Brilliant Or Bonehead? Volkswagen Appears To Be Ready To Return To The US Pickup Segment

At least you have to give VW credit for coming up with an imaginative way to get rid of excess Phaeton parts!

The current mid-size truck market is a Japanese affair - Toyota leads both GM lines combined. However - one must also remember that GM has limited production availability - so it cannot produce more to compete with. SO - it might be possible for VW to come in a take some sales - especially from the also ran Nissan. However - with FORD also coming in at the same time - you can expect the segment to get more "AMERICAN". ANd VW will not sell them in any great numbers.

If they want to succeed they can't try to have a "premium" price point...If the sale price comes in anywhere near F150, Silverado etc they will fail big time.

A brilliant move would be to partner with Ford or GM for the truck.

As usual VW is late to the party.
More than likely the design will be class trailing.
More than likely it will cost more than the competition without offering more for the price.

See: Atlas

Who the heck at VW comes up with these names? I'm surprised they didn't propose Canis Lupus. It's just as obscure as Amarok.

I think they get their names from contestants in an STD clinic in Chicago.

The problem is that VW is a GERMAN company - and thinks in GERMAN - not English - for the entire world. There was at time when VW tried to give American names (The the golf/rabbit) - but apparently that did not work. That the word "golf" means something in English VERY different from the intended foreign language only shows how they do not even consider the english equivalents.

ATLAS - as they use it - is actually a proper name - and is not translated to languages - so at least it might be considered a good choice - except that in our language - an atlas might also be a collection of maps.

@TomM you nailed it. VW has always had cultural bigotry that thinks The Fatherland knows best.

VW dealers were screaming for crossovers and VW is just now getting around to them.

I remember VW being shocked that the dealers didn't want the Scirocco. To VW, the Scirocco was a total winner--and I don't think it is even in Europe--but what we saw was a flabbier looking GTI with a base price of $40K. Thankfully, THAT didn't come.

More recently, VW dealers DIDN'T want the Arteon, but guess what, Germany knows best so a vehicle that looks like it competes with the CamCord and FusNatas of the world is coming, but it will be priced $15K higher in base price and double the price of CamCord and FusNatas sitting on the lot.

The mere fact that VW designed the Amarok and that it did not occur to them to make it suitable for the USA shows just how incompetent think in German has made them.

What VW (or any brand) really need is a compact (& affordable like $20k) pick up. Like the Rabbit pick up from the 70s. All the compacts we have now have grown into mid size and most are priced like full size.

I do think crossover-pickups are about to be "something" and that there is money in being the one to define the segment.

Another light weight, vest pocket pickup truck to wade into an all ready mature competitive field.

VW once built a Toyota Hilux and called it a VW Taro. It was also one the the best-designed VWs ever because VW didn't design it.

After spending the last 14 years managing a VW dealership(I have since moved on) this will be as it has been the last 10+ years nothing but a pipe dream and if they finally bring it to market just like all of their product launches it will be too little too late... The Atlas and new Tiguan are prime examples VW promised us those products forever and ever but when we finally got them they were way too late and not good enough to be viable... Yes they will sell the Atlas and Tiguan but only in tiny quantities and only once they start giving them away as especially with the Atlas the size is exceptional for the class it is in but the styling leave much to be longed for while the interior materials are subpar at best even compared to the Pilot or Highlander... VW always screwed us as dealers when it came to product especially if you had a sold order there wasnt even a system in place to build sold orders you just gave them to your rep and they got built whenever VW felt like it which for some products it was 6+ months..