Makes sense. I’d still never buy one. I don’t to be that friendly with my dealer service depatment.

Not interested in a VW although I have seen some neat cars come from them; the Scirocco comes to mind. My wife and I took a look at the CC and came away unimpressed. Congratulations to VW on their about to be achievement.

BAAHAHAHAAH WHERES OUR COMEDIAN NMOFGM ??
I NEED A FEW MORE LAUGHS!!!

Buy VW it is your German duty ha ha ha

woot woot lets go VW!

VW builds really nice looking and purposeful cars, but their strategy in New World has not yielded desired results. They may or may not take 2nd spot from GM, but considering less then stellar quality of their products, I think they do have a long way to go. Of course, if GM self implodes, which it already did, it may be de-facto in 55 days. But I think it will be short lived victory.

Ford and Hyundai are next, though not necessarily in that order.

VW isn’t even number one yet and folks like Borat are already referencing their quality issues. Rapid expansion is often followed by a tumultuous implosion. There are definite advantages to being number one, but I wouldn’t want to race there. Not, if I planned on staying there very long that is. I like Ford’s strategy better. They’re doing what we all like about underdogs. Ford is getting leaner and meaner. They’re reducing quantity and increasing quality. Remember folks, the turtle won the race . . . and VW made the rabbit . . . I mean Golf . . .

Again, LeftLane not really reporting the news. Just commenting on something that might happen if this happens since this company might do that based on this. We might all win the lottery if no one else plays and we pick the winning numbers. Get on with the news.

Give it another 3 months and I’ll overtake them for the month of August
DrFill

One badge engineered empire, displaces another, displaces another.

Go Germans Go!!!

Go VW!

That’s because VW has a comprehensive portfolio of cars relevant to todays global economic conditions. And many of their interiors are better than quasi-premium brands like Saab or Volvo.

True that Madcapp. I’ll take my GTI’s interior over a S40 or 9-3’s anyday.

(Whispering)
(GM has MUCH better quality surveys than VW)
(Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!)
DrFill

This race for largest automaker really doesnt matter right now because no one is selling cars.

VW has a broad brand portfolio and their cars are consistent. The company has base Golfs that can be had for under $20K and Lambos that retail for over $200K and if those extremes aren’t to a person’s liking, Audi has something for every price range under $100K. It’s no wonder they’re expected to move up. Though I am surprised that they’re pushing those kinds of numbers. The only real volume marquee is VW itself, but time will tell.

Wow…pretty unbelievable. Can you imagine telling the chairman of GM back in the 1960’s that Volkswagen would outsell them in 2010?! They wouldn’t have believed it in a million years.

But…short of an implosion or sell off of much of GM, which is certainly plausible – I’m not holding my breath this will happen.

Somehow I think VW will overtake Toyota (Toyota fansboys don’t even think about it). Think about it, in Europe they have all sorts of clean diesels, like the VW Polo Bluemotion, (you should have seen it in that economy race in Top Gear). Plus, VWs are affordable and they are great, and I would take a base Jetta/Golf (with almost nothing in it) over a fully loaded Corolla any day.

i think folks just reflexively ding vw on quality even though that’s probably a bit of an over-generalization…some models are better than others…the ‘07 and ‘08 golf, for example, are above average in just about every category at consumer reports…the jetta, not so much…veedubs seem to suffer in their fuel system, according to consumer’s data, consistently…but it’s not exactly fair to portray these cars as chrysler sebrings…

i dont think its too hard to imagine vw taking over toyota in the future. In this world, a company can only geet better. Toyota is pretty high in the game for their relative placement in the car market. If, and it IS getting better, VW’s overall reliability gets better, they will take over.Toyota has little more to do to get better. If vw is this close to 2nd place and they have so much room to improve(when compared to toyota), they can easily jump to first place. the younger generation, now-a-days, dont want rice cars…at least not in the area i live. The fart can upgrades used to be in with toyotas and hondas, but now, everyone wants handling more than anything. And everyone knows GERMANY is the place to get that from!

Hope gm doesnt fall too far back!

Remebmber, VW wants 2 beat ‘yota 2 #1

VW is junk anyway. Have fun, everyone.

Nice ! go VeeDubb ! Continue the Sink GM !

Hahaha just as NMOFGM bashed VW in a previous Audi post.

VW Group has a way to go. Volkswagen sold 6.3 Million for 2008. Toyota sold 9 million, 40% more than VW.

