Normally, when I’m at the gym, I read auto magazines, but even I have to occasionally indulge my lust for clothes, shoes, and makeup. So, one afternoon while I was flipping through a fashion magazine, I came across one of those ads: the stiffer, glossy paper that tends to hold the pages open on the treadmill's magazine shelf and annoy me.

What was this? I thought. I tried to flip past, but the colors caught my eye. I realized that the ad, entitled Force of Good, contained trading cards of New Beetle drivers. Was I supposed to... Full Feature

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Long Gone- 81 Rabbit, 85 GTI, 94 Golf, 84 GTI, 84 GTI Cab, 00 Golf TDI, 90 GTI

The beetle owners seem to be separate from the rest of the VW pack. I always feel like VW has two sides to their marketing: the stuff directed towards beetle owners and the stuff for everyone else (well, now "fast" is going after the younger, more enthiast GLI/GTI crowd). It's hard to explain. Does this make sense to anyone else?

It transfers into other people's perceptions of VW's, too. There are two kinds of non-VW drivers. The kind that hear's the word VW and immediately thinks to himself "the quirky german cars that aren't for me" and the nonVW driver who here's the word "VW" and immediately thinks "VW=the beetle. They make other cars?"

For ages the only VW's represenmted in the toy aisle were barbie's beetle...eventually the cabrio. Lots of people still think the beetle epitomizes VW, but I really don't think it does...not anymore. ok, i'm ranting. it's time to go home. does any of this make sense?

Modified by gravitymachine at 3:47 PM 2-10-2006

Clean 1997 Jetta GLX for sale: [url=http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4322953[/url]

Vermont represent

DubsNorth [home]

EUROPRICE [European Audi parts FTW]

Quote, originally posted by handlestolen »

welcome to Vortex, where everybody dates supermodels, drives perfectly, never makes mistakes, and has no sympathy for anyone who isnt related to them.

wrt Beetle vs. non Beetle people - yes, VW is full of cliques. air vs water, gti-only, corrado people, pre-58 beetle only people, etc, etc.

Seems sometimes there aren't too many of us left who love all VWs.

Tom
98 GTI
00 Bug

They've done a service to the owners and given a glimpse into "our" world of sorts, and course I would want a card of my very own, but The General Lo' is worth less than the magazine paper stock...

No they don't.

http://www.forceofgood.com/

Quote, originally posted by Loshambo »

The force of Good marketing ties in with the lame poop they put in the "Driver" magazine VW sends out to their recent buyers. OH yeah, reading about Bob who owns a Jetta and goes kayaking on the weekends, or Betty who plants flowers and grooms dogs a la Martha Stewart Living (fictional examples) really gets me pumped up about owning or think about owning a new VW. VW should start doing articles and commercials based on the girls and guys that drive their immaculately maintained VWs long distances to VW shows. That enthusiasm is infectious.. not "Betty" or "Bob" who use their 'Dubs as appliances.

I do agree that the driver magazine can be a bit corny. But, on the other hand, you have to remember that those stories are made to connect to a broad market. Someone above mentioned that a lot of new VW owners "have no idea what it's like to be connected to a car manufacturer like us." So these are easing them in, showing them stories about real people they can relate to and what they do. I think it's kind of neat that they simply feature people and what they do. And if you notice, the fact that they drive a VW takes a back-seat (no pun intended) in the article.

However, I 100% agree that the magazine needs to include more talk about the tuner/performance/show crowd. By trying to be appealing to a broad audience, they are alienating the smaller niche crowds that really love the cars. It would be nice to feature people who put thousands of dollars into their car and go show it. I would love to see a multipage on TREFFEN or Waterfest in the next issue with photos galore. Give people a glimpse of how crazy you can really get with your VW. That's what the magazine is missing.

Modified by gravitymachine at 6:48 AM 2-11-2006

Clean 1997 Jetta GLX for sale: [url=http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4322953[/url]

FS: Schecter Guitar and 32 snowboard boots. Clicky.

someone had to post it

edit - someone who goes out of the way to spell their name wrong is an idiot.

BTW, good article, I love these opinions/editorials!

DCC - Detroit Corrado Club
"Like dogs, Corrados are social catalysts that attract a superior category of people."

Actually, yes, we're all quite busy. George currently has his hands full running Fourtitude.com and SwedeSpeed.com, and I've been dedicating more of my time to mwerks.com. Brad left us in the fall and Chuck keeps the company running behind the scenes (besides, he doesn't like to write, and you might not like his opinions ). That leaves Jamie, who will be chiming in once again topics of significance to VW enthusiasts, as soon as he gets done with his upcoming marathon travel schedule.

We haven't forgotten about the opinion pieces, they've jiust been on hiatus. Besides, we weren't sure anyone cared.

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Long Gone- 81 Rabbit, 85 GTI, 94 Golf, 84 GTI, 84 GTI Cab, 00 Golf TDI, 90 GTI

Quote, originally posted by riceburner »

"BAAHAA!!!! I just spent two pages of a NB thread explaining that to a bunch of VW 'vert psychos."

Quote, originally posted by VarianceVQ »

"Haven't you seen Top Gear? Beetles are sinister, evil MFers."

- Back in the late 70s, VW "americanized" the Rabbit (the car the rest of the world called the Golf). Not so good.

- If you look at VW brochures from the 50s, they were very well done - and the European and US brochures were the same, just translated. This started to change in the 60s and now were're at the point were the latest US Beetle brochure (for example) contains almost no technical information - just fluff and in my opinion, sillyness. The European Beetle brochure is better made with better photography and more substantial information. Its like VW thinks their European customers are more intelligent and sophisticated than the American car buyer - hopefully not really the case

Don't get me wrong - the US and European markets are definitely different as evidenced by the respective popularity of the Jetta (US) and Golf (Europe). But I wish VW wouldn't give us dumbed down products, or dumbed down marketing.

And as to VW's recent comments that they don't have the right product mix for the US market, this clearly shows they don't understand the problem. The reason VW has slipped against the competition over the last few years is that you can't swing a dead cat and not hit someone who's had a terrible experience with a Mk4 VW or a VW dealer. VW's product quality (mostly component quality, not overall design) and dealer quality are the reasons they are hurting, not because the US consumer wants yet another "americanized" VW.

Tom
98 GTI
00 Bug