VW's make or brake play

First, I know the title should read "make or break," but this is an auto blog...brake. Yeah, all righty then.

Anyway, a buddy of mine asked me what I thought of Jeremy Cato's article in the Globe and Mail this morning, VW's impending comeuppance.

Almost a year ago (back in January) I wrote Oh no, not another one (I must, however, credit Mr. Cato - I remember wanting to use the word "comeuppance" in one of those posts and opted against it. Shame on me, what a great word...but I digress...).

Having said that, it's not too late for VW to avoid this comeuppance. In our posts since last January, we've talked about emerging paradigms and buggy whips - the landscape which befell GM and Toyota over the last decade is changing.

Stay tuned - there are some fundamental realities that may remain relatively the same, but there are also new realities being created as we speak. We'll make sense of it all here at J and D's Auto Talk with insights that are not infrequently months ahead of the mainstream media.

Oh no, not another one

David Welch is writing that VW is the car giant to watch, and why is that? Well, because "Volkswagen is bent on displacing Toyota as the world's biggest car company—and it just may succeed."

Part of VW's strategy? Abandon their odd ball attempt to move upscale (which made no sense to me since they already have Audi doing quite well and the entire concept of Volkswagen - "the people's car" - was to be affordable), and move into the entry level cars. So, basically, more volume of low-profit margin vehicles - oy vey!

Hey, Volkswagen, please see

• Toyota production is down - no kidding 
• Hey Toyota, I hate to say "I told you so..."

Hyundai diesel is coming

This is big news, and I am plenty excited.

For too long, Volkswagen has been allowed to play, virtually alone in the North American market, as pretty much the only diesel offering in a car under $25,000. With this near monopoly, they have been able to settle into a smug complacency as the only game in town. If you asked the average TDI owner (say, a member of the TDIClub), the majority would probably say they'd never own a gas VW, and only have a VW because they are diesel people.