Volkswagen sales fall 20% in the UK

After the outrage about Volkswagen cars being in complete in America, they now have a large decrease in their cars being bought in the UK. Sales of Volkswagen cars fell 20% in the UK last month following the diesel emissions scandal. 12,958 new VWs were registered, down from 16,196 in November 2014. With over 3,000 cars not being sold in the UK as of this month, however that is not the only change VW is experiencing, other VW Group marques were also hit, with Seat down 24%, Skoda down 11% and Audi down 4%. Only Bentley managed an increase, with sales up from 73 vehicles to 88.

In response, Volkswagen UK said the fall might be due to a number of factors and stressed that sales in the year to the end of November were still up 5%. The company said that the market was very sensitive to special offers and that it was hard to call it a trend after two months of falling sales. But Jim Holder from Autocar and “What Car?” magazines said he believed the sales drop was a direct result of the diesel scandal. "There's a lot of evidence they have lost the trust of the buyers and that is starting to come through," he said. But in the US, where the scandal began, VW sales fell 25% last month. Much of that may be attributed to the company stopping selling its diesel models there, which accounted for 21% of its US sales before the crisis. In the UK, sales of diesel cars overall grew 3.6% in the month. Volkswagen's Golf was the fourth best selling car in the UK last month, and in the year to date.
With the last of interest in people buying their cars VW should do some market research to see why and see if they can fix it. They also still need to go to the press and make it clear that the crisis in the US is over and won’t happen again.