Topic: Wagon Wednesday (Every Day) - 2019 VW Golf SportWagen

[Bubba]

yes. no more Sportwagens. I'm hoping mine goes up in value  as it's now a limited edition ;-)

Slap a Buick badge on it and you're gold.

[dirtyjeffer]

yes. no more Sportwagens. I'm hoping mine goes up in value  as it's now a limited edition ;-)

Slap a Buick badge on it and you're gold.

no...debadging is what's hot right now.

[Triple Bob]

White is fastest! 

[Gurgie]

White is fastest! 

Yeah, no!! Can't be going that fast without a helmet on even, lol!!

Great looking TDI tho.

This is fast... ish



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[Patrick_D1]

White is fastest! 

Is that a certain Mr. Makse I see riding shotgun?

[OliverD]

The Sportwagen will no longer be offered in Canada after we finish selling out of the remaining 2019s.

I think VW is alienating its customers with this move.

How?  The market has spoken.  Very few people want them.

The wagon actually sells reasonably well in Canada and wagon buyers tend to be fairly loyal and wealthier (for example, E-class wagon buyers are Mercedes' highest net worth customers). People buying wagons don't tend to want to switch to crossovers. When BMW killed the 5-series wagon in North America and replaced it with the Gran Turismo, their wagon buyers switched to Audi and Mercedes and the 5-series GT just cannibalized 7-series sales.

It's a small niche but if VW can sell the Arteon here to the tune of a few hundred units a year then surely the business case is there for selling a few thousand Golf wagons.

[Triple Bob]

This is fast... ish

Nah, that's just a wobbly hand. 

[Ex-airbalancer]

The Sportwagen will no longer be offered in Canada after we finish selling out of the remaining 2019s.

I think VW is alienating its customers with this move.

How?  The market has spoken.  Very few people want them.

The wagon actually sells reasonably well in Canada and wagon buyers tend to be fairly loyal and wealthier (for example, E-class wagon buyers are Mercedes' highest net worth customers). People buying wagons don't tend to want to switch to crossovers. When BMW killed the 5-series wagon in North America and replaced it with the Gran Turismo, their wagon buyers switched to Audi and Mercedes and the 5-series GT just cannibalized 7-series sales.

It's a small niche but if VW can sell the Arteon here to the tune of a few hundred units a year then surely the business case is there for selling a few thousand Golf wagons.

Are you writing Patrick post is BS ?
No doubt there's still a market for the wagon in Canada, but not in the U.S. - and without their involvement, the business case becomes very difficult.

[PJungnitsch]

If you are looking at them, how do you tell they have the drivers assistance package?

[Ex-airbalancer]

If you are looking at them, how do you tell they have the drivers assistance package?

If there a seat for your wife it has drivers assistance 

[Gurgie]

This is fast... ish

Nah, that's just a wobbly hand. 

    

I think he was more interested in the 996 Turbo that was hot on my tail... hard to run away from one of those cars, even with a shitty driver piloting it 

[PJungnitsch]

If you are looking at them, how do you tell they have the drivers assistance package?

If there a seat for your wife it has drivers assistance 

Heh, and how is the leatherette on the Highline? I see it is perforated, but not vented

[OliverD]

The Sportwagen will no longer be offered in Canada after we finish selling out of the remaining 2019s.

I think VW is alienating its customers with this move.

How?  The market has spoken.  Very few people want them.

The wagon actually sells reasonably well in Canada and wagon buyers tend to be fairly loyal and wealthier (for example, E-class wagon buyers are Mercedes' highest net worth customers). People buying wagons don't tend to want to switch to crossovers. When BMW killed the 5-series wagon in North America and replaced it with the Gran Turismo, their wagon buyers switched to Audi and Mercedes and the 5-series GT just cannibalized 7-series sales.

It's a small niche but if VW can sell the Arteon here to the tune of a few hundred units a year then surely the business case is there for selling a few thousand Golf wagons.

Are you writing Patrick post is BS ?
No doubt there's still a market for the wagon in Canada, but not in the U.S. - and without their involvement, the business case becomes very difficult.

No, but I'm having a hard time seeing a business case for the Arteon that is better than for the Golf wagon and Alltrack. 🤷‍♂️

[tortoise]

Unless the business case for the Arteon is in the US and we got it just because...

The Golf Wagon sells because it's pretty inexpensive for what you get.   Take away the US and the price likely goes up... and sales correspondingly go down.   I do agree though that wagon buyers are loyal and there SHOULD be a business case for Canada in there somewhere.

[OliverD]

Unless the business case for the Arteon is in the US and we got it just because...

The Golf Wagon sells because it's pretty inexpensive for what you get.   Take away the US and the price likely goes up... and sales correspondingly go down.   I do agree though that wagon buyers are loyal and there SHOULD be a business case for Canada in there somewhere.

They only sold 1500 Arteons so far in the U.S. this year. Obviously covid has affected sales, but it was never going to be a volume seller.

[Triple Bob]

Is that a certain Mr. Makse I see riding shotgun?

Yep!

[Bubba]

Is that a certain Mr. Makse I see riding shotgun?

Yep!

You sure look like you were having a good time!

[HeliDriver]

Unless the business case for the Arteon is in the US and we got it just because...

The Golf Wagon sells because it's pretty inexpensive for what you get.   Take away the US and the price likely goes up... and sales correspondingly go down.   I do agree though that wagon buyers are loyal and there SHOULD be a business case for Canada in there somewhere.

They only sold 1500 Arteons so far in the U.S. this year. Obviously covid has affected sales, but it was never going to be a volume seller.

Arteon is built in Germany, I believe, so selling it in Canada may not have as much to do with the U.S. And it’s a premium product for VW, so more room to price in higher production costs.

But am I right that VW is stopping all Golf production at its Mexican plant? So now instead of sourcing cheap(er) Golf wagons from Mexico, VW Canada would have to bring them over from Europe. Can’t make it work with the extra hassle and higher costs, I guess.

[OliverD]

Unless the business case for the Arteon is in the US and we got it just because...

The Golf Wagon sells because it's pretty inexpensive for what you get.   Take away the US and the price likely goes up... and sales correspondingly go down.   I do agree though that wagon buyers are loyal and there SHOULD be a business case for Canada in there somewhere.

They only sold 1500 Arteons so far in the U.S. this year. Obviously covid has affected sales, but it was never going to be a volume seller.

Arteon is built in Germany, I believe, so selling it in Canada may not have as much to do with the U.S. And it’s a premium product for VW, so more room to price in higher production costs.

But am I right that VW is stopping all Golf production at its Mexican plant? So now instead of sourcing cheap(er) Golf wagons from Mexico, VW Canada would have to bring them over from Europe. Can’t make it work with the extra hassle and higher costs, I guess.

But they're bringing over the regular Golf which will also be built in Germany.

[HeliDriver]

^^ What’s the ratio of hatchback sales to wagon sales in Canada? 10 to 1? 5 to 1?

Given the numbers, I guess it makes sense for the hatchback but not the wagon? I dunno.

Hopefully it’s not a permanent thing and the wagon comes back some day. Doesn’t seem likely in these CUV-crazed times, but you never know. Didn’t the wagon disappear after the MK3, then come back for a bit as a Jetta, then disappear again until the MK7?