Volkswagen to beat Toyota with quality & beauty
11 Dec, 2007
49 Comments 
Volkswagen group CEO Martin Winterkorn is counting on the German attention to detail as well as better looking cars to help his company beat Toyota as the global No. 1 within 10 years.
Strategy 2018, a plan devised by VW to become the No.1 manufacturer is counting on “German perfectionism and better design” as VW’s advantages over its Japanese competitor.
Volkswagen not only aims to beat Toyota in terms of overall sales, but also productivity and profitability.
According to sources inside Volkswagen, the company actually believes a sales supremacy can be achieved as early as 2014, but Mr Winterkorn would not comment on that issue.
“I cannot discuss internal goals. But we want to be in 2010 where Toyota is now.” Said Winterkorn
This year Volkswagen is expected to sell 6 million cars, an increase of 300,000 from last year. Toyota sales figures for this year are still not confirmed, however the Japanese company managed to move 8.8 million cars in 2006.
Going by those figures Volkswagen will need to increase sales and productivity by a staggering 10% a year to match Toyota’s manufacturing efficiency. Winterkorn is well aware that Toyota produce cars at a lower cost:
“Every Toyota produced in Japan has a cost advantage over VW of €3,000 ($7,000 AUD) to €4,000 ($9,250 AUD)” he told Automotive News Europe.
Talk of product efficiency instils fear of dull and lifeless cars coming out of Volkswagen, but with the company’s acknowledgement of better looking cars as one of its strengths, we should not fear another Big T.
More importantly, with Volkswagen investing considerable amounts of money into the likes of Lamborghini and Bugatti, it would be a mistake to class Volkswagen as an A->B manufacturer.
Nonetheless, there is talk of a more efficient management with VW Group production chief Jochem Heizmann noting “production lines will become shorter and processes quicker.”
Volkswagen seems to be following a slightly different strategy to Toyota with the company planning to invest $22 billion (AUD) in the next three years for the development of 20 new cars.
One thing Toyota has done well in the last decade is produce cars specifically for our North American friends while the Europeans have tried and mostly failed to make headway with European models. But that is all about to change.
“We added too many technical items that [American] consumers don’t want to pay for, because they don’t need them,” Winterkorn Said.
As an example he cited collapsible external mirrors that are useful in narrow European streets and parking lots but serve little purpose in North America.
Part of the big push will come from Volkswagen’s new family of small cars, expected to sell 1 million units a year. Cars such as the Up have a lot to live up to.
Do you think Volkswagen will turn into Toyota? More importantly, with challengers such as Hyundai lurking in the background, will the people’s car achieve its aim of world dominance by 2018?
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December 11th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Take that Toyota_Paul!!
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December 11th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Hmm be interesting to see what these 20 new models will be, thats a lot of models to introduce to the market.
Either way,I think VW will do a much better job of being no.1 than Toyota.
Toyota needs to invest some money into having a soul and not being just about volume
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December 11th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
It should be so easy but, world-wide, Toyota has the default car chooser in the bag. You know, the Verns and Shirleys with a full-set denture lisp who corner you over a shandy at a back-yard shin-dig in some far-flung suburb that you’d rather not be in and say to you, “Oh we just want a Camry.”
And they always call them Camrays.
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December 11th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
After driving a Jetta recently I can see why VW is winning the quality vote. The car is really well finished inside and out, has tight tolerances, drives well and presented no rattles, road noise or other annoying attributes often found in lesser names *clears throat* If this is how all VWs are, then it’s no surprise they’re beating Toyota.
Now, where are all the Toyota die hards with their idiotic brain washed rhetoric
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December 11th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Go Volkswagen!(Where is Toyota Paul).
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December 11th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
^Lol,
I wouldn’t want VW to be the default car, I can’t imagine the Golf and Jetta being the next Corrrolllla and Camray respectively, they deserve much more then that.
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December 11th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Well Toyota Paul is gone now, but if he comes back and thinks his Toyota are better than VW, i’ll tell him to visit www.toyotasux.com/drupal/ and see what he thinks then.
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December 11th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
I think VW already has more appealing products which are much higher in quality. I am begining to see ALOT more VWs on the road now then several years ago.
Shane.
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December 11th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
i used to have a mk2 gti scirocco in the uk in the mid 80’s loved that car - it had real soul. i hope the new scirocco comes to aus.
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Well thats no surprise………of course they would!