VW needs to take care of their customers by taking care of their product issues. Don’t get me wrong, their overall product design is great but it’s only skin deep. VW would be able to live off return business based on a reputation versus needing to conquest new buyers. This is exactly why Toyota is so successful. They have developed a great reputation over the last half century (you can argue wether you buy into it or whatever). They have their customers to the point that they don’t even consider going to another brand or even cross-shopping. If Toyota ever decided to consistently build exciting/attractive cars that could conquest other customers from other brands while maintaining their reputation for reliability, there would be no end to Toyota’s reign.

Super ….Volkswagen!

VW has a horrid reliability history. They don’t sell much in the US for a reason.

Let’s not forget that foreign markets like Europe does not allow that many US cars to be sold there.

Go to Germany…see how many US cars are there. Ditto GB, IT, et al.

That is awesome…

Congrats to VW.

I had two VW’s while living in Brazil, they were reliable and good cars. Cheap to maintain. When, I move to USA, I fist bought a VW Fox. The best car I ever had. I only put gas and changed oil. Talk about low cost maintenance.

I am not so crazy about VW current line-up (except Sportswagen TDI) but I seriously considering Audi for my next car.

Good job, they deserve #1.

Ford will suprass GM too.

Foolish people buying an image backed by poor quality….velcomen to VW.

Ouch, that’s gonna hurt. Yes VW’s had quality issues, but we’re talking past 4 years ago. They’ve really improved on that. I also agree with Greek in that Ford will push GM off the podium.

Its funny that everone continues to mention the poor quality yet they still sell more than all but Toyota. So at this point, who really cares. There must be something there of value that people are paying for. And as far as quality goes, I have had my GTI for a little over 3 years now and have not had any major issues. I bought it literally 3 weeks after it came on the market. I have a co-worker who has a Nissan Altima w/ 70,000 miles that needs a new engine. It can happen to any car company. Just think that since VW is producing/selling so many cars, it is bound to be that some are going to have issues. As a percentage of cars sold worldwide, VW is just fine.

Nonetheless, this is all irrelevant because people are still eating them up.

I’ve only had my Passat VR6 wagon for six months but I love it. Really cool, good performing, mid-sized wagons are not so common in the US (crossovers and SUVs do not count as wagons). When I told folks I was buying a wagon, they cringed. After seeing my Passat, they oo’d and ah’d. I’m glad that at least the europeans have kep the wagon alive (and mighty find looking).

German>american>Japanese

Pretty soon I think we’ll see Ford catching up, since they’re actually trying to get it together, unlike GM (for Gimme Mo’ bailouts)

So, Toyota, VW, Ford?

@ ktulu – Yes!

Ford is definitely catching up though. They are making tremendous strides across the board and have not asked Obama to interfere. Potentially a Ford-VW dual for #1 in the years to come?

never had any issues with a VW apart from the regular replacements… no probs on rentals i had so far, either…

People LOVE to knock VW down on quality, but it’s a bit unfair.

Many cheap VWs were made in Brazil (like my old MK4 Golf) and have slightly lower overall quality than the cars made in Germany. My old Golf, purchased in 2003 brand new, had a few random things at first like the radio stopped working (granted that’s really weak and should never happen) but after taking care of it under warranty, everything was good. Only other thing I had was the thermostat stuck open, but that’s not uncommon on cars older than 4 or 5 years.

I think that VW has definite room to improve in terms of quality, but when comparing it to Toyota, remember that, even at the very lowest level of the echelon, any VW will have a real soul, whereas Toyatas (minus older models like the Supra) are just soulless transportation methods, boring, bland, everywhere.

As for Ford, they have taken huge strides, and I’m hoping to see them bounce back in the US, in the rest of the world, they’re already doing fine so whatever.

@aexcorp,

VW’s packaging is great – their vehicles look good. But they do suffer from quality issues. So if you want “soul” instead of bland, boring transportation be prepared to visit the dealership again and again. And again.
Bottom line is that VW’s look more expensive than they are.

Like I said, this bad rep is a bit unfair I feel. Especially because this notion of quality issue has only been encountered in the US for me. I’ve lived for many years in Europe where the general consensus is that VW’s one of the greatest brands for “regular” cars.

I mean, they used to have the most sold car in Europe for years and years with the Golf, only in the last 4-5 years did they loose that status to the Peugeot 207, which itself was dethroned by the Golf again in 2008. In addition, the most sold car in the world is the Golf with 25 million units. If quality was really an issue, and with how money-conscious people in Europe are, especially when it comes to cars and related costs, I would be surprised they would have been so highly regarded.

Which is why I feel part of the bad rep comes from the cars manufactured for the US market, sold cheaper, and made in Mexico, and part of it is just how expensive and annoying the VW dealers are in the states.