Wooley recently did a video about Volkswagen abandoning their fan base. Their very fanatical… obsessively loyal… fanbase. If you know me, you’re probably thinking, “Hold on Saddlebrook, you’re pretty fanatical about Ford trucks, old muscle cars, square-body trucks, and Japanese cars.” And while you’re not wrong…..
Volkswagen fans are different…
And that’s a good thing. Hell I almost became one of them. Bear with me for just a second here before I get to the point: Back in my teenage years, I really wanted a manual MK3 VR6 Jetta. I had pages of my old sketchbooks filled with different ways I’d modify it. I loved the way they looked, and the way their interiors felt. And I was convinced that I needed one in my life. However, growing up with a dad from Nigeria/Europe who had firsthand experience with the darker side of Volkswagen ownership… he was like, “Absolutely not!” Fast-forward a few years as my automotive inner-circle expanded – I started meeting more people outside my usual Ford & JDM crowd. And I quickly realized something: Volkswagen owners were built different.
These guys & girls LOVED their VWs…
Like, really really loved ’em. And not in the way normal car enthusiasts do. No, VW people treated their cars like family members… or maybe more like troubled children they refused to give up on. They’d collect non-running shells the way some people collect Hot Wheels. Apparel, tattoos, memorabilia… all of it. I knew plenty of VW guys who had 4 or 5 of them sitting in their yard at any given time. Only one of them actually ran, and the others were all “for parts.” But they all had a story & longterm plan.
And the owners themselves???
Well, there were 2 distinct types: 1) They were either permanently dirty. Or 2) They looked like they just stepped out of a magazine ad. There was no in-between.
The first group was easy to spot. They always had grease under their fingernails, oil-stained jeans, and a look on their face that screamed, “My car broke down again but I still love it.” If you saw a guy walking through a car meet with an ECU in one hand and a pack of zip ties in the other, chances are he owned at least three Volkswagens. These were the guys that smelled like a mixture of old gas, crayons, worn-out clutches, and maybe a faint whiff of disappointment.
Then there was the second group: The polished, Euro-style perfectionists. Designer jeans & jackets, pristine white sneakers (how?!), and well-groomed hair. Good chance of them being Eastern European. And their cars? Slammed, immaculately detailed, and somehow always just unreliable enough to keep the mystique alive.
Volkswagen had created legends…
Cars that somehow built their own cult following… just by existing. The Beetle, the GTI, the Bus. These cars weren’t just vehicles; they were identities. They weren’t just transportation; they were lifestyles. And for decades, VW nurtured that identity. But as Wooley pointed out, that era is gone. Because quite frankly, Volkswagen has completely lost the plot. The Dieselgate scandal in 2015 was a huge turning point. It shattered trust, cost Volkswagen billions, humiliated them, and sent them scrambling for a new identity… one which they haven’t found. The reality is: Volkswagen has no identity. In attempts to recover from Dieselgate, they dove headfirst into electric vehicles and mass-market SUVs. The EVs are proving to be a big miscalculation. And while the generic SUVs/crossovers may have helped their bottom line, both the EV-push AND the applianced SUVs/crossovers alienated their fanbase. Instead of making more driver-focused cars…
Volkswagen doubled-down on crossovers & disengagement.
They removed manual transmissions from most of their lineup, while un-empathetically saying that they were removing all internal combustion engines soon, even in beloved models like the GTI. Simultaneously, they introduced lack-luster, shapeless/soulless electric models like the ID.4 and ID.3. At every junction, Volkswagen has turned against their fanbase.
And let’s talk about innovation – or lack thereof. VW used to be a leader in fun, funky, enthusiast-driven vehicles. Today, Volkswagen follows. They don’t set trends, they copy them… constantly looking over their shoulder at China. As a result, the Volkswagen scene has gone stagnant. The same modified GTI you saw at a show 7 years ago is still there, looking exactly the same (IF it’s still running). The same air-cooled guys are still driving the same builds. The energy that once made the Volkswagen scene exciting… has dulled. And VW has done nothing to reignite it… except for pull out of motorsports… and pull out of aftermarket events.
Then there’s the generational shift. Car enthusiasm isn’t what it used to be, especially with younger folks. Between economic struggles, government mandates, real inflation, inflation abuse, and uninteresting, disengaging, overcomplicated new cars… they’ve lost the interest of the youth. And that’s not just Volkswagen… it’s the automotive industry in general.
VW failed to evolve in the right way…
Even their own executives admit they’re off-track. Volkswagen got distracted by Tesla & China, and focused too much on mainstream mediocrity because “that’s what sells.” But the truth is: Other car brands & other countries do mediocrity better than Volkswagen. By chasing the wallet of a dispassionate customer, Volkswagen lost their invaluable fanbase without gaining a new one.
The future of VW Enthusiasts???
Here’s the thing though, the silver lining: Volkswagen fans aren’t just gonna disappear. The old cars will live on. And the old models will continue to become icons reminiscent of Veedub’s glory days. Bugs, Mk1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s will still be obsessively built & rebuilt. And MK7s will go down as a peak/pinnacle modern GTI. But the new generation? The ones who should be falling in love with the next GTI the way we fell in love with the VR6s and 1.8Ts? That’s not gonna happen. At least nowhere near the scale that it did in the past… and with less than a fraction of the authenticity. VW only has themselves to blame for that. I was gonna end this article by saying something like, “Volkswagen needs to remember what made them special. Otherwise, they’ll just be another car company trying to sell us the same generic SUV with a different badge.” But we’re past that now, aren’t we….
