GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: Gung-Ho on 10 May 2013, 00:29
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Or will GTi sales continue to tumble?
Its apparent that GTi sales are a far cry from the glory days of the Mk4 which sold over 17,000 units in 1999. But over the years GTi sales have declined due to stiffer competition from both outside & inside the VAG group... coupled with the fact that hot hatches are nowadays less desirable.
Even when travelling around, I rarely ever pass another GTi coming the other way. Will the new Mk7 buck the trend or has the GTi become too expensive & appeal only to a 'niche' market?
http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=27208
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The glowing reviews are reminiscent of the mk5 launch. However the ordering mess is more reminiscent of the mk6 era so VW don't seem to have moved on there.
But hot hatch sales depend an awful lot on fads. Right now the fad seems to be white Nissan and Kia pseudo 4x4s and surprisingly the pig ugly Juke seems to be a massive seller. My stepmum has just traded my dad's Jetta in for one.
Having been around GTIs since the 80s myself (on and off but mostly on) I can very much remember the rise and declines in sales during various stages of model production.
All it will take is something like Top Gear doing a rave review to see orders go through the roof. Which will be a problem for VW and its very limited supply.
Good news for owners as the second hand values will climb again very suddenly.
In the mid 90s GTI sales were dead in the water until Top Gear did a 'used car test' on mk2 Golfs. I'd recently sold my much loved black big bumper GTI and suddenly saw its value go up over £1000 in a week and prices kept climbing. Not that it was any consolation to me having just sold mine!!!
I can remember in the late 80s that about 20% of all Golf production were GTIs, the UK being an especially big market.
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Do VW want to make the GTD and GTI in large numbers? They certainly could if they wanted to, and getting a GTD makes you no worse off than getting a GT150 if you are financing the depreciation via solutions. Are they trying to make GTIs coveted items again by strictly keeping the supply of them low?
Maybe people are less inclined to get one with the general price of insurance these days (although if a quote for a MK6 GTD as a comparison for what I might get the MK7 insured for is anything to go by i'll be chuffed to bits at £236 a year, half of what I was paying for my Scirocco 2 years ago).
Some people still don't get that they can drive an expensive car relatively cheaply if the depreciation is low. My mate is gutted that he could've had a GTD for £80 a month less than the Alfa Giulietta JTD170 he's just got.
It does baffle me the number of Jukes I see around here (mainly in that metallic burgandy colour), but being 12 miles from the Nissan plant in Sunderland, i'm not sure whether the local populuation are supporting one of the biggest industrial employers in the area or whether the deals on them are so good right now. Ugly car with unreliable Renault tech under the skin, surely it is a recipe for disaster? Maybe a "faux x faux" doesn't have to look good to sell (someone should tell Audi that they've wasted their time making the "Q"s look so much better than most of the competition). Most people seem to be cutting back on their car spending - anyone wanting a premium badge on a budget is moving into an A1 where I live.
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As the reviewer in the Pistonheads article says VW has started to cannibalise itself. By bringing out the Golf R, Golf GTD, Scirocco 2.0 TSI and the Scirocco R these models have all chipped away at GTI sales. Add into the mix other hot hatchbacks like the Ford Focus ST, Vauxhall Astra VXR, Renault Megane Renaultsport, Mini Cooper Works and the BMW M135i it's no wonder sales figures are down for the Golf GTI.
It easy to forget but the likes of the A3, A-Class, 1 Series and Seat Leon weren't even a pipe dream when the Mk1, Mk2 and even Mk3 GTI's were in their pomp. Often copied never equalled eh.....
Bottoms line is there is far more competition out there now, lots more choice to temp people to spend their hard earned cash elsewhere. Also once you've thrown in a few options on a GTI its creeping towards £30k. Which if you pinch your self is a lot of money. This doesn't mean the GTI product is inferior, quite the opposite, it sounds like VW have tried really hard with the Mk7 and its getting rave reviews. Good luck to them, but, the market is looking very crowded.
