Volkswagen have been in a tough spot lately with regards to their reputation – the company was hit by a rather serious scandal in the news and they’ve been trying to recuperate ever since, and the current outlook is definitely not very good for them. At the same time, they are preparing for some new releases which they need to bring into the spotlight as best as possible, and that’s probably not an easy task for them right now in the middle of all this controversy.
It’s going to be an interesting road for the company up ahead, but they should be able to handle the situation one way or another. Their reputation could definitely suffer in the long run though, especially if these scandals also affect the performance of their next releases on the market. If the company fails to secure the positions that they need in the future, this could be a bad year for Volkswagen and their sales figures might suffer in the end.
Recently, the company has given some additional details about the upcoming 2016 Passat, and the car actually looks quite good according to most critics. It has a nice appearance and some serious components under the hood which should all come together to offer a comfortable, exciting ride – and this is actually a vehicle that should make a nice entry into the market once it’s out, but that release could be troubled to a large extent by the public opinion of Volkswagen lately.
The company also addressed the scandal during the recent event, and they were adamant that they would do everything in their power to fix what they have done and not repeat the same mistake in the future. Of course, not everyone was quick to believe them, as many saw that as transparent PR talk and didn’t put much credibility to those words. On the other hand, some people claimed that the company could easily do something similarly malicious in the future and mess with other test results, making them a far less trustworthy company than they used to be.
Trust is actually the biggest issue among people right now – as much as many enthusiasts would seemingly love to enjoy the new Passat and explore it in detail once it’s available to them, people are also far less inclined to actually trust Volkswagen at the moment. This could potentially extend even further with even more problems for the company in the future, and some experts are predicting a very difficult upcoming year for them.
Indeed, it could be a big problem for Volkswagen if their customers start to lose trust in the company’s words. This could go beyond their statements on emissions and related issues, and people could start questioning the actual parameters of the vehicles that are released later on by them. And that could be a major problem if Volkswagen are unable to convince people that their cars offer good performance.
What are we going to see from the company in the future? It’s really hard to tell right now, but many people are expecting to see decreased sales and possibly other problems with their performance on the market. Volkswagen might even have to rethink their release schedule if they want to get around those issues as quickly as possible, according to some experts, and the company would be smart to delay some of their more major releases until the air has cleared.