New Pricelist, Effective 01/05/2020

[Ima]

His car is the GT sport with 180 ps engine and 18” wheels which is why I was expecting more from the performance of the engine. I have a 1.8 Leon with 184ps and it’s much faster and has much more torque as it’s a turbo. Wife’s is 150 and the low down torque again makes it feel more responsive than the Mazda. Nice interior and wind noise on par with the Leon so fine for me. Ride sporty and generally seemed fine except when we went on some really poor roads near our work and it was a bit more jiggly than the Leon but nothing I couldn’t have lived with as I prefer sports suspension. I imagine if you are looking at a smaller wheeled version then refinement and comfort would be a fine and a smooth ride. It was a good car, just not for me as I like having accessible and plentiful torque Which it couldn’t provide without ringing it’s neck to get there. Mind you the gearbox was very good to use. Overall its a nice car and he loves it.

[monkeyhanger]

^ Just goes to show that headline power means nothing on its own.

Back in 2007, my 170TDI Golf GT Sport would comfortably match my mate's 200ps naturally aspirated Civic Type R on the flat and spank it on an uphill slip road.

The difference between my 2018 (non-GPF) GTI+ and my wife's 2019 model is noticeable and significant. Both are "200ps" car with probably 210ps. The 2018s seem to be generating 370Nm of torque at stock, with the 2019 model putting out 340Nm. These figures are based on "before" figures seen on various remap dynos.

[Ima]

Absolutely headline power is nothing without the torque to match. The civic is a good example. I had the 1.8 140ps Vtec type s petrol and needed to get to 5000 rpm before anything moved whereas the same car with same 140 ps but diesel left it for dead and matched much faster cars of the time as well as the type R. Some people enjoy ebbing a car all the time but it’s too tiring for me!

[lancslad1985]

I went on the vw site today and the gti models are no longer on the configurator for the polo. Just match, beats SEL and R line.

[SRGTD]

I went on the vw site today and the gti models are no longer on the configurator for the polo. Just match, beats SEL and R line.

The GTI models have been removed from the configurator on previous occasions - usually when there’s a backlog of orders waiting to be built. Maybe VW UK don’t want to take any more orders for the GTI/GTI+ until the factory gets back to full capacity following the temporary 4-5 week lockdown closure, or maybe they’re updating the GTI/GTI+ spec on the configurator for 2021 model year cars. Historically, production of the next year’s model year changes go into production in week 22 which is this week, so it’ll be interesting to see if there are any small ‘tweaks’ to GTI/GTI+ spec when those models are back on the configurator - if there were any 2021 spec changes, I’d have expected them to be in the 01/05/2020 price list.

[Ima]

Indeed how strange. I wonder what that means for those of us waiting for a build date on our orders. I still have no build date I’m starting to fear an enormous delay now. Originally June but I wonder if it’s going to happen this year.

I know the up gti kept disappearing from the configurator as demand outstripped supply so likely orders stopped due to capacity issues.

[monkeyhanger]

Indeed how strange. I wonder what that means for those of us waiting for a build date on our orders. I still have no build date I’m starting to fear an enormous delay now. Originally June but I wonder if it’s going to happen this year.

Yours will be in a queue to get an allocated build date as VW accepted your order. If GTI is vack on the configuration in a few days, blame a website update, if not, it could be a shortage of VW specific parts from a plant in shutdown due to COVID-19 lockdown.

If other models which have a slightly detuned version of the Polo GTI's engine are still on the configuration then its not engine production - Tiguan, Arteon and (I think) Passat use it in about 185ps output.

It could be unavailability of the DQ250 6 speed DSG box, most other higher powered VAGs are now using the 7 speed wet clutch box. Or perhaps some trim type equipment is unavailable e.g GTI sterring wheel, seat coverings etc?

[OomStu_ZA]

The price increase took effect here in SA during lockdown as well with the previous list price of R398000.00 (16900 Pound) now upped to R401000.00 (17409 Pound) pre options ticked in the online configurator.

We only have one Polo GTI model in SA and with all options ticked except NAV its approx. R80000.00 (3400 Pound) extra totalling R481000.00 (20450 Pound) based on the new list price.

And the price has increased yet again to R411900.00 - not sure how they plan to sell vehicles after lockdown if they keep increasing the price.

[monkeyhanger]

The price increase took effect here in SA during lockdown as well with the previous list price of R398000.00 (16900 Pound) now upped to R401000.00 (17409 Pound) pre options ticked in the online configurator.

We only have one Polo GTI model in SA and with all options ticked except NAV its approx. R80000.00 (3400 Pound) extra totalling R481000.00 (20450 Pound) based on the new list price.

