Volkswagen Group sales fell for the first time in at least four and a half years in April, Reuters UK has reported. Group-wide deliveries dropped 1.3% year-on-year to 853,200 cars, as slowing momentum in China and a drop in Latin American sales outweighed gains in Europe.
According to company records checked by Reuters, the 12-brand group’s monthly sales have not fallen since December 2010. This April drop is said to reflect the 4.8% decline published earlier this week in core brand sales, which make up 60% of group deliveries.
“While we felt tailwinds in Western Europe and North America and could increase group deliveries strongly in some places, South America and Eastern Europe remain challenging, especially due to the market development in Russia,” Volkswagen sales chief Christian Klingler said in a statement.
Issues laid bare by the shock ouster of chairman Ferdinand Piech include low core brand profitability and low US-market performance – the latter attributed to a lack of models in lucrative crossover segments. China has been a steady group profit source, but demand there is slowing. CEO Martin Winterkorn has pledged to address these issues.
While regional sales figures for April weren’t revealed, the automaker said that deliveries in Brazil had slumped by 26.7% (at 200,400 vehicles) in the first four months of the year, while sales were up 0.2% (at 1.19 million units) in China. Earlier, the group had said that January-March sales in Brazil were down by 22.1% and up in China by 2%.
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DSG issues….that why….
– Poor aftersales support (Thanks to DRB)
– Wrong market campaign (Thanks to DRB)
– Wrong price tagged (Thanks to DRB)
– Mass production (Thanks to DRB)
But we Proton never fail in sales and marketing.
Proton top sales for years and never fail behind… After DRB we success more and DrM the best CEO !!! Others shut up !!!
Typical Sendiri Cakap Sendiri Syok.
Which Proton models sell the best? Saga!
Why people buying a lot of Saga? CHEAP!
And still its best sales… Iriz are best sales too.
You go back sell bra. and UMW cars were lousy expensive with no safety compare the Real Toyota cars.
saga car is just as safe as vios but half of its price :D
If Iriz sales so good why need RM8888k discount for 2014 stocks? Sendiri Cakap Sendiri Syok.
Saga as good as Vios? haha… You can keep on dreaming about that in your saga.
Still remember how many stars did Saga BLM get in ASEANCAP? 1 star.
Its not fair to blame DRB on all the shortfalls. I have a CBU Golf which is having a never ending problem and it is not assembled by DRB. After sales is also poor by the shitty FA Wagen who has nothing to do with DRB. Marketing campaign is again done by Volkswagen Group Malaysia, has nothing to do with DRB. Pricing structure was decided by VGM again in which DRB has no interest in. They are merely contracted for the assembly of VW products and has nothing to do with all the technical issues lingering VW product.
I am not here to back DRB up, but I feel sick when people simply bash without knowledge of actual fact.
very well said Sir…
Are you sure?
What about Audi? AG taken over the wheels from DRB after poor management of the brand.
Come on la… we are talking about VW Group globally,not VW Malaysia. Read carefully.
I guess you didn’t know much about automotive. DRB is only assembly for VW certain models. All marketing, after sales services, pricing strategy and production planning are all handle by VW Malaysia not DRB.
Same goes to Mercedes where CKD was assembly by DRB but all after sales services, marketing, pricing and production planning were handled by Mercedes Benz Malaysia.
And also this article is targeting global sales of VW group, not only Malaysia.
VGM is the one who decides all that not DRB. DRB is the contract assemblers only!!
Some of u who just talk about dsgs and all , u gotta know for every 10 dsg issue, there are other hundreds of happy owners… Whatever VW topic comes up, keyboard warriors will come out straight with their dsg this , dsg that… Time to get a life!!!
For those that not aware..
TSI engine failure for those cars produced in Wolfsburg, Germany. Where about quality control in home country?
Rip English
OH MY ENGLISH!!!
Their aggressive marketing campaign backed up with super lousy product quality is backfiring on the sales growth
no surprises here.
OMG comparing VW to Proton
Dont be fool by vw n their 5 years unlimited mileage warranty. Having known that their car is having a lot of problems, vw malaysia is really keen to have your warranty void. They will find 1001 ways to have your warranty claim rejected. Imagine having your dsg warranty claim rejected just because u came in for the schedule service with a mileage just a few KM over.
Lol I take it you dont own a VW. Speaking out of your ass here.
Joko, please service your car on time.
On your speedometer center screen, there is a reminder for you to service when you are within the last 1000km before scheduled 15000km service. It’s not like you are driving a toyota which require service every 5000km.
Thank you.
Not true. Mine exceed by 1k still i could claim mechatronic failure under warranty. Obviously u r not a vw owner.
This article is about VW group, And world wide. Comments about DSG, DRB, Proton?
They made it so public that they want to be the largest car producer in the world which means they only want to achieve sales, sales, sales until they overlook the DSG issues etc..I wonder how VW malaysia sales are this year..
So…from now on, buy any car that you want and love, no need to consider their background of services, warranty, claim, value…..at the end every brand are the same, no such brands are done to satisfy us. Sales consultant all rubbish after sales the car throw the responsibility of the car to service centre, anything happened with the car are totally no business with them, no connection at all with buyers and services department, make buyers like a fool.
So, just buy what you want and love!!!
Tons of DSG issues and other problems. They’re lucky they’re still selling this much.
what do you mean by tons of issues? Hv u ever own a vw before? Btw pls tell me that which car have never encounter any issue? I’m very curious about this GOD BUILD vehicle.
Did other manufacturers report similar falls?
Are you quietly working on all the issues, including technological and regional ones ?
Look at what happened to Nokia and learn from history, Mr Chairman & CEO.
Everyone knows why
Indeed, the China sales has been slow down and China economical report was positive but it should be GDP 8% above not below. New challenge for new chairman to take necessary measure to steer the company to a right direction, let hope VW Malaysia continue sale/marketing operating in Malaysia as ASIAN still in growth trend.
Also it means any foreign auto companies in China would suffer similar faith and lately largest China mobile business report slow growth. It could mean China auto companies going abroad in search of growth.