From a news release today:
"Prices... .start at £29,465 for the Touareg 2.5 TDI manual and....the 5.0 V10 TDI comes in at £57,535 in Altitude trim."
What can you add to a basic car to justify an extra 95% price tag?
p.s. not VW bashing - there are plenty of other examples - see Mini, for example
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2.5 litres and four cylinders. Not to mention the Altitude trim.
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"Not to mention the Altitude trim."
You mean it's got a little wheel you can turn/set so it maintains altitude" - my god the Germans are getting clever. We had such a wheel on the Chipmunk....
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Old joke, how do you double the value of a Skoda
- put a gallon of petrol in it.
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Sounds like Attitude trim to me...
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2.5 litres and four cylinders. Not to mention the Altitude trim.
True, but still not worth a 28 Grand increase!
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"What can you add to a basic car to justify an extra 95% price tag?"
PROFIT.
There's only one law of economics - the right price is what some other poor sap will pay. Punters will pay extra for 'extras' even though they don't cost that much extra. The Touareg is a good example - the 2.5 TDI is a good engine which will do - particularly in this country - most of what the 5.0 will do. But there's one born every minute, and if they couldn't sell a 5.0 at that price they wouldn't try.
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I don't know why anyone would pay even £25k for one of these.
A friend has one, loads of interior rattles, chews tyres and had to have a new engine after less than 2 years due to a "porous block" (replaced very quietly and without fuss - obviously a known problem)
Got to be a top depreciator.
IMHO, the cheapest car in the range is normally the best value - an increase of engine size from say 1.4 to 1.6 must cost zilch to the manufacturer, but often costs a couple of grand extra.
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DSF motoring programm pitted one of these 5.0 litre monsters against a Cit C1 from Munich to koln they had to stick to all driving speed limits ,the VW came first by only ten minutes defidit side s it cost 130 euros more in fuel plus side of course a much more relaxed drive .
Just a point extras are available on top of that top trim level.
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IMHO, the cheapest car in the range is normally the best value - an increase of engine size from say 1.4 to 1.6 must cost zilch to the manufacturer, but often costs a couple of grand extra.
One of the best example of a manufacturer acting the this is renault. In the Clio they offer 3 diffrent 1.5 litre diesels, of 65, 88 and 106 HP. I wonder if the engines are acturally any diffrent? I suspect it's all down to the diffrent ECU's the use to tune the engine. How much extra would it cost to produce the ECU for the 106hp compaired to the 65hp? If prices were based on cost the answer would be about £1,750 according to the Renault website.
Of course the cars may have diffrent types of clutches and gearboxes etc - but still.
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Torque means nothing without RPM
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The Clio 106 has a dual vane turbo and an intercooler. It also has a six speed gearbox.
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"Prices... .start at £29,465 for the Touareg 2.5 TDI manual and....the 5.0 V10 TDI comes in at £57,535 in Altitude trim." What can you add to a basic car to justify an extra 95% price tag?
It's probably mainly because manufacturing costs are inversely proportional to the quantity produced. There'll be lots of 2.5 litre versions made but relatively few 5.0 litre versions.
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L\'escargot.
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