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I just think hot hatches in general sell in much lower numbers these days, not particularly the GTI.
OT: My sister has had a Juke since release and full plans getting another in December when the 3yrs is up, she loves it and says everything else comparable is boring.
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Don't knock the Juke. We make the damn things!
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Here in Ireland, the MKV GTI was a huge success, they were absolutely everywhere around 2006-2008... but the launch of the MK6 coincided with both the dreaded recession and radical changes in our motor tax system, favouring low emission diesels.
So the MK6 GTI sold in tiny numbers here... you'd definitely see a lot more GTD's (still relatively few of those too) and Scirocco's but GTI's are as rare as hens teeth.
I think the MK7 will reverse this to some degree (lower emissions for starters) but it'll never sell in the same numbers as the MK5, nowhere near it.
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I must admit I never saw myself coming back to a golf. I went from a mk4 golf 1.6 to a mk5 GT and then on to a TT. Since being in a position to trade in I was thinking either S3 or BMW 3 series. Then the mk7 came on the scene, highlighted by a fellow member on the TT forum. Since then I became more and more tempted the more research I did. It just appears to be overall a great package. It's by no means the quickest hot hatch but it oozes quality where others just don't, Renault, Vauxhall etc.
I think this new mk7 may buck the trend of downward sales given the great reviews its been receiving
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I agree Craig. As much as I loved my previous GTI's I never thought I'd be buying another one. I was looking at a 5 series or an XF, then saw the new GTI and thought I'm too young for those I've got to have one more blast in a hatch! :laugh:
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Yes there's more competition and don't forget TDI sales...
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Its apparent that GTi sales are a far cry from the glory days of the Mk4 which sold over 17,000 units in 1999.
The MK4 GTI was a bit of a joke, "GTI" became a trim level - you had the choice of 3 engines: 2.0 Petrol with 115PS (same as the new FSI 1.6 out at the time), 125PS unturboed 1.8 petrol and 150PS turboed 1.8 petrol, before the decent 180PS 25th anniversary came out.
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Its apparent that GTi sales are a far cry from the glory days of the Mk4 which sold over 17,000 units in 1999.
The MK4 GTI was a bit of a joke, "GTI" became a trim level - you had the choice of 3 engines: 2.0 Petrol with 115PS (same as the new FSI 1.6 out at the time), 125PS unturboed 1.8 petrol and 150PS turboed 1.8 petrol, before the decent 180PS 25th anniversary came out.
I couldn't agree more. Without upsetting the Mk4 owners, the 4 was a real 'Dud'! Back then the GTi was more like a 'fashion accessory'... a 'must-have'.... a bit like an IPhone I suppose. I remember virtually every other neighbour on my street owning one.
Unfortunately times has changed & fashion has moved on. "Cross-overs" seem to be the new rage these days & pseudo 4x4's with high driving positions. My dealer even went so far as to say that the new GTi would probably account for less than 1% of new Golf sales in their particular dealership.
That's not a bad thing though. It's a bit like women & their outfits. No woman wants to be seen out at a party wearing the same frock as someone else!!! :grin:
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The less they sell, the better we'll all look! Having an 'exclusive' car is a good thing - nothing worse than seeing your car drive past you again and again and again :smiley:
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This is one of the reasons I go for the GTI/D. It's got a certain exclusivity factor, it's a fairly unique car on the roads... despite the fact that a lot of my mates will say - "but it's just another Golf???"
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Low numbers and desirability should keep the resale values high.
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Just out of curiosity, how many GTi/ GTD's do you expect VW to sell this year here in the UK?
I expect we represent only a small minority of GTi/D owners in the country, but there's what?....30 something orders on here ready.
As an 'educated guess' I would say a couple of hundred or would that be too optimistic?
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The question is therefore, how many VW dealerships are there in the UK - because they will be allocated (I'm guessing) one a month/every 2 months - which you would imagine they will sell - then we can work out how many cars there will be. I think it will be very rare to see one in the first 6 months at least.
