German Car Zone

VW is NOT a luxury brand in the U.S. or anywhere else. That is called "illusions of grandeur".

M

I agree! Lexus took it's time to stand up + it had the Toyota's history! Hyundai (imo) is adventuring!

Kia is doing the right thing! Hyundai claims to compete Merc, Bmw, Lexus etc... that imo, is too soon!

Nobody said that.

I was talking about Euro market - therefore also comparison with Skoda. In Europe VW has kinda semi-premium image ... or at least "best-of economy". Audi is premium. Skoda is economy.

In US there's no Skoda ... just VW & Audi. And even Audi has problems with premium image, while VW is consequently even below image wise.

I got you right than! It has to be a joke... Merc money for Hyundai? Still, you'll see people buying them!

Imo, Phaeton was the greatest try ever from a regular brand to compete with premium brands! And if Vw, was not successful with that product... Hyundai stands no chance with that Equus! It's hard, very hard!

Wow, very nice topics raised here guys! Very interesting thread!

1. Rerarding VW. From one point of view, they try to become more luxury oriented brand, something like tier 2 luxury and compete with Alfa Romeo, Saab, Volvo and co. Products like the new Golf VI and the new Polo confirm this. Just look at how upscale both those models are and look, plus the hefty pricetag. From another point of view, there are models that scream that VW is still peoples' car. Products like the Passat and the Fox also prove that. A Passat costs only 2k more than a Golf here, and quality wise, the Golf is much much better. Also the Fox, is a 9k car with a VW badge. It's not good for VW's image if they want to become more luxury. They have to consider their brand placement, as peoples' cars of as tier 2 luxury and offer the proper models.

2. As far Skoda is concerned: Since VW is moving upmarket, they have to re-establish the Skoda brand. Use typical VAG underpinnings (the Octavia sits on a Golf stretch chassis and uses the same engines and gearboxes) and add tons of wood and conservative german styling, and you have a fantastic interpretation of how a german luxury yet affordable car is. Yes there are "details" like the wood and the TSI turbo engines, or the good equipment that make the car look like luxury, yet the mass market appeal, the low price and the mediocre materials, make Skoda, what VW used to be. The german "Peoples' car".

3. Regarding Audi: Since VW is trying to move upmarket it will soon compete with Audi, so Audi will have to move upmarket and directly compete in every aspect (materials, design, engines, handling, fun, marketing strategy, etc) with BMW and MB.

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About those new Hyundai models. Apparently the Hyundai officialls observed the success of the Lexus experiment, and noted that there is such thing as "japanese luxury". Let's not forget that survey that showed that more than 80% of the americans thought that H. is japanese, not korean.

Anyway, it's like H. decided to go the Lexus way: Make a car that looks luxurious, has tons of equipment and is very competitive price-wise with the german luxuries. It worked for Lexus, but at least Lexus ended up with something resembling a design identity, yet not 100% original, but that's another story.

In order to make a car look (NOT FEEL) luxurious there are some things that you must do. You have to add tons of wood and chrome. The problem is offering quality wood in huge amounts, yet looking good, plus offering some small chrome details without the final product looking to shiny and bling-bling. Overdone is what these latest luxury-Hyundais are.

That said, I have to admit that this new H. strategy is quite a good one. They offer KIA as the now affordable korean brand, and they move the Hyundai brand more upmarket to compete with Lexus. They have a fame of building reliable cars, and they made a descent product (Genesis). There are a lot of things to be done to compete with Lexus, but H is doing very good.