VW Anticipates Fourth Quarter Sales Revival

Washington DC June 3, 2005; The AIADA newsletter reported that Europe’s largest automaker, Volkswagen AG said this week it expects sales in the U.S. to turnaround in the final quarter of the year when the upcoming Jetta and Passat models are introduced to the market, reports The Detroit Free Press.

The new Jetta will arrive in showrooms this month, followed by the Passat this fall. "We expect sales on the U.S. market to revive in the last quarter of 2005 as both volume models make inroads, without participating in large-scale incentive measures," said spokesman Hartwig Von Sass in an e-mailed statement. VW’s U.S. sales dropped 34 percent in May to 23,088 units. Sales of VW-brand cars and trucks fell 42 percent, while Audi-brand vehicles fell 6.1 percent.