Detroit Auto Show: VW looks to convertible beetle, SUV for sales boost

DETROIT Jan 6, 2003; David Runk writing for the AP reported that Volkswagen AG is looking to its new convertible Beetle and its first entry into the sport utility vehicle market to reinvigorate sales.

The company hopes to sell about 30,000 of its Touareg SUVs in its first year of production. Priced starting at $34,900 for the V-6 and $40,700 for the V-8, the Touareg blends the sleekness of a sedan with the ruggedness of an SUV.

"The Touareg redefines the limits of mobility and stretches the limits of freedom," VW board member Jens Neumann told reporters Monday at the North American International Auto Show. "It rewrites the story of what SUVs should be all about."

The 2003 New Beetle convertible features the same rounded looks as its hardtop siblings and uses the same four-cylinder engines, but with a fabric roof.

Volkswagen has sold about 600,000 New Beetle sedans worldwide since its introduction five year ago, including nearly 400,000 in the United States since the car's 1998 North American launch.

The Beetle convertible comes in the same model year that the Cabrio is discontinued.

The introductions were made as Volkswagen discussed its slightly lower U.S. sales in 2002 than in the previous year. But VW officials say they will not rely on incentives, since they say incentives threaten the long-term health of the brand.

The company sold about 338,100 vehicles in the United States last year, compared with 355,600 in 2001.

But Gerd Klauss, president and chief executive of VW of America and Canada, said the company held its 4.1 percent market share and still had its third-best sales year since 1973.

"In my nearly 30 years in the automotive world here in North America and in Europe, I have never seen such aggressive, highly competitive and incentive dominated market environment," Klauss said. "Despite this ... the strength of the VW brand is intact."