Good, as long as they take the time to engineer each platform right. The kind of economy savings that this move will produce should be capitalized on up front by making each one a top-of-the-line platform. I'd much rather have a platform capable of supporting a top-notch compact sports car underpinning my commuter than have a platform capable of providing an ultra-cheap commuter car with profit margins underpinning my compact sports car.

It's not news, though...this is exactly the way VW has been doing things for years and years. Everybody else just seems to have kinda caught on to the "platform" method of building cars.

If VW wants to catch Toyota what they really need to work on is reliability.

I LOVE the way that every VW I have ever driven has been. They generally seem to be pretty nice cars. I would love to own a GTI or a current model Passat wagon since they are one of the few makers that still do a midsized wagon. But what stops me from buying a VW is the reliability records. There was a recent thing I read where VW came in at 40% below the average for reliability. Those figures don't surprise me either since two of the people I work with have had late model VWs that have had tons of problems. A 2001 TDI Jetta that had tranny problems and that the windows actually just fell out of the doors down to the insides of the doors. A couple year old Passat wagon all wheel drive that I don't remember what the issue was, and a brand new 2007 Passat wagon that had turbo issues and it would buck and hitch.

I drive my car alot of the time for my job, and sometimes that includes driving over a mountain pass through the middle of nowhere to get to jobsites. I can't afford to have my car break down on me out there. So until VW takes care of the quality issues I unfortunately can't consider them as a vehicle to purchase, as much as I may want to.

Let's just hope that the cars will be more exciting than Toyota's. =D

"One of the automaker's new plans is to develop four architectures that can be used across the Volkswagen Group brands, including Lamborghini, Audi and Bentley."

an architecture that is used across VW to Lambo to Bently? What? Huh?

Are they going to follow the GM model of making every brand a Chevy?

When someone drops a quarter mil $$$ on a Lamborghini, they don't want a jazzed up Volkswagon. The same can be said about Bently.

What are they thinking here?

It is like Honda stating that they are going to develop a common architecture to be used on their riding lawnmower, motercycle, and cars.

VWs need reliability and styling improvements.

They could use some image changes also.

Note to VW:

You should probably do a surprise audit of your plants in Mexico in order to assess quality of build first. As soon as quality rises, so will sales. Your vehicles are now competitive with Toyota on nearly every level if not better, except for the quality issue.

@Allen:

Agreed. I think VW strove for short term profit margins with the Mexico plant. Their plan for expansion is flawed until they address this problem. The market place is much more competitive now, buyers are smarter now, and substandard reliabilty in unacceptable. (Make a buyer happy and he/she will tell his friends...make a buyer unhappy and he/she will tell everybody)

I agree with Don.

They need to start working on making their cars more reliable, particularly the ones assembled in Mexico.

Take the cues of awesome engineering from Audi, and apply that to their more affordable VW lines.

I don't think it matters where the car is made... My late '01 S4 (I miss her) had a ton of problems after 46k miles.. she was made in Germany. If I had the money for all her repairs, cost of insurance, cost of gas, etc I would've kept her.

It is like Honda stating that they are going to develop a common architecture to be used on their riding lawnmower, motercycle, and cars.

That made me laugh.

Your vehicles are now competitive with Toyota on nearly every level if not better, except for the quality issue.

Lets face it, VW's quality is really disappointing. Working in the auto industry what you quickly realize is that impeccable quality is a given if you're looking for longterm sales. You have to make a quality product and then you focus on reducing costs, styling, gadgets etc.

That's pretty much Toyota's only edge. VW on the other hand, has it the other way around...

the platform architecture will ease and improve reliability.
cost of car itself, maintenance and operation of the vehicle.
thing is, toyota is way ahead on this.
they'll never catch up. the nearer they get, the more difficult it is to get closer.