VW To Take On A5 And 4 Series With New Arteon - Is This Interior Going To Make The Cut?

Assuming that the Arteon's "kampf" is to take on the Audi A4/5, that would be another example of VW's stupidity.

VW should NOT be actively competing with Audi.

The Arteon would be a perfect replacement for the American Passat provided VW can keep prices in check.

Oh wait! That's impossible.

The Atlas--for example--seems appropriately priced, but the ones trickling into dealers are hovering at $50K which--yet again--just shows that VW is utterly clueless about market placement.

VW is pretty much unstoppable with its amazing global sales, despite all that dieselgate nonsense.

Besides, VW isn't directly competing with the A5 with this. As least not yet, when the A4/A5 will be moved to the MQB platform. Even then, a mere few thousands in price difference will separate prospective buyers from cross shopping.

Even if a buyer is cross shopping, as long as the buyer buys one or the other. At the end of the day, that money is going in VW's pockets. I think this also speaks volume about VW's huge improvement in interior/exterior quality and design.

Those are base editions

@Aspergers11 From having spoken with good friends of mine who are sales staff, they are bemoaning the fact that VW despises shipping base models.

The Atlas comes out with an advantageous sounding price of $33.5K yet the ones showing up to their lot are all pushing $50K.

Now to your foolishness. You said "Well everyone else is doing $50K." as if somehow that absolves VW.

If you look at the Explorer--which can cross $50K--you would be surprised by how many of them that are sold are very close to base models. These vehicles are purchased by families on a budget and they typically do not go for all the bells and whistles.

When the current Jetta and Passat were introduced with advantageous pricing, VW shipped loaded models and turned buyers off.

The Atlas needed to be value priced with more options than expected to lure people away from the volume sellers in the segment. Once again, VW is botching the roll out of a new product.

"VW's stupidity"?!? They are so stupid they became the largest automaker in the world. What a bunch of idiots! The Golf is the most successful car in the world - what fools. Audi keeps growing year after year and is one of the top 3 global luxury brands.
Tell me, MDarringer, what gives you so much more insight? Or do you just like acting smug?

@Truthy I have direct access to info and you don't. It really is that simple.

I have a new A5 - interior is way superior as it should be. VW can improve their interiors to please its customers. Audi interiors have always been the benchmark for quality interiors no matter who tries to aspire to that level. Better than BMW for sure and not as convoluted as MERC.

Looks exactly like an new Audi interior, down to the plastic vents running down the length of the dashboard and the digital display. Weird but good for VW owners I suppose.

It's a nice interior, but I do think there's a clear distinction from the A5 as the premium offering.

As far as the Arteon itself, it's a nice car, but the styling is already derivative since the Chevy Malibu beat it to market. And its bubble-forward look of the roofline looks a bit odd.

Why would VW make a care to compete against the A5, it's the same company.

I feel VW needs to get its house in order. Refocus such that you:

1) Position VW and its vehicles as the "practical people mover" brand

2) Reduce VW's defects, purchase price, and maintenance costs to be in-line with #1. And while you're at it, treat your customers better. They'll like you more!

3) Use your Audi brand to be the purveyor of mid-market and luxury vehicles. And while you're at it, consider a new styling language that looks more *luxurious* instead of just more angular and creased.

4) Use your Bentley brand for super-luxury vehicles.

5) Use your Lamborghini brand for hypercars/exotics.

And have a stern talk with anyone who gets ideas about crossing boundaries, like trying to move VW more upscale, especially while VW still carries a reputation (in North America) for being over-priced, needing too many fixes, costing too much to fix, and treating customers badly. "Looks nice, drives good" is not enough to negate all those other niggly facts.

Audi's design is currently perfect and requires no modification except for the occasional facelift near the end of the cycle.

There's also no reason to separate all these brands from competing in the same segments, or price points, especially if it's already successful.

Consider the Golf and its derivatives in Skoda and SEAT, all near the same price point and all equally successful. Also note that the A1 is vastly successful in all the market it sells at, even though it has a starting price of $16,000, and undercuts many of VW's models.

The bottom line is there's no reason to segregate Audi, VW, Porsche, or even Bentley, if sales are up and steady.

@TheSteve brilliantly stated.

On the topic of the Arteon, here's a YouTube review of the product:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAOzyMDgVo0

The reviewer alleges that the Arteon's price is in line with the BMW 5-series and Mercedes E-Class. If that's true, then that'll pretty much be the kiss of death for this product. He says the interior is "pretty good," but "the same" as what you see in a Passat.

