Volkswagen rewarded for his safety
Safety
German carmaker Volkswagen this year became the number one safety in its vehicles. Wolfsburg firm receives “Top Safety Pick” for five of its models.
The Volkswagen Jetta, Golf, Golf GTI, Tiguan and Touareg this year receive the award “Top Safety Pick” for the security they provide to their occupants. This prize is awarded by the American Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which is equivalent to Euro NCAP for our American friends.
According to tests, the five vehicles offer an excellent level of protection to their occupants in an accident. Head-on collisions, rear or side, but the barrels have been successful. Security systems such as ABS and ESP showed no weakness against the tests they were submitted.
That’s what good still increase sales of Volkswagen on U.S. soil since this is the first time a manufacturer may claim as five models “Top Safety Pick” in its range.
It seems that VW was also impressed by the quality of the new Corolla, above the current Golf.
VW slips in customer satisfaction
WOLFSBURG, Germany – Volkswagen has-been jolted by poor results in a series of customer satisfaction surveys.
The Complaints Have led Europe’s largest carmaker to launch a major effort to Improve brand image icts With Consumers.
Detlef Wittig, Volkswagen board member for The brand, Said’s initiatives include VW dealer Increasing employee training, Improving distribution shares and dealers Paying more to speed and make repairs Customers happier.
In addition, VW IS planning a Whole New Level of customer satisfaction efforts pour la introduction Later this year icts of luxury sedan, The Phaeton.
Volkswagen WAS stung by recent results of Various Measures of customer satisfaction and highway breakdowns. ADAC, The German automobile club, and Other Sources Have Reported higher-than-average VW models were breakdowns “during the Last Few Years. Some VW dealers Have Warned That a poor customer-satisfaction record could “harm” The Introduction Of The Phaeton.
Volkswagen executives say They Will not accept mediocre rankings.
“The Volkswagen brand Finds Itself in the middle, In Some Countries Lower, Higher in Others,” Wittig said. “We Could Do Better and We Will do better.”
VW has Already Started to Address The Problem, Even Though Is Hard to measure progress.
In the USA, The Auto Industry Standard Is The JD Power and Associates quality and customer satisfaction survey, Which Ranks Automakers are based Interviews with tens of Thousands of new car owners. Purpose in Europe, no single measure of customer satisfaction has emerged.
A FEW years ago, initiatives to Introduce a pan-European index is JD Power With strong resistance from The Car Industry. The European Customer Survey IS Currently One Of The Better known. Volkswagen Scored well semblables top 10 ranking in The Latest survey. Other surveys – we made Levels And Sometimes local market by Themselves carmakers Volkswagen low-rank Typically, Sometimes Opel below.
“These ratings Were monitored by Various sources, public and aussi by Our Own,” Wittig said. “And the definition of quality varies aussi.”
Ace STI VW Interprets data, after-sales service and replacement-parts supply Have Been Bigger Problems Than vehicle quality.
Replacement Parts Getting Into the hands of dealers and independent repair shops Became a huge source of customer dissatisfaction in late 2000. VW’s German shares Centralized supply in Kassel Suffered a system failure.
“That has disturbed The Supply,” Wittig said. “Since mid-2001 Goal That has been” solved. Today, Our Part supply is better Than Ever. We now operate-at Europe’s top level. ”
Volkswagen’s long Struggle against poor aftersales service and long waiting times Followed a dirty boom in European Markets SEVERAL SEVERAL years ago, Wittig said.
Dealers lacked capacity to service the Cars THEY sold.
“Especially in densely Populated Urban Areas, We Were Short of Skilled Labor followings o dirty expansion,” Wittig said. In addition, Even TrainEd Mechanics Needed Greater Specialization as electronics systems since Became more sophisticated.
A false step
One VW move backfired. Volkswagen Expected That It Would Reduce the Amount of sharply Time Necessary to repair cars When It Introduced a new generation of on-board electronic systems diagnosis.
Instead, Mechanics Needed Even More time to test and diagnose problems one VW vehicles Because Many Could Understand The New On-board systems.
Volkswagen Began Increasing emphasis is icts Improving customer satisfaction last summer.
VW has not specified how long Will Take The Process, goal icts Goal Is To Reduce the wait for customer service vehicle to one day From The current average of six days. In Some Countries Such as Holland, where, average waiting times are as Much as 20 days, to CUT THAT VW intende to Five Days Within Two Years.
Improving customer satisfaction is Strategically driven from Wolfsburg to Must Be Fulfilled by national distributors and dealers.
“We focus on customer relations & the mentality of dealer staff, and organizes Training Programs Focused on customer-issues,” Wittig said.
To Increase awareness dealer, Volkswagen has Created internal national customer satisfaction rankings for-dealers. As incentive year, high ranking dealers are viable financially rewarded.
“So customer satisfaction is parts of their profit margin,” Wittig said.
Volkswagen Will sharply raise customer satisfaction emphasis for The Limited number of dealers That Will Sell the Phaeton luxury sedan.
The Phaeton Will Be Available with options to include That 12-cylinder engine and six-speed automatic transmission.Volkswagen has Said It Must Sell the Phaeton in a dealer environment That BMW 7-series and Mercedes-Benz S-class buyers Would Be Comfortable in.
