VW admits quality failings of MKV Golf
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اقتباس:
German car maker Volkswagen has admitted that the current Golf hasn’t live up to the company’s reputation for quality. By RICHARD BLACKBURN
Volkswagen has admitted that the current generation Golf missed the mark on quality and reliability.
The company’s executive vice president of sales, Detlef Wittig, says the company invited leading quality research company JD Power to be part of the development process of the new sixth-generation Golf in an attempt to iron out reliability and quality gremlins that plagued the previous model.
He admits the previous car suffered from an over-complicated design, which made it hard to build and prone to problems.
“In a sense the design of the Golf Mark V was rather complicated. It was designed by development engineers without taking into account the construction process,” he says.
“If you have a complicated build process then you are more vulnerable to [problems].”
Most of those engineers are no longer with the company.
Wittig claims the less complicated design of the new Golf will make it less prone to quality glitches.
Volkswagen has fared poorly in independent quality surveys and Wittig says the company is determined to regain its reputation for quality.
“We want to be at the top leading group [for quality]. We used to be in it and we have to return,” he says.
“Maybe we had too much focus on the engineering development side of things without taking into consideration the whole process.
The car maker also admits that the previous Golf was a backward step in interior cabin quality; a claim levelled by journalists at the launch of the fifth generation Golf but refuted at the time by the company.
“When we had the first presentation of the Golf V the journalists said the look and feel of the Golf V is inferior to the look and feel of the Golf IV and to a certain extent we were surprised because the whole construction was more costly than the previous car. But I guess it was right the initial impression was less than the Golf IV,” he says.
Volkswagen has spent considerable money on lifting the look of the interior and making the cabin quieter.
Some styling features, including brushed chrome accents on the dash and a higher quality, more durable leather less prone to scuffing and discolouring.
There is also a special sound-dampening film in the windscreen and re-designed side mirrors reduce wind noise.
“As far as the quality of the material and the material look and feel is concerned we are going back to Golf IV but beyond Golf IV,” he says.
Exterior designer Frank Josef Bruese says the company has lifted both its exterior and interior design in response to increased competition from upmarket brands including Mercedes, BMW and sister company Audi.
The luxury brands have signalled their intentions to compete on price with smaller, less expensive models aimed at taking sales away from brands such as Volkswagen, Renault and Peugeot
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