Wheres Golfschwein…..gee I wish he would use his real name!! ARRRR there he is early on…..slow day at the office Honey…hehehe
ME your really trying to prob him out of the internet somewhere aren’t you!
Cant really compare them I think. For me I think its Honda,Mazda = with Subaru then Toyota!My opinion!
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
“VW is a below average performer in both surveys, belying its reputation for building high quality, reliable cars”
mynrma.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/mynrma/hs.xsl/brand_reliability.htm?cpssessionid=SID-3F5768EC-0E01D207
“The figures confirm similar surveys overseas, which have shown that US- and European-built cars largely lag behind Korean and Japanese cars on quality…. for example, some Volkswagen models recorded a higher than average number of actual faults but figures”
drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=39115&IsPgd=0
“VW has slipped in the European JD Powers initial quality ratings to 34 out of 37 manufacturers ”
answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060623131602AAWoBrf
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Man I bet Toyota are shyting themselves that VW, renounded for Lemons, are challenging them in such a ridiculous time frame. I would say given their lack of reliability, 30 years would be far more reasonable… its one thing being relatively small scale production its another being the top dog. If they cant get reliability now, how the hell will they get it when they are producing even more vehicles.
And ME you dislexic twat, great evidence there for Toyota being bad, lets play the 6 year old school buy game…
myvwlemon.com
OMG they have a site to, they must be bad, idiot. You get 100 people out of millions sold and you will get a site, that is evidence for nothing. The fact is surveys clearly show VW are not anywhere near Toyota in reliability, even with the slipping of this reliabilty in the last year or so. But I dont any retards here will understand this, just look… you have a person saying ‘oh I drove the VW for 20mins and man…. Toyota are gone cos in 20mins, in a brand new car, it was reliable and didnt have rattles’. Enough said.
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Additional note, I would put my money on Hyundai having a far better chance than VW… Hyundai return better reliabilutly and more importantly their cars actually look decent, VWs like the Golf and bland… not bad looking, but not great looking.
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
This is my last post, I do not intend to reply to posts made in relation to mine under any circumstances… Ive given the facts, you will no doubt reject them and substitute it with your own completely misguided opinions.
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
^Ready for the next post from you.
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Gee Paul you called Me a dyslexic twat.That wasn’t very nice.
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Paul, hope you get banned again….
LOL, Look at that idiot will ya! He can’t even spell “twit”
Paul Mate, That is evidence that Toyota is bad. Did you even go to that site it posted? Not likely!
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
My parents owns 2 VW’s, a Jetta and Passat. My father also owned the previous model Passat (b5) V6. What I must say is that yes the new VW’s are very good cars….great engines and the fit and finish is really up there. But the current generation of Passat’s is not nearly as well finished as his past (b5 model). The current car is well above average, but the previously model was exceptional. In his opinion the best car ever owned over his life which includes Volvo’s, BMW’s, Merc’s, Jag’s, Toyota’s and Holdens. Maybe it is the current economic environment, maybe they are trying to make a little more profit per vehicle or maybe increase competition. Having said that I think that VW has the ability to match and even exceed the whitegoods on wheels.
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Paul, you need a girlfriend! Is surveys the only thing you can come up with? But you gone now so when people who surf the net see you, they all look at you as a complete idiot!
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Wow……that was unexpected!!!! Paul came back!More to the point hes watching! I think Alborz would confirm from his email address…..does sound like him though!
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Its the real deal!
Please keep personal insults out of it, and please do not use other users name as it is easy for us to tell!
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
BM it was him because he used funny grammer in his post, looks like he can’t take the link I posted of ToyotaSux.com!
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
OKAY ALBORZ! Lets all foget about him.
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Hey Toyota Paul, was that you who posted yesterday as “Holden Sux Cars”?
It sounded like you complete with stats and all, think your post has been censored now.
So vulgar and stupid it was actually funny, I had a good laugh
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December 11th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
No Comment
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December 11th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Ok ……..It was his final post then,thanks for the confirmation Alborz!
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December 11th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Hey Momo, the idiot that said “Le Holden sux”! Can’t even speak english!
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December 11th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
‘Holden Sux Cars’ post has been removed…..
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December 11th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Hi Bavarian Missile. Goodness, what a flurry from Paul! Poor chap’s a broken record: surveysurveysurveysurveysurvey
I suspect he keeps lists as a hobby.
Anyway, my head is fried. been doing an online test about money laundering and stuff that took 3 times longer than the guide suggested. So annoyed!
I think I need a GT and no, not the Ford variety.