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I think there are somewhere in the region of 400 VW dealerships in the UK, so maybe 3500 each of GTD/GTI in 2013 (assuming the bigger dealerships get 2 a month and half of them are big, and assuming there is a separate allocation for GTD and GTI of the same amount). 7500 per full year of each? When the Scirocco first came out and was strictly allocated, I was told about 8000 a year were being made for the UK.
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My dealer said they generally have a GTI allocation of around 8 or 9 cars a year.
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sounds about right then. well hopefully they'll sell less and then the only ones you'll see on the roads are ours! :laugh:
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Its apparent that GTi sales are a far cry from the glory days of the Mk4 which sold over 17,000 units in 1999.
The MK4 GTI was a bit of a joke, "GTI" became a trim level - you had the choice of 3 engines: 2.0 Petrol with 115PS (same as the new FSI 1.6 out at the time), 125PS unturboed 1.8 petrol and 150PS turboed 1.8 petrol, before the decent 180PS 25th anniversary came out.
I couldn't agree more. Without upsetting the Mk4 owners, the 4 was a real 'Dud'! Back then the GTi was more like a 'fashion accessory'... a 'must-have'.... a bit like an IPhone I suppose. I remember virtually every other neighbour on my street owning one.
Unfortunately times has changed & fashion has moved on. "Cross-overs" seem to be the new rage these days & pseudo 4x4's with high driving positions. My dealer even went so far as to say that the new GTi would probably account for less than 1% of new Golf sales in their particular dealership.
That's not a bad thing though. It's a bit like women & their outfits. No woman wants to be seen out at a party wearing the same frock as someone else!!! :grin:
I had 2 new PD150 Golf's which were amazing back in 2003. Nothing could match them for performance and running costs. I agree yes apart from the Anni's the rest were poor.
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My dealership said they had allocation of 8 cars for the launch of GTI & GTD, think I was the 5th at the end of April.
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Don't know how many my dealer (Warrington VW) had as an allocation (they are a very large dealer), but I know when I ordered my GTD on the 14th March, the brand manager told me I was his first retail customer for one, and the only other one they had placed on order was for the managing director !
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In addition to the other factors mentioned on here (increased competition etc.), I think you can trace the decline in hot hatch sales generally to the change to tax bands based on CO2 emissions, the huge rise in petrol prices and the enormous insurance premiums these days. I also think the price of premium hatchbacks (not just hot hatches) is now too close to the junior BMW / Audis - a Golf GT is £22,500, the cheapest 3 series is £23,000.
Having said that, the Mark VII may recover quite a few sales due to its low CO2 emissions & much better fuel economy.
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Don't know how many my dealer (Warrington VW) had as an allocation (they are a very large dealer), but I know when I ordered my GTD on the 14th March, the brand manager told me I was his first retail customer for one, and the only other one they had placed on order was for the managing director !
The order books didn't open till March 26th?
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This is all good cos by time I want to buy one in 3 years time no bugger will be buying them so I'll get a great discount!!!
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Don't know how many my dealer (Warrington VW) had as an allocation (they are a very large dealer), but I know when I ordered my GTD on the 14th March, the brand manager told me I was his first retail customer for one, and the only other one they had placed on order was for the managing director !
The order books didn't open till March 26th?
Just seeing if you were paying attention :laugh: :laugh:
I meant April 14th ! (Doh)
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Don't know how many my dealer (Warrington VW) had as an allocation (they are a very large dealer), but I know when I ordered my GTD on the 14th March, the brand manager told me I was his first retail customer for one, and the only other one they had placed on order was for the managing director !
The order books didn't open till March 26th?
Just seeing if you were paying attention :laugh: :laugh:
I meant April 14th ! (Doh)
Interesting... my GTD has been ordered at Warrington as well about a week ago. Hopefully this means that there isnt too much of a stampede around this area and we wont get too much of a delay :smiley: