VW CEO Warns Dealers: Don't Mark Up The ID.Buzz
2024 Volkswagen ID.BuzzImage: Volkswagen
We’ve been waiting for Volkswagen’s new-age electric microbus — known as the the ID.Buzz — for years. The concept was shown way back in 2017, and now we can confirm that it’s finally coming to America. While we have no idea what it’s going to cost, the state of the auto market the last few years has shown that this thing will more than likely get hit with markups at the dealer. But as Automotive News reports, VW of America’s CEO Pablo Di Si is warning dealers about price gouging on the ID.Buzz.
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VW dealers — like most dealers, honestly — aren’t strangers to markups. The last few years have seen them asking outrageous prices on models like the GTI, Golf R and ID.4. This time around, Di Si wants things to be different. He says that VW corporate has been in talks with dealers on a way to handle the situation of demand. But the details are still being ironed out.
“We need to find a fair way … for the consumer and the dealer — there’s no overpricing, that the system doesn’t crash,” he said. “We have, I would say, another three to five months to figure it out. We don’t have the solution yet.”
Di Si says that he wants dealers to make money on the ID.Buzz, but not at the cost of the customer. He sees markups as penalizing the customer. He’s so against price gouging on the ID.Buzz that he doesn’t even want to do a First Edition, something automakers have been doing the last few years to generate both demand for the product and extra profit for dealers. “I don’t think people should pay more,” Di Si said.
Ultimately though, due to how powerful dealer lobbyists are, dealers can pretty much do what they want. And it’ll be on them to do the right thing and not mark this vehicle up. But greed is a powerful thing and it’ll most likely get the best of dealers and they’ll mark it up anyway. But it also damages the reputation of both the dealer and the automaker, and Di Si knows this.
“We cannot make a mistake [with] this vehicle with respect to the customer. We cannot have markups,” Di Si said.
