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Old 04-20-2009, 11:41 AM   #1
XDCX
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Default Future of the VW Routan Minivan is in doubt

The future of the Volkswagen Routan Minivan is in doubt in light of slow sales and building inventories.

News reports indicate that Chrysler has built over 20,000 Routans but the VW dealers have only sold about 5,500 so far. The last Routan was built in December and it's unclear if the vehicle will ever be assembled again.

While most people agree the Routan is better looking than either the Chrysler or Dodge versions of the minivan, the fact that it has a higher price and doesn't feature the "Stow-and-go" option has limited its success.

Here's a link to the news report: http://rumors.automobilemag.com/6499...ion/index.html
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Old 04-20-2009, 11:54 AM   #2
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and let's not forget about a 9 point better residual....

it's all in a name, or not in a name...
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Old 04-20-2009, 02:06 PM   #3
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vw advertises the routan A LOT on tv here in CA.. how bout everywhere else?
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Old 04-20-2009, 03:10 PM   #4
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and let's not forget about a 9 point better residual....

it's all in a name, or not in a name...
Great point. To the extent "it's all about the payment" a VW Routan may be a better buy that the Caravan or T&C. I noticed that VW's pushing their new lease program - it will be interesting to see if their strategy increases sales.
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Old 04-20-2009, 03:10 PM   #5
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Same out here in Colorado. I think they may have done better designing and building their own Bus, rather than recycling the Caravan / Town & Country.
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Old 04-20-2009, 03:12 PM   #6
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vw advertises the routan A LOT on tv here in CA.. how bout everywhere else?
I just saw one of their commercials up here in the Seattle area last night - it was the commercial with the frog.

I thought it was a good commercial - it highlighted some of the van's cool features and closed with their new lease program. :thumbsup_old:
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Old 04-23-2009, 05:47 AM   #7
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Ads in Texas tout the better of "German Engineering".
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Old 04-21-2010, 06:54 PM   #8
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Default Thread's one year old and the Routan's still on death watch....

I thought it was funny on the one year anniversary of this thread the Routan is back in the news with speculation of its pending death.

The Windsor Star is reporting that the Routan will soon be killed off and they're hopeful Chrysler will use the excess production to build a "Lifestyle" truck in the Assembly Plant. Here's a link to the full report - click here

I doubt the VW dealers will miss the Routan - it seemed to be a slow seller from the very beginning.
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Old 01-09-2013, 08:19 AM   #9
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Default Thread's four years old and the Routan is still on Death Watch...

I read a report that the VW Routan will resume production later this year but it will be sold only as a fleet vehicle. The last Routan was built by Chrysler over six months ago.

Here's a link to a story from Left Lane News with more information - click here

Given the frosty relations between the CEOs of Chrysler and Volkswagen I'm guessing the "fleet only" option is VW's way of shafting Chrysler while still fulfilling their contractual obligations. VW will most likely dump the vans into the rental car market and try to cut their losses.

For those who still remember the Eagle Premier, Chrysler was on the other end of the hook back then when they had a contractual obligation to buy a certain number of engines from Renault. It became clear after a short period of time that the slow sales of the Premier would not allow Chrysler to meet their obligation with Renault - that was the main reason the Dodge Monaco was created.

In the end the Monaco was a bigger disaster then the Premier and Chrysler and Renault reached some cash settlement for breaking the contract requiring the purchase of a set number of Renault engines.

Back to the Routan - I doubt the VW dealers will miss the van and they may end up doing a better job with it as a rental return unit then they ever did as a new van.
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Old 01-11-2013, 09:00 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by XDCX View Post
I read a report that the VW Routan will resume production later this year but it will be sold only as a fleet vehicle. The last Routan was built by Chrysler over six months ago.

Here's a link to a story from Left Lane News with more information - click here

Given the frosty relations between the CEOs of Chrysler and Volkswagen I'm guessing the "fleet only" option is VW's way of shafting Chrysler while still fulfilling their contractual obligations. VW will most likely dump the vans into the rental car market and try to cut their losses.

For those who still remember the Eagle Premier, Chrysler was on the other end of the hook back then when they had a contractual obligation to buy a certain number of engines from Renault. It became clear after a short period of time that the slow sales of the Premier would not allow Chrysler to meet their obligation with Renault - that was the main reason the Dodge Monaco was created.

In the end the Monaco was a bigger disaster then the Premier and Chrysler and Renault reached some cash settlement for breaking the contract requiring the purchase of a set number of Renault engines.

Back to the Routan - I doubt the VW dealers will miss the van and they may end up doing a better job with it as a rental return unit then they ever did as a new van.
Does Volkswagen even need a minivan right now? The brand has grown so fast that it was the 10th best selling brand in the U.S. for 2012 - right behind Jeep and Dodge. If VW does decide it needs a minivan, I bet it could make a lot better one for itself.

As for the Premier/Monaco debacle, I remember it quite well. Our dealership did not have Jeep/Eagle, so we did not get a chance to experience the Premier. It looked like a nice car with its two-tone paint job, but it never seemed to sell well. We did get the Monaco. I think my grandpa had two. I think one was dealer-traded and the other sat for a year. We couldn't sell it. I think my grandpa eventually traded it to another dealer. We had no trouble selling Dynastys and Spirit/Acclaims, but the Monacos and the Mitsubishi stuff sat around for months.

Business decisions like this just drive me nuts and probably explains why Chrysler is where it is today - a subsidiary of an Italian car company. The more I look at that time period, the more I have to question the business knowledge of the people running Chrysler. It is like they didn't know what to do so they just threw anything against the wall to see if it would stick. The Monacos and Premiers didn't sell well. Well, whose fault is that? Maybe the market didn't want a rebadged Renault and instead wanted a true Chrysler product. I know one thing, my dad drove the Monaco a few times and he didn't care for its ride and handling. He didn't much care for the car either.
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Old 01-12-2013, 10:19 AM   #11
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Does Volkswagen even need a minivan right now? The brand has grown so fast that it was the 10th best selling brand in the U.S. for 2012 - right behind Jeep and Dodge. If VW does decide it needs a minivan, I bet it could make a lot better one for itself.
I remember reading that shortly after VW's success with launching the retro-version of the VW Bug that they wanted to launch a retro-version of the old VW Microbus. Apparently the mock-up looked great but there was no way VW could engineer the vehicle to pass the frontal crash tests because the driver sat so close to the front of the vehicle. By the time the VW engineers factored for the frontal crash test the vehicle no longer resembled the old Microbus.

To your point, I agree that if VW wanted a van they could easily do one in-house based on their existing platforms. That said, the minivan segment is pretty weak lately and VW might be better off sticking to cross-overs just like BMW, Mercedes, Subaru, etc.

Quote:
Originally Posted by AR2 View Post
As for the Premier/Monaco debacle, I remember it quite well. Our dealership did not have Jeep/Eagle, so we did not get a chance to experience the Premier. It looked like a nice car with its two-tone paint job, but it never seemed to sell well. We did get the Monaco. I think my grandpa had two. I think one was dealer-traded and the other sat for a year. We couldn't sell it. I think my grandpa eventually traded it to another dealer. We had no trouble selling Dynastys and Spirit/Acclaims, but the Monacos and the Mitsubishi stuff sat around for months.
My remembrance of the Premier was it was a huge advancement over the cars Chrysler offered at the time in terms of styling and design but they were quirky. Even something as simple as the column shifter reminded the driver that they were not a typical American car.

That said, they weren't bad cars and a lot of what eventually made it into the LH cars (Intrepid, Vision, Concorde) can be traced back to the Premier.
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