What were the marketing gurus smoking whey thought of and priced these cars?

 

yikes... both were 50 percent or more undersold

even though the VW's percentage of error was more than 50%, it only got stuck with 3,000 overpriced cars. GM got stuck with 9 thousand of those poor b*stard cars!

 

A shame for both cars as they are both basically excellent vehicles when it comes down to it. The GTO just looks a bit too generic and the people have a hard time stomaching a $70+ VW, regardless of how good it actually is. Oh well, used car bargains for those in the know a couple of years from now.

 

You left one off: Chevy SSR (I know..it's technically a truck). They've sold 8,500 and have a 301 days worth of inventory stockpiled. It's so bad that Chevy is shipping them to dealers whether they order one or not.

 

I voted on the Goat. Though the car is generic, it was back in the day too, the Ventura was the Grand Am then, and the GTO looked and basically was a Ventura.Nowadays the GTO looks like a Grand Am but I think with its repuation it shoulda come out kickin and screamin, not like it was.

 

I voted for the v-dub (since the SSR wasn't included) because there was so much hype about VW getting into the luxury biz and it completely flopped. The GTO on the other hand is just another GM marketing failure. For that matter, so is the SSR!

 

The VW Phaeton because it weighs over 5,000 pounds and isn't what a VW should be.

 

Phaeton, what a crappy idea.

 

I voted for the GTO for the same reason. I always thought the goat had a good following. I guess I was wrong.

 

I voted for the GTO, because the VW basically was a Audi (either an A8 or A6 cant remember off the top of my head!) with some interior and exterior changes so if you take all of the sales of that chassis with both Audi and VW Im sure it still made money.

Where as GM decided to shoot itself in the foot by having a plain looking car out for ONE year before they changed it and added more power to it, given the exterior changes are not huge but anything would help it. So now they are stuck with all of these year old cars that no one wanted then and sure as heck would not want now because of the 05 upgrades!

 

Actually, Vdub, in one of the stupidest moes I have ever heard of, is not using an Audi A8 chassis.

They said it woudl push back production even further, so instead of the audis all alum chassis, They use a frame with steel and iron in it, that weighs 1000 lbs more.

Plus, they made a special glass factory just for the phaeton.

I'm sure it's a great car, but I'm not paying 80+ for a VW.

 

 

Exactly.

 

To top it off, I think the VW originally had designed a V6 in the Phaeton, but the US arm balked at the idea....and the price.

 

The SSR is the biggest loser of the year. Not only do they have a 300 day supply of them, but the car is GM's posterchild for their new revolution. It doesn't say much for the rest of the company when no one is buying the lead car.

 

With all it had going, I think that the biggest disappointment is the GTO. Pontiac and GM in general did a lot to push this car into production and thought it would sell well, but they failed at that. It comes to show that you're not going to sell a car like hot cakes, when it looks bland and uninspiring, even if it has a hot 'vette motor in it. For example, take the 05 GTO....still looks the same, except now it has dual ram air scoops and an Ls2, but still looks like a bloated Cavalier. GM...when will they ever learn?

 

While the GTO is a big flop, GM did not invest a lot of money into it as it was already based on an existing design.

VW invested tons of money into the Phaeton, thinking it would capture the market and bring VW upscale, IMO it is a collosal flop both financially and to the VW image.