Volkswagen Gets A Much-Needed Sales Boost From The New Golf
For the most part those Car of the Year awards are just self-serving marketing fodder that usually doesn't translate into anything meaningful for your average car buyer. But this year the award winning MK7 Volkswagen Golf family of cars has found an audience and given VW some much needed sales success.
In May, Volkswagen posted an 8.1 percent sales increase compared to 2014, according to GoodCarBadCar.net. This ended pattern of monthly losses for the brand.
The positive sales numbers were mostly due to a combination of super cheap leases on Jetta sedans and the popularity of the all new Golf family of cars that include the GTI, Sportwagen, and Golf R. While the subsidized leases on the Jetta helped, Volkswagen actually sold fewer Jetta sedans in May of 2015 than in 2014. The real story is the massive increase in Golf sales from last year.
Golf Sales 2014Golf Sales 2015January17124199February16493921March19894643April17985508May17936308
The previous generation Golf was a good car, but Volkswagen made significant improvements to the MK7 models using the MQB platform making the new car not only lighter, but more spacious as well. It is also worth noting that several auto-journos who don't typically buy new cars thought so highly of the MK7 GTI they bought one with their own money.
Of course Volkswagen needs to do much more than sell a little over six thousand compact hatchbacks per month. For the brand to survive in the American market a crossover is desperately needed.
However, given the popularity of the Golf family, I still maintain that a crossover/wagon option in the way of the Alltrack could be super successful in addition to a more traditional CUV that would replace the Tiguan. We know Volkswagen is working to up their SUV game. Let's hope that happens sooner rather than later.
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