Volkswagen Reports Poor Sales in December

There's no wonder that automakers report very low sales in most markets, so today's piece of news telling you about poor sales brought by Volkswagen follows the same pessimistic trend. According to a statement sent to the press, Volkswagen of America delivered only 17,577 units in December 2008, raising the total number of vehicles sold in 2008 to 223,128. This means that December brought a 14.4 percent decrease when compared to the same month of the previous year while annual sales are down 3.2 percent.

Obviously, Volkswagen acknowledged that these disappointing numbers are mostly caused by the financial downturn and explained that the United States division has an enthusiastic plan to bring them among the top players in the industry.

"The auto industry in 2008 was one of the toughest we've seen in a long time," said Mark Barnes, Chief Operating Officer, Volkswagen of America, Inc. "Despite these economic conditions, 2008 was still a good year for Volkswagen. We relocated our North American headquarters to Herndon, VA. bringing us closer to our customers, we announced an all-new North American production facility will be built in Chattanooga, TN., and we launched an impressive five new vehicles that allowed Volkswagen to buck the economic downturn as our sales remained close to our 2007 totals. Volkswagen of America has a plan in place for a successful future here in the U.S."

Volkswagen Touareg had the biggest drop in sales among the whole Volkswagen lineup, with a 56.7 percent decrease in December sales when compared to December 2007. Eos comes in second with a decline of 55.8 percent followed by Rabbit and R32 with 53.4 and 50 percent, respectively. Passat Sedan remained one of the top Volkswagen models, with a decrease of 18.9 percent and 2,134 units delivered to United States customers.