The new Passat and the rebirth of VW in America

The new 2012 Passat is nearly upon us and VW AG in Germany waits with great anticipation. It has been since the 1970's that VW has had a solid stake in the American automotive market with yearly sales of over 600,000 units and great market share driven by the old air cooled Beetles. It was not until 1998 that VW came back on the American automotive map with the release of the New Beetle. Sales grew solidly for several years, but quality issues and lack of renewed product stifled the brand once again. Now we sit pacing to sell 325,000 units this year with growth nearly twice the market and we are poised to take off and challenge the Toyotas, Hondas, Hyundai’s, Fords, Chryslers, and GM’s of the world with the release of the new Passat.

I can tell you that VW has learned a lot about the American automotive market over the past 15 years and they are finally positioned to compete in the largest and most competitive auto market in the world. Why do I say this now? Well, I just got back from the grand opening of the factory in Chattanooga and experienced the $1 Billion commitment to the American market that the Germans have made and experienced their undaunting will to succeed here. The factory is truly state of the art with a laser focus around quality which has been VW’s Achilles heel in the US market. The Passat has been designed for this market to take on the Camry’s and Accords of the world and in my mind wins handily while being priced similarly. The mid-sized sedan segment is the largest and most competitive in the US market and 6 or 7 of the top 10 models sold come out of this segment. I am eager for the challenges ahead of us in this segment, but know after seeing the car that we will succeed and VW will once again be a major part of the American landscape.

Oh, and don't forget the product behind the Passat. The new 2012 Beetle is a complete 180 from the current car and truly resembles a Porsche throwback. That coupled with the Tiguan redesign and bringing the Golf R to America shows VW is still true to their roots but with mainstream products that will position VW with a little help from "The Force" as the only German volume brand in world.

We did it!

Congratulations to everybody involved in the sales department and thanks to all the loyal customers for helping us to sell over 200 cars in a month. We finished the month selling 205 vehicles in total which ranked us 33rd in the USA for new VW sales and 3rd for Certified Pre-Owned sales out of over 600 dealerships. This was a tremendous accomplishment and hopefully a testament of months to come.

Quest for 200

We are closing in on the final weekend of April with an opportunity to sell 200 new and pre-owned vehicles in a single month which has been our goal for nearly a year. We need to have a big weekend that includes selling 26 vehicles Friday and Saturday. For anybody looking to purchase a vehicle we are pushing hard to make deals and finally hit our goal.

What a month!

Congratulations to all departments for a fantastic March. This was our best month ever with some notable accomplishments in many departments. The new car sales team finished 1st in the state with 85 new VW's sold which put us 26 cars ahead of the next dealer. The used car department finished 5th in the nation in Certified Pre-Owned Volkswagen sales more than doubling the local competition. Our service department had our largest sales month ever and our parts department continues to make great strides. We sold 192 vehicles in total which left us 8 short of our dealership wide goal of 200 which we have been working towards for nearly a year.

Fox31 New Story

Click link below to see the Fox31 news story about Emich going green with LED lighting.

http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-local-car-dealership-first-to-switch-to-allled-lighting-20110301,0,115802.story

Emich Goes Green

Below is a link to a nice article about how we teamed up with Qnuru/SoGoGreen to install LED lighting throughout our dealership. The project cost a little over $140,000, but based on the energy savings associated with converting to LED (up to 80% in some cases), tax incentives, City of Denver and Xcel rebates we hope to have a 18 month return on investment while drastically reducing our carbon footprint.


http://www.prweb.com/releases/Noribachi/LED_Lighting/prweb8073768.htm

Great 2010!

Congratulations to the sales team for a great 2010. We finished up over 20% year over year in new and pre-owned sales combined and over 30% up in new VW sales. We were honored to make the top 10 in Certified Pre-Owned sales finishing 10th. We also finished #47 respectively out of over 600 dealerships in new Volkswagen sales for the nation. Great work!

Youtube Videos

We have uploaded 12 videos to our Youtube channel to help you setup and use the technology in your new VW. We have included tutorial videos that focus on the Premium 8, RNS510, and RNS315 radio/nav units. We have included "how to" videos on accessing your toolkit and changing a spare tire and other uniquely Volkswagen features. http://www.youtube.com/user/emichvw?feature=mhum

Golf R to come to America

It has been confirmed VW will bring the Golf R otherwise known as the R20 to the US. We expect to start selling the vehicles in early 2012. This is a 270 HP all-wheel drive Golf/GTI that will come in 2 or 4 doors and only in a 6 speed manual transmission. We expect the vehicles to have a $33,000 MSRP and come fully loaded. Here is a glimpse of a Golf R that I saw at the VWoA headquarters a few months ago.

I am excited that VWoA has decided to bring this vehicle into the USA as it brings much excitement to the brand. It has been a battle from the dealers to import this vehicle and to overcome VW's concerns about volumes needed to produce a business case for the Golf R and concerns with the $30,000+ MSRP. Order one today to help promote more unique imports into America like the Scirocco.

The all new 2011 Touaregs have arrived!

One word "WOW". I am truly impressed what VW has done in redesigning this model. Although I was a fan of the previous Touareg it definitely fell victim to certain critics. From launch in 2004 this vehicle was as a hot a model as possible as it was on the same platform and built in the same factory as the Porsche Cayenne but at a much more attractive price. This blessing of high demand turned to a problem for many VW dealers as the engineers from Germany had not prepared the service technicians in America to work on these highly sophisticated and technologically advanced vehicles. Soon we saw Touaregs with overly sensitive electronics in our service departments frequently without the personnel and training to fix them. This created a perfect storm of unhappy customers, down cars, and frustrated dealers. Post the launch years the reliability of the Touareg greatly increased and for many years this vehicle has been the pinnacle of VW technology and engineering, but has had little customer consideration due to the failed launch in 2004. With this said the old Touareg still had some flaws which needed addressing. One the rear seats were always a bear to fold down to load cargo in the back, two the instrumentation was daunting if you did not have a PHD in car, and three the fuel economy was sub-par. Well the 2011 model has answered with easy fold flat seats and even reclining and sliding rear seats, it has greatly cleaned up the dash and now the vehicle is cleanly and easily controlled by the touch screen navigation screen, and most importantly the new 8 speed transmission coupled with a nearly 500 lbs weight drop has increased the gas mileage by almost 5 mpg. To combat the question in reliability VW has given the Touareg a 10 year 100,000 mile powertrain warranty! Well I can't say anymore, but that I can't wait to turn one into my demo. Come lease one today for a spectacular $579/mo Sign then Drive $0 due at signing lease! That is a 1.2% lease which is unheard of in the current automotive climate.