Thanks to Deadly Promotion
In spite of diesel scandal last year, Volkswagen Tiguan topped the list of best selling cars in the local imported car market in the first half of this year.
The Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association announced on July 6 that the sales of imported cars in the first half of the year showed a decline first in seven years. Specifically, the total number of the imported car sold during the period was 116,749 units, down 2.6% from a year ago. In particular, the sales of Volkswagen decreased 33.1% compared to the same period of last year, influencing heavily on the total decrease of the imported cars.
However, the sales of Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 TDI Blue Motion model rerecorded 4,164 units in the first half of the year alone, ranking first overwhelmingly in the imported car market, followed by E 220 Blue TEC of Mercedes Benz selling 3,236 units and Golf 2.0 TDI of Volkswagen selling 3,061 cars.
The analysts say that the unconventional promotions of Volkswagen have effected the skyrocketed sales of Tiguan. In fact, Volkswagen has conducted special promotions like “an interest-free installment plan for 60 months” since the diesel scandal. Such promotions are interpreted as its effort to counteract the deterioration of its brand image from the diesel scandal by reducing the product prices.
Meanwhile, the success of Volkswagen’s discount promotions despite its fallen brand image is bringing about some criticism upon Korean consumers who put their personal gain before the environmental issue.