It's pretty sad. We bought my wife's Beetle new in 2012, which was (and has been) a great car. Had good feature content and build quality for the money at the time. We were at the VW dealer recently, and the 2016 Beetle is virtually identical, sans replacement of the trusty old 2.5 with the 1.8T. Feature-wise, it's the exact same car, sans carplay. Same seats, same stereos, same options. In the Beetle's defense, it hasn't had a facelift yet and I know they will probably run this thing 12 years, but I would still expect some better/new options by the 5th year of the run. Just made us feel that much better about the '12, I guess.
The problem with VW is that at the start of the decade they thought everyone wanted big and cheap (which to a degree, they were right - so many Walmart-venturing Americans want the biggest piece of **** for the cheapest price) - but the problem is, those Walmart-venturing bottom feeders were never shopping VW anyway. A larger segment of the public actually decided they wanted more features and more content, and better build quality, and the rest of the manufacturers realized this. It may have taken a bailout or close to it for a few manufacturers to realize it, but it did light a fire under their ass to put out a great product, but what was VW doing in 2008-2009 during the bailout years to then think releasing a decontented Jetta and Passat a couple years later would go over well?
My biggest gripe with VW is that they are just terrible with facelifts and refreshes. You might get different bumpers, but other than that, you can forget it for the most part. The car they sell at the end of the model run is basically the exact same car they sold at the start of the model run, and it was maybe competitive for the first 1-3 years of the run. I mean, look at the Tiguan. VW has done next to nothing with it for the last 5 years, and not much at all over the entire 6-7 year lifespan in terms of tech or tangible features. Then I think of what Ford did with the Mustang between 2005-2014, which included new sheetmetal for literally every single body panel on the car except the roof skin in 2010, an enormous mechanical refresh in 2011 with the clean sheet 5.0 and 300+ hp V6s, introduction of the entire Brembo/Track Pack and all the suspension/brakes/goodies that goes with that, fine tuning of the solid rear axle and better tranny tuning, completely new interior as well in 2010 with much, much better materials, hi res full color multi function display with mycolor, ambient lighting, track apps, a glass roof option, better stereos, etc. Then if that wasn't enough, in 2013 the car got yet another major refresh where it gained all new front and rear designs and updated lower fascias, bixenons standard across the line, led running lights, full led taillights, led fog lights - i mean the list goes on, and that was just for the final two years of its life. Not to mention just happening to throw in that BOSS 302 and also doing a couple major GT500 refreshes, resulting in a 662 hp monster in the end. And they did all this development in the midst of the bailout years?
Maybe ford isn't the norm, but I don't think VW is either. Ford really seems to have busted their behinds to get people in the showroom, and it seems pretty evident they deserve to sell the cars that they do. VW meanwhile decontented everything and lies about what was arguably its best product, then even removes the ten cent USB port from the center console in the Tiguan. The Tiguan has always been criticized as overpriced, so in response in 2016 VW doesn't add content, or reduce the price of the existing offering, instead, they reshuffle the trim lines so that the previously top of the line R-line which contained all the top of the line features as well as the sporty R-line bits is now the second crappiest trim, and the top of the line is now the SEL. Well yeah it's $2k-$3k cheaper, but it's decontented accordingly as it no longer has any of the sporty R-line bits. So it isn't any cheaper, it's still just decontented.
Don't get me wrong, I love VW and am looking hard at a CC R-line Executive w/Carbon next spring, but even without the diesel scandal it seems like they just don't get it. Then again I was a fool and bought a top of the line '13 Jetta SEL w/Nav, which I got rid of after a year because I couldn't stand the digital-clock-quality black and white MFI with the crappy digital fuel gauge or the fact the car rattled like a mother after a year. Thought by buying top of the line I was avoiding most of the decontenting that had been done to the Jetta, and to a degree I was, but there was a lot of decontenting where your eyes couldn't see as well that was only apparent after living with the car for a bit. The Mustang has felt world-class after that.
