Volkswagen Passat launched in India!

[streetlife]

Isnt it launched.? I saw the ads today...

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

. Infact the C Class has way more gizmos than the Passat.
.

Not quite. The Passat has Xenons,Parking sensors,8 air bags(i think c-class has only 6) and a better gearbox-DSG.

[scooby05]

IMO and as said earlier, at Skoda Superb Pricing its a very very good buy!
at C class levels its in for Resistance!
These are work Horses and My principles in Germant Swear by the Passats. they have cars running having clocked 5 lac Kms !!

[alabjarus]

Volkswagen launches Passat at Rs 22.35 lakh....!
Look up: http://wheels.indiatimes.com/article...94,curpg-1.cms

[mobike008]

When i read about the launch way back i thought it will be priced between 21L-24L onroad irrespective of city. But 30 OTR pricing is like VW trying to shoot between its own eyes. I am sure this pricing will get revised after they see only a handful of passats moving out of their showrooms.

I have driven a Passat extensively which is owned by my sister in US and she has clocked more than 2L Miles and it still feels,smells and runs like new.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by scooby05

IMO and as said earlier, at Skoda Superb Pricing its a very very good buy! !

i get the feeling VW will twist Skoda's arm and discontinue the Superb in India

[Rtech]

Well, the current Superb is on its last legs, so it may all fall in place afterall.

[iraghava]

Yes Ajmat, that's a possibility. But, if they do go in for a price reduction they'll lose their own standing in the market. IMHO they should have priced it at 24L On-road and it owuld have sold well against the Camry.

While on my visit I aired my concerns to the Sales Manager & even he agreed that with the pricing the badge was going to be a problem for some customers. If he knows that much, why not price it right at the first go?

[Maverick1977]

[COLOR=black]Agreed that the VW is priced in a very competitive price bracket with the Mercs & BMW's of the world offering their products at the same price. However the current trend has shown that buyers prefer a feature laden car than to a plain-Jane car although it might have a fancy badge. Maruti SX4 outselling the City has shown this trend very clearly.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=black]A fully loaded VW might just be able to steal the limelight from all the others and prove to be a dark horse in this race.[/COLOR]

[lurker]

CNBC is covering Volkswagen launch is quoting price as between 22.35-24.35 lakhs

It's also quoting VW as claiming that it will have 150 dealers in the country in next 3 years.

[vasudeva]

Good that VW is launching the Passat especially since it is now failing elsewhere. In the US, it ranks high in APEAL but low in reliability with poor recommendations from JD Power, Consumer Reports, Kelley's and other organisations. It competes with Camry and Accord, and while these sell around 400,000 units each, Passat sold around 54000 in 2006. These figures should be evidence enough. In US, Passat sold 22326 in Jan-Jul 2007, down from 32025 in Jan-Jul 2006. In Europe, Passat sold 138389 during Jan-May 2007, down from 150238 in Jan-May 2006, and 331801 in 2006.

In fact BusinessWeek recently reported that VW in general has been facing quality problems and declining sales in the US to such an extent that VW of America's management is often heard saying that `if we have to stay in the US...', meaning that their existence in the US itself is at stake. The link is here:

Can VW Finally Find Its Way In America?

[ST7677]

There is no way VW can survive respectably in India with this pricing. These should have been on-road prices for these cars.

Heard VW has highest mfg cost in entire automobile community... too bad.

How can they expect people to pay so much for their unreliable though well engineered crap, followed by even more expensive spares to live up with!!!
These german manufactures should know how to keep theirs costs in control or else perish.

[LLL]

Originally Posted by speedy

with the ever increaseing petrol prices, it makes more sense getting a diesel car. there are people like me who like to use their money wisely. penny saved is a pound earned in the future . just today i saw the 2007 mercedes S320 cdi. that my friend is a 95lac rupee car and yet in diesel. so you do have buyers in the 20lac+ segment who buy diesel. as long as the product is nice and value for money you dont mind if it is a diesel.

They are 2 different market segments you are talking about - first one is we who are value/price conscious and second one is folks who are value conscious. The second group does not mind paying any amount as long as it satisfies their needs. Hence people buying 95l + cars. or people buying CRV and BMW when they are both gas engines.

About Passat - well, VW needs to get its act together. Instead of CBU, they should have manufactured the car here and priced it reasonably; even if it meant a delay of few years. Anyways, they really need to quickly launch models which cater to all segments to compete with likes to maruti, tata and hyundai. Else they will continue to stunt their own growth.

[BUSA]

It's also quoting VW as claiming that it will have 150 dealers in the country in next 3 years.

Currently they have 3, and aiming 10 by the end of this year. Heck even Skoda has just 100 after being in India for more then 6 years.

Their cars are being assembled at Skoda's plant in Aurangabad before they get theid 2450crore plant at Pune.

[junkishya]

Not Sure why VW is being compared with BMWs and Mercedes .. In US, people who do not want to buy a Camry or Accord by a Passat.

The Competition to BMWs and Mercedes has always been from MOSTLY Audi for Luxury and Volvo for Safety. Lot of people confuse between a VW and a Volvo !! Volvos as meant for their engineering and safety !!