As Toyota sputters, Volkswagen steers for top

Europe's largest automaker faces high hurdle in sluggish U.S. market

It may be one of the world’s most unlikely theme parks, yet each year close to 2 million people pore through Autostadt, the German “auto city” that celebrates the achievement of Europe’s largest automaker, Volkswagen AG.

Until it opened nearly a decade ago, Wolfsburg, less than a two hours' drive from Berlin, wasn’t much of a tourist destination, unless you liked gritty company towns. But these days, many folks are watching what Volkswagen is up to, especially the competition.

With nine brands, soon to become 10 with the planned 2011 takeover of Porsche, VW has set an aggressive goal of surpassing the unexpectedly troubled global leader, Toyota Motor Co. To get there, the “People’s Car” company will need to address the one big obstacle in its path: the U.S. market.

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david999 - 10/22/2009 10:38:22 AM

+1 Boost

Good luck to them, but to gain traction in the North America, they better keep to their plans and try to improve quality, reliability, and come down in pricing versus the competition.

avanti64 - 10/22/2009 7:46:41 PM

0 Boost

German EGO again spouting its ugly head. Any automaker can sell the most cars by buying up a bunch of independent brands and adding them all together. All that takes is money and maniacal power which VW has plenty of. It takes quality, reliability and affordability, none of which VW/Audi has very much of, to be the seller of the brands with the highest sales numbers
Now if VW said VW/Audi brands would be the best selling brands in the world by 2018, they would be the laughing stock of the industry. It would never happen.
Let VW compare apples with apples (e.g. VW vs. Toyota or Nissan or Honda or Hyundai, etc. and Audi vs. Lexus, Infiniti, Acura, etc.) and see where they come out - on the bottom where they have always been.