Yep. When dealers are using expensive, premium new cars as loaners, you can reasonably guess that those cars are either sales lot poison, nailed to the showroom floor or the manufacturer is directly subsidizing loaner use through a corporate program, or both.

Okay, good for you, I guess? Score 1 (one) sale for VW, at 5 grand off MSRP. So what?

VW sold 2,449 Arteons in 2019. That makes it a resounding sales failure, even compared to, say, the 2019 Buick Regal/TourX that sold 10,313 units that year. And that year you could get a loaded 2.0T AWD Regal 4 door sportback, or…

300hp and AWD is not the car they’ve been selling here for the last 3 to 4 years, since it’s US market debut with the 2019 model year.

That car has been a 268hp/258 lb-ft 2.0T and FWD for a starting price of $37k up to $47K for the top AWD trim... with the same 268hp 2.0T.

VW says the Arteon is competing with the…

Not surprising, considering how much of a sales failure they have been.

This is kind of a central question. Ex dealer service manager here - considering that Arteon has a years long record of low and declining sales in the US, I’d think most dealers don’t want to stock more than VW America forces them to. Dealers don’t want to pay to stock cars that don’t sell, especially expensive ones…

The 2022 Arteons have arrived, according to the VW website there’s a 2022 300hp R-line for sale at Ardmore VW in PA and another one at Manhattan VW

Maximum-launch axle tramp and axle windup was a serious problem on these first gens, leading to diff and axle failures that tended to be aggravated by the abrupt ride quality, tricky shift and clutch engagement. There are apparently fixes available now, but the critical questions are:

did it get them, and even if it…

Agreed, but:

according to the autochek report in the listing, this is the 6th owner and the current owner said he’s only had it for a year. The original parts are likely long gone.

This is considerably overpriced for what it is - a substantially less desirable first gen with cheap and questionable mods that doesn’t look particularly well cared for and may be on its’ (edit: sixth!!) owner (ad states the current owner has only had it for one year).

As others have mentioned, the opening bid is full…

I would love to watch this, but I can’t because whatever video platform you’re using won’t play on my laptop (firefox, windows 10). So I guess I won’t be watching part 2 either.

We used to sell those at the last dealership I service managed. Made in India, they have the dubious distinction of being the worst, most consistently broken bikes I’ve ever represented, with all 12 brand new in the crate units being defective, not ready for sale and needing multiple repairs right out of the box.

All…

They are definitely steel. And heavy steel, at that.

The car has to be federalized, a lengthy, complex and expensive process that involves designing in the components required for US EPA and California emissions certifications, meeting US crash testing, US passive restraint/airbag standards, DOT spec front, rear and side lighting and safety requirements, as well as all…

The Arteon is an answer to a question almost nobody asked - an overpriced, underpowered 4 door sedan with a luxury price tag and a VW badge, in the fastest disappearing US major market segment.

Why this car was ever green-lit for the US market is mystifying, continuing VW’s long legacy of bizarre sales-failure product…

Just FYI, they’ve been installing the new batteries for 7 months now - our Bolt got the new battery pack late last year, 6 months ago. Range went up significantly, to 275+ miles (for us), and the new battery gets a fresh 8 year, 100,000 mile warranty.

And the fire thing was real but quite rare, 16 cars out of 141,000.…

Because someone has to pay for it, and if the federal, state and local governments aren’t willing or able to provide large subsidies that cover the (large and ongoing) costs, then the riders must pay the difference in fares.

Practically speaking, that’s a Big Fucking Problem, since high fares and service cuts drive…

It matters because someone has to pay for it. And since the federal, state, and local governments either can’t or won’t pay more in subsidies, riders end up paying higher fares and get worse service and worse coverage.

I think transit should be free too, or close to it. Everyone on the bus or train is one more person…

Eh, EVs will be a minor part of the market... until they’re not. Which will come up sooner than many deniers expect. Like smartphones, or huge flatscreen TVs, affordable airfares, etc.

There’s a LOT of EV misinformation being pushed on social media by right wingers and oil industry flacks. Many people have the wrong…

We live in an old rowhouse in San Francisco, and our licensed electrician added a NEMA-50 outlet, a strand of heavier wire and an outlet box to our existing electric dryer circuit, and swapped two breakers. Cost about $300. Our level 2 JuiceBox was about $500. Our Bolt maxes out at 32A, and we charge overnight using…

That’s great, and you’re not wrong, but outside of major, dense cities the US does not have the usage or the federal and state funding that would support mass transit that both goes where people need it to go, costs what people would realistically pay, and run often enough to be useful.