The reviewer encourages people to "forget about the badge" while making the comparison to Audi, BMW, or Mercedes. That would be a fair statement (i.e., let the product stand on its own merits) if VW had a strongly positive reputation in this North American market. It doesn't. In fact, quite the opposite is true. He's asking you to forget that VW has a reputation for too many defects, too frequent visits to the service bay, too-high purchase price and repair costs, and shoddy treatment of customers... and as you do this, compare this VW product to Audi, BMW, and Mercedes. That's a tall order, and *I* feel an unreasonable request. It's also not a prudent way to think when you're thinking of making the significant purchase of an expensive car.

The video illustrates that the Arteon would be a perfect replacement of the American Passat. It's a nice looking car, but it's not a game changer. It nice in the way the pervious Kia Optima was nice. It's nice in the way the Fusion is nice. Granted, it more interesting than the dull crap from Audi, but Mercedes is out of the Arteon's league.

This car is not intended to target the BMW 5 or the E-Class. VW Group already has the A6 to do this. This car will be slightly more than the outgoing CC which can be had for a very reasonable price.
As for the comments that it looks like a Malibu, have you seen the Arteon in the metal, or just in pictures? Having a similar greenhouse in a 2D picture is not the best comparison.

Truthy wrote “…This car is not intended to target the BMW 5 or the E-Class…”

I agree! However, the reviewer in the YouTube link I posted ALLEGES that the Arteon is priced about the same as a BMW 5-Series or Mercedes E-Class. **IF** he’s right, then that’ll be a showstopper for this car’s sales.

Volkswagen has done an excellent job recently of separating the Volkswagen and Audi brands. Volkswagen no longer has a Touareg to compete with the Audi Q5. Volkswagen also no longer offers the Phaeton to compete with the Audi A8.

Furthermore, Audi's interiors have improved even further on their already impeccable quality and design.

The interior of the A4/A5 and the vehicle shown above couldn't be more different if they tried. Audi offers a clean and modern interior with a large screen on top and very few buttons below. The vehicle above has the screen integrated into the dash with many buttons around it.

Touareg competes with the Q7 on size and price, which is also a bit silly. The dashboard design with the plastic airvents running across the entire dashboard is the exact same as in new Audis.

The Touareg only competes with the 2.0T 4-cylinder Q7 on price. It does not compete with the 3.0T Q7 on price, which starts at $55.5K for the lowest version.

The 3.0T Q7 has base prices of $55.5K, $59.5K and $65K for premium, premium plus and prestige.

The Touareg has base prices of $49.475K, $52.795K and $60.195K

The Touareg despite its V6, is more closely priced to the 2.0T 4-cylinder Q7 which goes for $49K and $53K in premium and premium plus trims.

I don't know what the sales breakdown is of 2.0T vs. 3.0T Q7s but I personally haven't seen many 2.0Ts.

So basically it competes against the Q7 then, shares the same platform too

Despite the comparable price to the cheaper 2.0T Q7, the Touareg sales are a tiny fraction of Audi's Q7. For all of 2016, the Touareg sold just 4,223 units. For comparison, the Q7 sold 30,563 units, which is much closer in volume to the BMW X5 and Mercedes-Benz GLE.

https://www.audiusa.com/newsroom/news/press-releases/2017/01/audi-breaks-annual-u-s-sales-record-in-2016

https://www.audiusa.com/newsroom/news/press-releases/2017/01/audi-breaks-annual-u-s-sales-record-in-2016

Volkswagen is very smart for providing distinct brand and pricing differences between its various brands such as Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche etc.

Comparisons will always be made but I will say that the Touareg is much cheaper than the Q7 in the US as compared Europe and other parts of the world, where a Touareg 3.0 TDI isn't that far off the Q7 3.0 TDI and the Touareg sells a lot better than in the States as well but I think it's because the VW brand has more cache in other markets than in the US.

No digital dash no sale.

It has the option of a digital dash display like the option in the Audi

I would be very interested to see the percentage of buyers who cross-shop an Audi Q7 with a Volkswagen Touareg. I bet the percentage is extremely low and much lower than the percentage of Audi buyers that cross-shop with BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Volkswagen deserves a lot of credit for that.

I don't think a lot of people do, especially in the US but that doesn't mean VW doesn't want them to. I like the Touareg, it's ironically a great Q car (excuse the pun) because it really flies under the radar, you get most of the luxury and quality as you do in the premium brands but without a flashy badge. Plus in some markets you can get the V8 TDI which is a great engine, the previous generation had a V10 TDI which was insane but a nightmare to own. Still have a problem with VAG after dieselgate however.