There were others introduced during this era, including the Dasher, Scirocco and Quantum, but only the Golf and its GTI
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| VW has produced a total of 23 million Golfs (shown) and 13 million Passats, globally. (Photo: Volkswagen Canada) |
While the Golf has outsold the storied Beetle overall, the Beetle remained in production for a longer period of time, ending in June of 2003, even after the New Beetle entered the company's lineup (see automotive news for June 7, 2003: Volkswagen Beetle to End Production This Summer).
Volkswagen sells many other models in its domestic market, as well as other markets around the world, which are not available in North America, the Touran being one of these. Of those models not available in the European market, VW's biggest seller is the subcompact Polo, achieving 9 million unit sales since its inception.
To meet demand, over the years, Volkswagen expanded production in facilities throughout Germany, as well as in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, China, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, and Spain.
Such demand has slumped in recent years, causing some plants to be running under capacity. The company's flagship plant, the Dresden, Germany facility which manufactures the Audi A8, BMW 7-Series, Mercedes-Benz S-Class
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| Sales of the high-priced Bentley Continental GT have embarrassed VW executives, who can't seem to achieve the same numbers from their much lower priced Phaeton, which shares its general architecture with the British car. (Photo: Shawn Pisio, Canadian Auto Press) |
Ironically, sales of the high-priced Bentley Continental GT have embarrassed VW executives, who can't seem to achieve the same numbers from their much lower priced Phaeton, which shares much of the Bentley's architecture. The addition of the four-door Bentley will only increase the Volkswagen-owned British luxury marque's success, and should help VW execs realize that the Volkswagen nameplate, once only associated with value-oriented transportation, shouldn't be labeling premium cars.