Volkswagen Golf sales falls short of Passat | CarAdvice

Car Advice
  • Home
  • »  Volkswagen Golf sales falls short of Passat

Volkswagen Golf sales falls short of Passat

VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT
By Anthony Crawford |
FIND DEALS

Volkswagen CEO Dr Martin Winterkorn may have described the all-new Volkswagen Golf as the brand’s most important vehicle at is unveiling in Berlin on Wednesday, but, somewhat surprisingly, it is the larger Volkswagen Passat that is the manufacturer’s top seller around the world.

Volkswagen sold 900,000 Golfs in 2011 compared with 1.5 million Passats, and while the gap is expected to narrow considerably with the arrival of the new Golf Mk7, it is, still unlikely to match the demand for Passat.

Developing markets such as China, Russia and the Middle East, where there is a clear preference for sedans over hatches, are fueling the demand for the larger Passat.

Oddly enough, though, China is now the second largest market for Golf, but it’s actually the Golf Mk4 (1997 model) that is produced and sold there.

The new Volkswagen Golf, which is crucial to the company’s goal of becoming the world’s biggest car manufacturer by 2018, will be built at Wolfsburg in Germany for most of the world’s markets. China and Brazil will continue to produce the Golf Mk4 for their domestic markets.

The Volkswagen Golf Mk7 will go on sale in Australia in the second quarter of 2013.


 

  • Golfschwein

    Interesting, but not new in the car world. Peugeot still made 404s in Africa well into the era of 505s and Argentina was making a version of the early sixties Falcon well into the eighties. And South Africa has only recently phased out the Citi Golf, which was a Mk 1.

    • Twala

      Wrong, in South Africa Mk1 was not marketd as a Golf but CITi budget car, it carried on as as a budget buy even when there was Golf 6.

      • Golfschwein

        Yes

  • mo

    I don’t get why people buy mini sedans. They are hopelessly impractical. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve failed at squeezing furniture into my falcon sedan. Even some of the bigger flat-packed IKEA furniture just won’t fit.  

  • Mariusz

    @mo you should go to your dealer and have a look at the Passat boot and compare it to a Falcons.  Its Falcons that are hopelessly impractical.  Even the VW Jetta boot is bigger than your Falcon.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Karl-Sass/100000921334936 Karl Sass

      That’s because it’s a FWD with less legroom. There’s only 6 litres differences lol

      • Sumpguard

        Being 183cms tall and having driven the previous Jetta I found legroom to be more than adequate. Ironically we swapped a falcon for a jetta in Melbourne at Eurocar after being pulled over for damaged number plates on the ford by the police (thankfully not booked) and can confirm the Jetta appeared to have had a much larger boot or more importantly it took all of our 2 weeks worth of luggage for 3 people in the boot where as in the falcon one of the cases sat in the rear seat next to our daughter.

            So maybe thee differnce was 6 ltrs but the Jetta boot appeareed larger and was obviously better thought out. It was also a far better drive !   I just don’t trust their reliabilty issues. That particular model was plagued with problems.

        • Legnab

          Bit like a sportage average in every way .

  • Legnab

    Man that is a lot of passats , US sales have gone through the roof .

  • Nova

    Bring the Passat Wagon TDI in 4×4 to Australia!

    • SLORE

      It’s called the Passat Alltrack which is coming later this year

  • Zaccy16

    Very interesting statistic! you would thing more jettas would be sold because they are cheaper but still a roomy ish sedan

  • Luke Brinsmead

    Interesting, I don’t know why the Passatt doesn’t sell as well here, considering Australia’s historical favourite car is the Commodore sedan.

    • Martin

      I think it might be the staid image in Australia of the Passat. The Golf has a youthful, fun, cool image about it (thank you GTI and R32!) but the Passat seems to get relegated as a car bought by the much older crowd and painted by the public unfairly. A Passat GTI would be cool although the Passat R36 would have to go even harder!

  • http://www.facebook.com/antmindel Anthony Mindel

    And so far this year,the biggest global seller for VW is niether the Golf nor Passat,it is the Jetta…

    • Cgee

       Nice photo shot Anthony

  • http://www.facebook.com/antmindel Anthony Mindel

    And so far this year,the biggest global seller for VW is niether the Golf nor Passat,it is the Jetta…

  • jj

    Why  bother, its a VeeDud – end of story.

    • Wsnownz

      No it’s not, it’s a Volkswagen.

  • Ck74au

    Has this guy bern to china? I was there in feb this year in a 3rd tier city and all i saw was the mk6 golf. Mk4 golf was nowhere to be seen. Same in hong kong.

  • Luke Brinsmead

    Same in South Korea, I saw mostly Golfs not many Jettas. Top Gear Korea’s “affordable” car for celebrities to drive around is a Golf