DER NEUE JETTA
Do you know what the best-selling German car in America is? No, not the BMW 3 Series—my initial assumption when the question was posed to me. Why, it’s the Volkswagen Jetta. The iconic brand from Wolfsburg moved 115,807 units of their C-segment sedan in 2017.
Good, right? Well, until you consider that Honda sold 377,286 Civics and Toyota moved 329,196 Corollas during that same time. Nissan sold 218,451 Sentras, Hyundai sold 198,210 Elantras, Chevy sold 184,751 Cruzes, and Ford sold 158,385 Focuses last year. The Jetta isn’t the worst-selling in the segment—it beats the Mazda3 and Subaru Impreza.
Obviously, Volkswagen isn’t happy to be in the bottom half segment in the world’s most mature auto market. And with an image that has taken a beating of late (you know, the whole diesel emissions thing), VW needs a win, badly.
