Customer: Rachel
Response date: 7/19/2011
JD Livesay was great to deal with. THANK YOU! 
Score: 92.5

Customer: Steve
Response date: 7/28/2011
Dave Parsons was the most easy going, non-pressuring car salesman I’ve ever dealt with.
The main reason I bought my car from Oakland VW was Dave. He searched around the other
dealers to find the car I wanted and had it delivered the next day. I had been to 3 other
dealers (Honda, Toyota and BMW) and none provided me the level of service that Dave did.
Score: 99.4

Customer: Lori
Response date: 7/30/2011
Dave Parsons was a pleasure to deal with. He made me a very good offer From the start.
I really appreciated not having to play the negotiating game.
He has been very responsive post sale with answering any of my questions. 
Score: 100.0

Customer: Matthew
Response date: 8/08/2011
Nick did a great job. Thanks, Nick!  
Score: 95.0

Customer: Terry 
Response date: 8/08/2011
Out of 10-12 cars, this might have been the BEST.
Score: 100.0

Customer: Joseph 
Response date: 8/11/2011
Because of Dave and the team you have there at VW Oakland, you have a loyal customer for life.
I never felt so at ease during the purchase of a car. Please keep up the great work guys!
Do not ever change and make sure Dave is there in 3 years when my lease is up!
I keep handing out his business cards! Great guy!
Score: 100.0

Volkswagen sold two Type 1 Beetles in the US in 1949. By the ’60s, VW was the US’ most popular import, peaking at 569,696 units in calendar year 1970. It hasn’t matched that number since. After the Japanese invasion and the Westmoreland, Pennsylvania-built Rabbit ordeal, VW sales dipped to 49,533 in 1993. Rumours had Germany following the French and Italians and exiting the US market. Improved product and aggressive advertising saved it in the late ’90s and 2000s. VW’s 2010 sales of 256,830 units trails Subaru’s, though, while its global sales, including Audi and Skoda, totalled 7.1 million last year. Toyota sold 8.42 million; and General Motors, 8.39 million.

“Our goal is to make Volkswagen the number-one automaker by 2018, economically and ecologically,” VW Brand Development Director Ulrich Hackenberg said at the First Middle East Automotive Summit in Doha, Qatar. With vigorous new-car development and expansion plans that include selling the Up! concept-based cars in developing countries, few doubt VW can do it. Toyota, which passed General Motors in 2008, may not put up much of a fight. Still…800,000 Volkswagens in the US by 2018? That doesn’t count Audi, Bentley, or Lamborghini. With VW perennially struggling, shouldn’t it concentrate on Europe and the developing markets, where it has had much more success?

“I wouldn’t say it’s a tougher job,” Hackenberg says, “but it’s a necessary job. We need 800,000 [US] volume to become number one globally. That’s why we’re opening a US factory.”

Custom Made For The US
VW’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will start with the North American-specific ’12 Passat targeting Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. At 191.7 inches overall on a 110.4-inch wheelbase, it has best-in-class rear-seat legroom, a VWoA product planner says. It’s on a platform unique for the market and weighs 80 pounds less than the Euro Passat it replaces. The base engine is VW’s 170-horse, 2.5-litre inline five, with five-speed automatic. This large-economy model will start in the $20,000 range. “That’s a breakthrough price for the VW brand,” the planner adds.

While the 2012 Passat’s interior features nicer materials than the cost-reduced ’11 Jetta, it’s not quite the poor man’s Audi interior VW was known for in recent years. Optional engines are the 3.6-litre VR6 and the 2.0-litre turbodiesel four, both available with a six-speed automatic or six-speed dual sequential gearbox. VW expects the Passat diesel to achieve 43 mpg highway, for a 795-mile range. That’s 1 mpg better than the Jetta diesel. The diesel will add several thousand dollars to the Passat’s $20,000 base price, though. Figure on something closer to $28,000.

The automaker also touts a number of standard features for the US market that it says doesn’t interest the European market, such as keyless entry and dual climate control. You’ll be able to order wheels up to 18 inches in diameter and a Fender premium audio system. VW’s excellent 2.0-litre TSI gas direct-injection four is notably absent from the option sheet.

