For the month of February at least. While I cannot speak for the couple pictured to the right of the Routan, Autoblog, by way of the Windsor Star, reports that VW asked asked Chrysler of Canada to stop producing the Routan for the next month. The Windsor Star reports that so far, 29,000 Routans have been built, at a rate of about 300 per day. Checking VW of America’s sales figures ending December, 2008, VW sold a grand total of 3,387 Routans in the US for all of 2008.
I have never understood the reason for the Routan. VW boasts that its buyer demographic are well-educated, internet-savvy people, so I don’t know who they thought they were fooling with a gussied-up Chrysler Town & Country. Incredibly, there are no winners here, at all. VW has shown that with a tiny investment and little to no effort, they built the best handling Chrysler minivan of all time, with the highest quality interior to boot.
VW owes its loyal fans an apology for the Routan. Chrysler owes its loyal Town & Country buyers an apology as well for not building a minivan as good as the Routan themselves.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
But what about the miracle of German engineering?
cough, cough
They should have stuck with the original microbus concept…
http://www.motortrend.com/future/concept_cars/112_0107_volkswagen_microbus/index.html
Rob, “should have” is the operative term here. Instead, VW took the cheap and easy way out in hopes of scoring some quick sales. I don’t know who VW thought they were fooling. VW brags about its intelligent buyers, then sends us the Routan?
That concept was too cool. They would have sold a boatload of them, complete with Dead Head stickers in the back windows.
I think that would have been the only way I would have been tempted to buy a minivan…
seriously though, who in their right mind would buy a re-badged caravan?
Then they had Brooke Shields advertise it as well; what a disaster that was