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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/European_Union_Flag.jpg ...by making cars that are bigger, but less expensive than today’s models, and expanding the model line into additional segments, such as seven-passenger crossover SUVs, where the company does not participa (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32678823/ns/business-autos/)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2009_VW_Jetta_TDI_Test_drive_wrapped.jpgDan Carney - MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com) - Sept 4, 2009

Don't lose the original TDI and Beetle --Ed.

Volkswagen has ambitious plans to directly challenge Toyota — and a cornerstone of the plan for global expansion is to boost sales in the U.S. by building products with more American flavor.

The plan calls for the company to grow from 6.2 million sales worldwide in 2008 to 10 million cars by 2018, with American sales climbing to 800,000 cars a year.

To accomplish this, VW hopes to expand the appeal of products outside its current base of European car enthusiasts, attracting more of the shoppers who reflexively buy Toyota Camrys and Honda Accords today.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32678823/ns/business-autos/

I remember being passed by a car dressed like that one

If many of the stories on sites like vwvortex and tdiclub are true, VW will only piss off folks in the US with their many boneheaded dealerships. Some VW dealers are excellent, but for every good dealership there are a bunch of stinkers.

Love the car, hate the dealer is all too common in the auto industry, and with VW in particular I've heard.

Why do they have to be larger for U.S. market? Hal

Obviously, for our stereotypically large butts!!

I didn't think of that!!! Hal

I'm starting to agree with some who say that VW hasn't built a decent car since it discontinued the mk2 body style - the cars still had moxie back then. Now, not so much. And for the dealers... I wouldn't let them touch my fiance's TDI with a ten foot pole! I wish VW made cars like they used to!

VW has a lot of lousy dealers, but then again so do Honda and Toyota. Great cars will sell themselves. VWs are great cars from a driving perspective, but their historic level of (low) reliability has kept them from being great cars. Only thing that can overcome that in buyers' minds is several consecutive years of above-average reliability in the Consumer Reports survey.

I can understand the desire for bigger cars from VW, since the Jetta/Golf are still subcompacts considerably smaller inside than Civics and Corollas. And their mpg (in gasser form) has always been barely better than the much larger Passat! Guess it's because the Jetta/Golf weigh quite a bit more and have much torquier/thirstier gas engines than the subcompact/compact competition. Offering a 2.5 as the base engine, with the next option being an equally thirsty, slightly smaller turbo, reminds me of Subaru - perhaps not coincidentally the other automaker whose subcompact barely tops their midsized offering in fuel economy. Truly sad since these are the only companies seemingly committed to selling small wagons in this country.

Until TwinDrive is ready VW needs to focus on their strong suit - their clean diesel engine. Make it available in the Passat too already (especially the wagon), because it's plenty powerful enough for that car, and you'll have the best-FE family hauler in the business.

If VW thinks nonstandard controls is the biggest reason people avoid them, they're killing themselves. Still, if they want to standardize on a lever instead of that idiotic knob to recline the seat, I'm all for it. Going between fully reclined and fully upright on my cars takes about half a minute, versus half a second for any other car. Moving the headlight switch off the dashboard to the left turn signal lever (as on most Japanese and many American cars) would be fine too. Hopefully they won't mess with the climate control knobs though.