Old Is Still Gold
To build VW’s sales without alienating traditional customers, VWs new North American chief, Jonathan Browning, Vauxhall Chairman from 2006 to 2008, says lower-volume models like the Golf hatchback, GTI, Golf R, and the CC (Passat CC outside the US) will remain key to the North American strategy. Browning says he’d like to import the Golf-based Scirocco, once considered a threat to GTI sales. “It’s not a black-and-white. It’s a continuum,” says Browning of the US lineup dichotomy. “The previous focus may have been the more narrow focus of the enthusiast, a little bit toward the accessible range of the market. So it’s keeping the balance. But it will be an aggressive balance along the line.”

VW Brand Development Director Ulrich Hackenberg is planning to
flood the US market in a bid to be No. 1 globally.  The new Passat
and the new, larger Jetta are key to reaching the goal by 2018. 

The new Passat and the new, larger Jetta are key to reaching 800,000 US sales by 2018, Browning says. The Jetta, built for global sales in Mexico, has long been the best-selling Euro nameplate in the US. The GLI 2.0 TSI Jetta, which better fits in the enthusiast/ niche category, comes with an independent rear suspension and better dashboard materials than on the standard Jetta. VW plans to introduce a hybrid Jetta here within a year.

VW will show the second-gen New Beetle this spring and put it on sale in the fall. Hackenberg says it’s an important car for both the US and Europe, though here it never breached the 100,000-unit level.

How will VW do it? Unless it quickly develops a $30,000 Honda Pilot competitor off the new Passat’s platform, plus perhaps a new Microbus-style minivan to replace the Chrysler-based Routan—two models that, combined, could add more than 200,000 units to annual sales—the Passat and Jetta will have to become best-sellers in their segments with sales topping 300,000 per year each. Should total US sales volume not reach 17 million, the 200,000 range is more likely, competitive with Hyundai Sonata, Ford Fusion, and Chevrolet Malibu. That’s about 400,000 for Jetta and Passat, just half the ’18 goal.

Hackenberg and Browning emphasise efforts to improve quality scores in the US, long a major problem for the brand. They say much of VW’s quality problems relate to design features that confuse and annoy Americans—an explanation (or excuse) several competitors also use. While they talk about biting into Toyota and Honda sales, they don’t mention Hyundai, which expects to sell 590,000 in the US this year, or Kia.

“German engineering still has a very good image in the US.” Hackenberg says. “It is our job, and the job of Mr Browning, to bring that to the customer.”

VW has tried competitive pricing with Japanese brands and “affordable German engineering” in its marketing before, though not both at the same time. A mix of big, low-priced German sedans for the American market, and more interesting cars like the GTI and CC, might work this time. Until it does though, we don’t envy Browning his task.

Dominique is one of the many amazing ladies/friends/mothers that I say are my “sisters” ! We all have them thankfully, I mean, what would we do without them? And while I have a hands-down real sister, Aurora, who takes my breath away as does her beautiful family…sometimes it’s the conversation of a best-friend laying next to you for hours, trying to put a spin on your life that only she is able to see and thus opening the doors to a new reality.

Dom has given me so much emotional support through the years. She is now on her second year giving back to my fight against breast cancer and to the millions of women that have been touched the same way I have been. She is putting herself out there in order to help others, and I find that pretty spectacular!

I promised Dom, whom I’ve known at least 11 years, that I would send a message, with the clear understanding that financially many of us are under the gun. Anything you feel you can donate is going to help on many levels. If you cannot donate any money, please do NOT feel that you have failed me, or Dom.

My hope and prayer is that a pink ribbon will someday never symbolize what it means to me – and I know that may sounds selfish, but as simple and as “marketable” as it has become, it’s a sign of a disease that seems to be only spreading ever more rapidly.

Last year, I saw a sea of women in pink. Dom took the time to fly out to San Francisco from Los Angeles with her husband and two toddlers in tow.  She then completed a 26 mile walk with my name on her back.

My wish is that I could go back to July 2010! I met her at the end of the night at the hotel and she was exhausted – but sipping her wine and in good spirits. Her husband was next to her and her beautiful two children eating hotel burgers that I know cost a fortune! I looked at her, and saw how she represented a flower in the wind, never snapping as it beautifully faces adversity.  Who would have thought, she would do it again, and I would be further down my journey. You just never know what a year will do. But I’m still here! Fighting, and in July of 2011, she will be too – 39 miles this time around!

Good health and Love to all my sisters – women – mothers – “mortar”

Winning this category’s Best in Class award for the second year in a row, Volkswagen’s Golf features classic German driving dynamics at an easy-to-take price. Redesigned for 2010, the Golf boasts plenty of power, high resale values and a full complement of standard safety features. The four-door is an IIHS top safety pick.