Changing Of The Guard: At Current Pace Volkswagen Should Replace Toyota As Number One Automaker In 2015

This says it all: "For Volkswagen, the title will be very costly. The company is discounting heavily to prop up sales." Like FCA, VWAG is making the magic happen by giving product away. So what if VW claims the title as #1 in volume worldwide? Toyota will laugh all the way to the bank with their dramatically better profit per vehicle.

The obvious outcome of this sell-a-thon will be that VW products will get into the hands of more people who have never owned one. Those vehicles will then reveal their quality glitches and durability/reliability woes and people will leave in droves.

That is exactly what happened to the American Passat. The 2015 model year is tracking along at 25K units less then the banner year of 2012. People bought the affordable Passat and then discovered that VWs do not have the quality/reliability/durability of a Toyota or a Hyundai.

Another idiotic comment, you are assuming US sales as for the discounts. We are talking worldwide sales and despite the pitiful sales in the USA they continue to grow WORLDWIDE, something others cannot do.
As far as profits per vehicle, do you think it matters as long as they are profitable? Look at APPLE vs. SAMSUNG.
You are just annoyed that regardless of the BS you say about VW, they are succeeding everywhere except in this country where I honestly don't think they ever will but that what we all thought about AUDI 20 years ago and look at them now, they are doing quite well.
The BS about reliability, I have never experienced it but it looks like some have but again, looking at the years they have been selling worldwide and their number, it really doesn't seem to be hurting their sales.

USNA1999 writes "...As far as profits per vehicle, do you think it matters as long as they are profitable? Look at APPLE vs. SAMSUNG.."

I don't think Apple vs Samsung supports your argument very well. Apple's iPhone has historically had a relatively small smartphone market share (as measured by quarterly unit sales), whereas Android has enjoyed market domination. Interestingly, Apple owns the lion's share of the smartphone market's profits, while Samsung and other Android smartphone makers are getting by with tiny margins. In recent months, Apple's iPhone has surpassed Samsung's unit sales in addition to retaining the vast majority of smartphone profits from sales. If anything, this supports MDarringer's statements that VW may face serious challenges in trying to "buy" market share by "giving away" products, Android-style.

@TheSteve you might be right (not a good example) but my point is that they are still profitable unlike other companies that are barely making ends meet. Don't get me wrong, I still think that if they continue to do business that way they are (unions and the EU way) they might become the next GM.
My point is that this guy will write any sort of crap just to put VW down. BTW I could care less if VW becomes number one, I much rather have any automaker to concentrate of building great autos for us.

The point @USNA1999 is that Toyota will kick VW's butt on profitability.

I know the backstory of how slim the margins are behind the scenes when retailing VWs and Audis and you don't.

As a company, VWAG is large and unwieldy. They may win the crown, but I can easily see a stumble and fall coming.

By the way, it's not "I could care less" but "I couldn't care less". If you could care less, I'll continue infuriating you with the reality behind the VW myth until you reach a point where you couldn't care less.

Have a cold one on me.

@MDarringer my apologies for my grammatical error, I guess between my English, Portuguese and Spanish I have my "sayings" all F&^% up. LoL!
I am glad you can master your language.

One difference today in world sales is China's market growth in autos. China has a strong bias against Toyota and VW is the main benefactor by having establishing early along with the other great brand, Buick.

Another difference, VW is getting a boost from a full year of their updated best seller Golf. Hurting Toyota a bit, is the last model year of Prius and Tacoma, with the new models coming too late in the year to offset these declines.

If the race is close as the year end approaches, then there could be some interesting incentives on the table at these brands.