UP the Vee Dubs!
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December 11th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Had a couple of Toyota’s & was not overly impressed. Reliable - yes, entertaining - NO. The 8 Mits we’ve owned have all been as reliable, cheaper & entertaining. Would I back VW? No way - the German’s have tickets on themselves. They’re good engineers, but no better than many other nationalities. They have managed to feed us a brilliant bullshit line that they are the symbols of quality - the idea that made in Germany or designed in Germany somehow guarantees quality is bizarre. Would only buy a German car over a Japanese one if it offer vfm & equaled their quality, which is unlikely.
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December 11th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
hahahaha……..Golfschwein……Im still cracking up!!!!Thats better than wine!hahahaha
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December 11th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
The only way VW can overtake Toyota is if they drop their price of their vehicles and service cost. As I used to work for AAMI insurance I can assure you that VW cars are a lot of cases a few hundred more expensive because of their parts.
Hence I personally believe that Hyundai would have a better chance since their car prices are more in tune with the avg. consumer.
The only market where VW is very strong is China, and that is because they went into the Chinese market early.
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December 11th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
I do not believe that Toyotas are of any better quality generally than most other brands. Where Toyota excels as a corporation is that they address most quality problems that arise from time to time with their product promptly and efficiently before any damage to reputation occurs.
On the other hand most other manufactures fail to address these types of issues with owners and this destroys brand loyalty over time and these lost customers are impossible to win back.
Toyota management are switched on and the others aren’t.
Doubt if VW can make this ground up in this time frame.
Hyundai will successfully emulate Toyota reputation if they continue to offer industry best warranty and keep on top of any quality issues,recalls etc as Toyota has.
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December 11th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
I reckon Toyota will continue to move upmarket in the future now having the resources to indulge in manufacturing vehicles with more flair and character and bigger margins while Hyundai will possibly fill Toyota shoes at the lower end of the market beating Toyota on price in this segment into the future.
I can see a lot of manufacturers being squeezed out.
Manufacturers need to start taking care of their customers if they want to survive.
Taking your car back several times for a warranty complaint/fault and to be frustrated in this manner is no longer acceptable and consumers are looking for a long warranty and exceptional after sales service. Most people accept that things sometimes go wrong and are forgiving if the issue is acknowledged and resolved the first time.
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December 11th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Agreed, you couldn’t underestimate Hyundai in the long term.
All makers have their issues, Kimmie.
As I noted in the Micra post today, it’s Summer Time! Yaaay! Lots of Camrys parked on the side of the road with their bonnets up. Bye-bye, Head Gasket, it was nice knowin’ ya.
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December 12th, 2007 at 1:42 am
thing with reliability is that you dont need to issue statements to say that you are improving quality. just do it now and get your reputation in the long run.
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December 12th, 2007 at 9:37 am
My main peeve with VW (here in Aus at least) is their price, especially their options list which is BMW like in it’s price. It’s especially annoying when applied to the South African sources VW’s.
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December 12th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Ebf im over here in UK right now and an average M3 is around 20k cheaper than in OZ.
We also get the crappy examples in OZ because the Germans see Australia as a niche market compared to USA or EU.
Alfa Romeo on the other hand sends their best to Australia because its a market theyre trying to improve on. I get these facts from manager at city RD BMW, and my cousin who works for FIAT in Turin.
The Golf GTI is made in Italy so its better than the standard Golf.
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December 12th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
BigT -v- vw
Better looking vw\’s, ok some [very few actually]
Better built vw’s, it will not happen, Mexico, South-Africa, China built rubbish IS worse quality than Aussie built Toyotas, LIGHTYEARS behicnd the Japper built stuff.
Make more $$ than BigT, it will NEVER happen full stop.
BigT are to strong in big markets like USA, Japan, and growing in Europe at a alarming rate [inc. germany]vw is dreaming…..
Cheers
F-0
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December 12th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I have to agree with Ebf, for a “peoples car” VW in Australia certainly have positioned themselves more toward the luxury end of the market in terms of pricing. The only reason they can get away with this is because of the perceived superiority of German engineering here. Unfortunately for the Germans, although they are innovative, their engineering is not better then anyone else’s and in some cases worse.
You also have to remember that they want to be where Toyota are now, 10 years from now. I’m pretty sure Toyota won’t sit back and relax for the next 10 years.
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December 14th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
If Jutta Dierks (current VW Group Aust. Boss) gets her way VW will import a cheap VW (hint hint Gol NF [Yaris/Jazz size and price]) which will either be produced in one factory to be built in either Indonesia or Thailand (which is my hot pick).
