VW cuts 2 years off its warranty, adds 2 years of free maintenance

Small phallic syndrome? Makes them feel big and important maybe.

Always cracks me up when a baby comes along and all of a sudden the family needs a Tahoe or Suburban.

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Yea for luxury, oddly, Maserati & Alfa are some of the highest. BMW (no surprise) and Infiniti rank right up in top tier.

My parents always made fun of us how much crap we would bring alone just to be guests for few hours without even overnight stay.
Trunk was always full. I see no issues filling Tahoe or Suburban truck as a first time parent.

After that is a lot easier to say f that, we won’t need it.

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I guess, but even filling a compact SUV is excessive for just 1 kid, haha. Maybe an Midsize SUV on the upper limit. A Tahoe or Suburban? That just seems insane.

I just don’t understand what changed over the years. I was born in 77, and my dad bought a 78 Cutlass right before my sister was born in 79. He never missed a chance at a vacation and would take us as babies, in the car, with 2 car seats in the back. A 78 Cutlass is a far cry from a 2020 Tahoe, yet we didn’t die and had everything we needed. Granted, SUVs and Minivans didn’t exist yet, unless you count the VW Bus or the Dodge RAM Van. That said, he never had an interest in SUVs either when they actually became popular.

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Ok, just for shits and giggles

We were on vacation in Florida this year with 3 kids in 2nd suit in a hotel for 1 week.

We did rent Ford Expedition And it was nice not to worry about trunk space and play Tetris with luggage.

Because that’s how much shit we took

(upload://lSegapYz3gBl5nWqRSstQbE5TDo.jpeg)

Btw, it only because that’s how much we could fit in QX60 trunk and take with us on flight using 4 tickets.

Last year we drove to Myrtle Beach for 1 week on a Crosstour with two and truck was full up to wazoo including suitcases in second row below kids legs.

We also took kitchen stuff with us because we aren’t on going out much with our wild stallions.

Just the UppaBaby stroller for two seats takes decent room. But that stroller has been with us for over 5 year and we even used it to haul all 3 kids in it. And it has seen plenty of beach sands and still work. So stroller is always with us.

The toys, spare clothes, diapers. Just shit to survive end of world.

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Yeah, I assumed it was always more about the driver’s perception (of him/herself) than about the passeng’er comfort. I have to say, though, that driving a large SUV gives you a sense of being invulnerable, while driving a minivan gives you the sense of being very exposed.

Not the Golf? When I bought my Golf, the leases weren’t very good (to my understanding), and it seems like the “forgotten child” in the US (well, maybe not more forgotten than the poor Passat…).

I was born in 78 and we didn’t have car seats back then, in fact I don’t recall passenger side mirror. Fun times inhaling cigarette smoke while driving with crazy uncles with the windows barely open.

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They had one on the driver side. Passenger side was an option until it became mandatory in the 80s or early 90s. My first car, an 87 bare bones Olds Firenza didn’t have a passenger mirror. Well, bare bones is a bit wrong. It did have the optional stereo head unit, power steering, rear window defogger and air.

The Golf doesn’t lease as well and not aimed at people looking for a ‘deal’ rather it’s for people that value the upmarket VW of old and are willing to pay a premium or at least go for purchase offers vs lease. That’s the bifurcation in VW strategy as I see it:

The models for people that value the old school VW that was a quasi-premium brand, more of an Audi with a smaller price go for: Golf (soon to die other than GTI/R), Sportwagen (soon to die), Alltrack (soon to die), Arteon (don’t expect another gen in the US), Touraeg (already dead), last gen small Tiguan (obviously dead), GTI/R live on though.

The ‘new’ VW that lease better, sell for more aggressive prices, have aggressive lease deals: Jetta, Tiguan, Atlas/CP, Passat (less so on the lease part, also not likely to live past this generation) and future smaller SUVs to come.

The strategy makes sense, although VW has a way of f*cking things up. The cheaper, de-contented VWs that they’ve been producing over the last several yrs (aside from the Golf) initially have fairly strong sales and then peter out, I think (but perhaps you have more info).

There’s a part of me that hopes that they bring a Sportwagen R to the states. I don’t think a makes much sense to have a GTI and R w/ the same body style, but a hatch GTI and a Sportwagen R would be lovely… :slight_smile:

That happens still in China :wink:.

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I helped my friend buy an Alltrack recently. There aren’t many of the highest trim (SEL) left.

Grab one if you have any remote interest in Euro wagons. The chances of an R wagon here are slim to none.

I did in 2018! VW is doing a good job of managing inventory b/c there were very few wagons in my area left at the end of 2018. I sort of wish I had sprung for an SEL now (didn’t realize how much I’d miss auto climate control, full power seats, and dimming mirrors), but the car has otherwise been great.

I can understand why they likely won’t offer any sort of wagon here in the future, but it’s unfortunate b/c there’s nothing else in that size/price range (unless Subaru decides to bring over the Levorg, which it won’t).

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Chances of a Sportwagen R are somewhere between none and very none. They’ve already pulled the Sportwagen & Alltrack from our market. At best, we may get a Tiguan R or something like that. Unless it’s an SUV or an EV, it’s not coming here. GTI / R being the same 5-door bodystyle means one crash test compliance design, add the wagon and you double that.

The dealer I got the wife’s Tiguan from has 4 manual Alltracks (3 SE, 1 SEL; all white) and a manual Sportwagen (S; black)! They’re the last of a kind. Probably the last manual wagons on the US market ever.

Ohhhhh. Yes, that makes sense.

I heard the Tiguan R might actually be renamed as a GTI (!).

Sad to hear that, it was a huge selling point for me when I got 2018 Tiguan SE.

You can blame this on all the Americans who refuse to buy wagons. Wagons are dying, why bring an enthusiast version here?

There’s actually a market for GTI/R. They still sell pretty well.