldwide launch of the sixth-generation Golf, which employs the same underpinnings as the Golf V but will be manufactured using a less complicated production process, when he admitted the latest iteration of the company’s volume-selling model would be more reliable and higher-quality than its forebear.

“The Golf IV was one of the outstanding generations of the Golf series... As far as the quality of the material and the look and feel of the material we are going back to Golf IV, and then beyond Golf IV,” he told journalists at last month’s salubrious Golf VI launch in Iceland.

“Our suppliers were asked to join the team that redesigned from a construction base point of view, not from a styling point of view. It was an integrated process with the suppliers, the development engineers and the production engineers. From that point of view we have a more integrated process that also increases the quality of Golf.

“We want to be in the top [JD Power quality survey] group. We used to be in there,” he said at the time.



Left, from top: Passat CC, Golf VI rear, Golf V GTI Pirelli, Scirocco. But Ms Dierks said Mr Wittig’s comments related only to production quality issues with the current Golf, which took an average of 35 hours for the factory to produce – compared to 25 for next year’s Golf VI.

She stressed that production quality issues slowed factory throughput and increased manufacturing costs, but did not affect vehicles delivered to customers.

“When the cars came out of production a lot of work still went into them… to get them back to the quality we wanted for our customers, so that meant delayed sales and longer lead times. A lot of time was spent improving quality when the cars should have been like that straight from production.

“So this time with the new one, we want that level of quality to come right off the production line without any extra work required.” “It’s nothing to do with the quality of our customers’ cars, because we would never sell any cars that weren’t up to the proper quality standards.” The Golf VI will go on sale in Australia in the second quarter of 2009, initially only in mainstream five-door guise. It is expected to come with only minor price increases, meaning a sub-$26,000 pricetag for the 1.4-litre TSI manual, which will replace the current 1.6-litre Golf Edition (from $25,490) as the entry-level Golf variant.

Powered by a turbocharged 1.4-litre four that delivers 90kW and 200Nm of torque, the new Golf 1.4 TSI sprints to 100km/h in 9.5 seconds and returns 6.0L/100km with VW’s six-speed DSG automated manual transmission, making it as quick as the current 110kW/200Nm Golf 2.0 FSI petrol DSG, which returns 8.6L/100km.

Alongside the price-leading 1.4 TSI will be a 103kW 2.0-litre common-rail turbo-diesel from the Tiguan, which will also be available with six-speed manual and seven-speed DSG transmissions.

While the piping-hot new Golf GTI will emerge here in both five and three-door body styles by late 2009 and a replacement for the current R32 V6 will not appear until 2010, the Golf range will further expand locally via the fuel-sipping BlueMotion version.

Volkswagen used this month’s Sydney motor show to unveil BlueMotion versions of the Polo and Passat, but Australia’s first dedicated fuel-economy model to appear from Volkswagen, which could be the Golf BlueMotion, is still 12 months away because none have yet been developed with a DSG transmission.

Asked if VW’s environmentally-friendlier BlueMotion models will carry a price premium over equivalent models, Ms Dierks said: “We would never do that. Look at our diesels. They are priced the same as our petrol models. We have never sold more diesels.” The next cab off VGA’s new model launch rank will be the Passat CC, for which Volkswagen reserved its limelight at Sydney, before sales commence in February.

The coupe-like Passat CC sedan will come with two engine and drivetrain alternatives, opening with the front-drive 125kW/350Nm 2.0 TDI, which at around $50,000 should carry a price premium over the 125TDI and 147FSI 2.0-litre engines that power the Passat.

Topping the local range will be the 220kW/350Nm 3.6-litre FSI V6 version with 4Motion all-wheel drive, which should still be less expensive than the Passat R36 (priced from $56,990), with which it shares its drivetrain.

Ms Dierks would not reveal pricing or sales forecasts for the Passat CC, which she said would become Volkswagen’s new flagship in Australia, but admitted that some sales substitution with the Passat sedan was inevitable.

“It fits the Volkswagen brand very well. It will be the most luxurious and innovative passenger car we have. It’s a four-seater where the sedan has five and lot of people need five seats, but we’ll have to see how that works with the sedan." She said Passat CC pricing would be “very competitive” in the marketplace - presumably compared to Mercedes’ $145,000-plus CLS-class.

“There’s not really anything like it, so we’ll see what it competes against. There is room for a coupe from a premium brand and we will see how it fits into the market but we do think there is room for it,” said Ms Dierks.

VGA launched the 169kW Golf V-based GTI Pirelli at Sydney as the most powerful Golf GTI ever produced by Volkswagen and it continues to review both the Phaeton limousine and Scirocco coupe/hatch for sale in Australia.

Ms Dierks said the latter remained an ongoing issue for VGA because, unlike in other markets, the GTI is the volume-selling version of the Golf in Australia and its sales would likely be cannibalised by the circa-$40,000 Golf-based Scirocco.

“We haven’t made a decision yet,” she said of Scirocco. “We have to see how that fits into the market and so far we haven’t really found a space for it.

“It’s a sports car. We already have a very successful sports car in the GTI. It has to fit into the Australian environment, so we’re still working on that. It’s an ongoing process - the door is not closed. We won’t make a decision tomorrow.” Ms Dierks suggested that applying a high pricetag to the Scirocco to position it above the Golf GTI could create the same problems faced by the previous-generation Passat, which was priced well above the new Passat, from about $50,000. The current Passat range opens at $42,490.

“We have learned the hard way in Australia in the past – by putting cars into the market that aren’t positioned exactly right you sell next to nothing.

“In 2004 we sold 300 Passats. Nothing was wrong with the car – it was just not in the right part of the market. Now we sell 3000 cars. “So that’s why it’s so important we get this right. We only get one chance – when it’s on the market it’s too late. “We thought it would be a natural fit too and I’m a fan of that car, but so far the whole package doesn’t fit. We would love to get it in, but it has to fit the range. It’s more difficult that usual, but we’re still working on it,” she said.

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