20 Models are easy to pick some are variants of refreshed or new models :p
NSF (up! cars)
NF Gol/Saveiro/Parati/NF Sedan
Golf VI
Jetta VI
Polo Cabriolet
Polo Van like Roomster
Polo Crossover like Skoda’s Yeti
Touran II
Sharan II
Tiguan
Scirocco (and I bet a Roadster version too)
RPU (HiLux/Navara competitor) with a Pathfinder variant possiblity.
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December 25th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Paul you saying this post is fulse because you know a servey. You don’t know what this post is about, it’s “TO BEAT TOYOTA WITH QUALITY & BEAUTY” Not “ALLREADY HAVE BEATEN TOYOTA” …Read first before you go mental, Sorry!
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December 26th, 2007 at 7:44 am
OZ….spot on cobber! Laughing My Arse Off heaps….is it that dill called TOYOTA PAUL plugging his beloved with utter crap. We should all chip in and drop him off at the street lights one night at a crowded area - we better make sure he goes all the way as might come good! We will leave him with his wallet in one hand and Toyota bible in the other……..and utterings of they all pick on me!
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January 2nd, 2008 at 12:52 am
10 years to beat toyota is unfeasible. even though i am a VW fan, more specifically audi, i do not beleive that is possible. once u announced it, then toyota will set out to become even more dominating.
Vw’s products are not streamlined enough and they have alot of brands.
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January 19th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
The facts are:
volkswagen are trying to catch up to toyota’s reliability and profitability, toyota is trying to catchup to volkswagen’s design, drivability and perhaps desirability.
In a sustainability view point i hope both manufacturers will be using the best possible environmental ethics while trying to dominate the auto industry.
By the way, chinese buy more volkswagens over toyotas because they generally still prefer not to buy japanese stuff because of dark historical rivalry, which is ironically quite the opposite in australia, considering australia’s dark past in WW2 with japan, maybe us auzys get over things more quickly or something. By the way, in auz toyota brainwash’s people with advertising everywhere, they are very determined to convince us we should buy a new toyota every three years, that equals mass consumerism, that equals arrogance and taking things for granted!
Sorry to seem like a hysterical hippy but they are the facts, like it or not!
Post script, i personally think honda or even mazda have a better chance at catching up to toyota in the a to b vehicle category, because that is the category volkswagen should be counting. Even i think that and i myself own a newish volkswagen and not a honda or mazda. I think volkswagen should firstly try to catchup to the benchmark honda in terms of fit and finnish and reliability before even thinking of catching up to toyota.
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January 26th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Volkswagen is still cooler than Toyota I would say.Toyota is such a conformist car.Buying a Toyota means you have no soul.Lifeless boring lame cars.Volkswagen for some reason even if they aren’t as reliable as a Toyota I still rather buy one.Volkswagen has that modern contemporary style and design that Toyota doesn’t have.Then again on Top Gear James always says everything German is “modern” and “contemporary”.
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May 2nd, 2008 at 12:18 am
VW will get Toyota’s spot only when their cost comes down and they stop having w@nker dealerships. I walked into one to get a GTI and I was given nothing but Redbull class bull and a ripped off price. Only an experienced dealer showed up later AFTER i walked out into a Ford Mondeo. Thats a lot but way too late.
I can take the wanky dealers but not when the price is ridiculous for what is essentially a hatch.
For the record, they wanted 55,000 for a Red GTI with leather and sunroof which will come in 4 months. No freaking way mate.
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May 27th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Neo Utopia -
nice summary first paragraph dude, the mk5 golf’s design & drivability is admirable (that’s why i got one). If toyota makes a comparable drive, i will switch.
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May 27th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Andy -
It is true, all dealers despite brand can be wanky, Salesman tired, sick of tyre kickers. The best dealer is one who will stay back after hours (till 7pm) to sell me a car.
I hope all car makers learn quickly that service standards must be kept high to get those sales. Even if the customer has an unshaven face, daggy jeans and sneakers (as i do).
The Tiguan arrives soon : )
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May 27th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Last one, sorry guys : )
Johno -
I agree, some cars are just cooler, despite power/prestige/build.
RAV4 > Touran/Sharan
GTI > Camry
etc..
The winner will be the one with the cooler, more enjoyable/drivable car.
(P.S. i’m the one in the blue mk1 golf cabriolet on Sundays > toyotas)
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