04-20-2009, 11:41 AM | #1 |
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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 |
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... |
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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04-20-2009, 03:10 PM | #4 |
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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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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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04-20-2009, 03:12 PM | #6 | |
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Quote:
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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04-23-2009, 05:47 AM | #7 |
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Ads in Texas tout the better of "German Engineering".
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04-21-2010, 06:54 PM | #8 |
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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. |
01-09-2013, 08:19 AM | #9 |
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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. |
01-11-2013, 09:00 PM | #10 | |
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Quote:
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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01-12-2013, 10:19 AM | #11 | ||
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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:
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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