It's all about what makes the most money. The Scambler is their biggest selling bike by a long way. It sells twice as many as the next best selling Ducati. With a massive sales increase of over 20% this year you can see why they think that selling fashionable bikes to people who want to be fashionable is the way forwards. Personally I prefer businesses with integrity who do what they do well and don't want world domination, just recognition for the good job that they do and enough money to be able to continue doing it. There seems to be a philosophy in business theses days that your company has to grow every year and make bigger profits every year. That is unsustainable. Why can't people be satisfied with what they've got. I remember an interview with the boss of BMW in the 1980s where he said that they didn't want more than 5% of the UK car market because it was not appropriate for the brand. They wanted to remain exclusive. I guess that idea went out the window.
BMW make about 2 million of the 90 million cars built worldwide per year. So I guess their ambitions to hit 5% went out of the window.
In 2013 BMW's share of the UK new car market was 5.88%. In 2014 it was 5.91%. From the interview I listened to it was not that their ambition was to reach 5% it was to remain below 5%.
If you scan the car sites like 'Honest John', you'll notice that most of the problems people complain about are VAG group products. They might be solidly (if unimaginatively) built, but they definitely aren't as reliable as their marketing suggests.
yip, they have managed to maintain that myth for a long time now. v.w group v.expensive for what they are while having a large parts cross over so if anything they should be considerably cheaper or inexpensive is the preferd term. i am deffo of the opinion that the vast majority of their vehicles are of no better quality than the average ford/vauxhall fiat whatever.
It's worth remembering that VW don't actually need the cash to keep rolling their corporate machine. They have a background bank fund of around Eu50bn, so they'd only need to start selling off their assets if these funds become depleted (i.e. if they continue to remain in their current shit for another 6-8 years) Ducati, like Bentley are doing pretty well, and with the intro of the scrambler, sales are on the up in a massive way, and so are profits I can't see them wanting to sell off something that's on the increase in value like the bikes or Bentley unless they can do it to help plead poverty to the Eu commission and anyone else that's likely to hit them with massive fines. VW have their fingers in plenty of less profitable companies, that they'd most likely flog off to raise money before selling Ducati, as their bean counters will know full well that what's worth circa Eu1.2-5bn now, could well be worth 2-3bn in a couple of years time Just think what the value of some of their less profitable (in terms of ratio to sales) companies are worth ; Lamborghini Bugatti Man Trucks Scania Flogging those off first would get them out a big hole for a long time
Absolutely agree. I own a 2005 VW and have to say that the build quality is not great. My car was built in a SEAT factory in Spain. It is no better than the equivalent SEAT or Skoda, but commands a higher price.
Same here Currently arguing with Audi over replacement front brake discs, which are squealing. Replacement pair is £6,400 before pads and labour costs !
Tell me this is a typo. Now if you had a Bugatti Veyron, I'd believe you. £6'400 for a couple of brake discs? You could get solid gold ones cheaper than that.
No, They're ceramic, so £6,400 for discs, £800 for pads and about £300 for labour ! Crazy, but true I'm afraid
R8 I reckon. £120-140k , I've got one I use to trundle up to the golf course. And then it gets me round 18 holes in just under 7 minutes. Some members don't like the tracks through the bunkers, though.
So replacing the front discs and pads costs 10% of the value of the entire car when new.. 'kin hell...:Inpain:
I've been tempted, but there just isn't any other decent sports estate cars available. I've tried a C63 estate, and it just wasn't for me I've fallen out with Audi over this one though, so not sure next car will be another RS4 when the next B9 Model arrives, and I cancelled my order for another Audi that I was going for as a weekend car A friend has a 911 Turbo, that has exactly the same discs as my car, and the replacement cost for his are circa £12k as it's a Porsche, so at least I can take some comfort in that. Although his were replaced under warranty. Audi used to be very good with warranty items, but they've tightened up in recent years
