All Cars, All the Time

2007 VW GTI to See Improvements and Un-Improvements?

While flipping through the latest Automobile Magazine, I read with some interest the review of the new (for the US market) GTI five door. It makes prefect sense in my mind to have the five door here in the USA and was happy that Len Hunt made the call and laid the groundwork for the vehicle to come to our shores before he left VW.

It was all find and dandy until, at the very end of the article, the author makes mention that there will be some cost saving measures phased in during the 2007 model year. Specifically the headlight washers and be washed away and more disturbingly some cheaper, harder plastics will be used inside the cabin. Now, I know that the current Golf had been more expensive to manufacture than VW would have liked. I was also aware that Wolfgang Bernhard will be making a big push with the next generation Golf to bring costs back into line. However, I wasn't aware that there was going to be corner cutting with the existing model. When it comes to cost cuts, I'm fine with de-contenting a vehicle to create a value leader. However, that de-contenting should be for things that can then be added back as an option. Changing out interior trim for cheaper substitutes sure seems to be a no-no to me, especially for a brand with vaunted interior quality. Granted, I haven't seen or touched the replacement material but from the description in the article it doesn't sound good.

On the plus side, the Automobile article says that VW will start shipping DSG equipped vehicles with launch control enabled. That’s certainly newsy. In the past our lawsuit happy environment has prevented manufacturers from bringing this feature to the US market. We’ll see if this truly happens.