And the price has increased yet again to R411900.00 - not sure how they plan to sell vehicles after lockdown if they keep increasing the price.

The solution is obviously to go and work for VW...their employees must be getting fantastic pay rises off those price increases!

[SRGTD]

The price increase took effect here in SA during lockdown as well with the previous list price of R398000.00 (16900 Pound) now upped to R401000.00 (17409 Pound) pre options ticked in the online configurator.

We only have one Polo GTI model in SA and with all options ticked except NAV its approx. R80000.00 (3400 Pound) extra totalling R481000.00 (20450 Pound) based on the new list price.

And the price has increased yet again to R411900.00 - not sure how they plan to sell vehicles after lockdown if they keep increasing the price.

Those two recent price increases amount to a 3.49% overall price increase on the R398,000 price to R411,900. If it’s any consolation, the May price increase in the UK was 4.4%.

If much of the world’s economy is in - or entering - a recession as a result of COVID-19, VW are probably anticipating selling fewer vehicles, so they may be trying to maximise the profit per car on the cars they do sell. They’ll have large volumes of data on customer sensitivity to price increases and will no doubt have modelled the impact on projected sales volumes from increasing the price by a certain amount before actually increasing the price. There’s no guarantee their theoretical modelling will reflect reality though, and increasing prices by 3.5% - 4.4% might have a bigger impact on sales volumes in the current economic climate than VW expect it to . No doubt, time will tell...............

[OomStu_ZA]

I've always wondered at what point does the manufacturer break even and start making clean profit.

Let say the life span of the AW Polo is 10 years, at what point will VW have "made back their R&D money"? By the time they sell the 50000th vehichle is sold for arguments sake? Yes, I'm aware there are costs that continue to change (steel/materials/labour etc) but at some point they break even and make more profit.

[SRGTD]

Yes, it would be interesting to know what the break even point is, and the amount of profit generated for a particular model of car over its entire lifecycle. I dare say the calculations would be quite a complex, involving many factors; some obvious ones and some not so obvious.

Something we’ll never know though, unless we know someone who works in VW’s Finance / Pricing division who’d be prepared to share that information, which (quite rightly) they wouldn’t do. VW employees working in financial roles no doubt have to sign a non disclosure / confidentiality agreement as part of their employment contact.

[stuartrendall]

Not sure of how much relevance this stat will be but I worked at Toyota for a while who have the highest productivity rate of any car manufacturer and per car the price to make the car was under £1000 including labour, materials and running cost. An unpainted bumper cost only 13pence to manufacture also. The profit from after vehicle sales is extremely lucrative for vehicle manufacturers. Obviously the final price also depends on R&D costs, tax and the dealers cut but would be interesting to see where they break even in a vehicles life cycle.

[monkeyhanger]

Not sure of how much relevance this stat will be but I worked at Toyota for a while who have the highest productivity rate of any car manufacturer and per car the price to make the car was under £1000 including labour, materials and running cost. An unpainted bumper cost only 13pence to manufacture also. The profit from after vehicle sales is extremely lucrative for vehicle manufacturers. Obviously the final price also depends on R&D costs, tax and the dealers cut but would be interesting to see where they break even in a vehicles life cycle.

£1000? I find that extremely hard to believe. 25 years ago I worked at the Ford Transit van plant and they used to post the true cost of building a Transit van on the productivity stats boards - it was about £6500 back then. That did make inclusions for R&D and warranty.

I think you'll find the overall manufacturing cost of most cars to be around 40% of UK RRP for UK spec. They can make them cheaper for other markets by cutting down on tech, putting a less advanced engine in that's already paid off its R&D, steel wheels etc.. They then sell on to the distributor for your region (in this case VW UK for us Brits) who foot the bill for local marketing, warranty and transport. They still need to make a profit. If VW GmbH make more than 50% profit from each car, i'd be amazed.

There's no way in the world an unpainted Toyota bumper costs them 13p. The crude oil needed for one bumper before it is even refined, polymerised and used to make the plastics will cost more than that. Moulding tooling to make those bumpers and maintainance of said tooling, as well as doesn't come cheap and it's an energy intensive process. £15 at the bottom end I could just about believe.

[lancslad1985]

The other interesting point is the Arteon is now stock only like the golf mk7. This could be due to a factory closure or maybe canning it as per the CC before it. The Arteon is a lovely car, but it’s basically an Audi A5 for similar money. I like VWs, but they’re not what I’d class as a premium brand compared to Merc, BMW, Audi, Lexus, etc.