Jetta, Corolla, the old friend who accompanied you through thousands of mountains and rivers, is really old now

Perhaps in the near future, we will hardly see Jetta among mainstream car brands.

In 2024, the annual terminal sales volume of the Jetta brand will be 120,001 units, which is a year-on-year decrease of 25.9% compared with 162,000 units in 2023.

I believe everyone knows what a nearly 30% drop means for a brand.

The more critical issue is that Jetta’s current situation is not a temporary failure.

In 2002, Jetta's national sales exceeded 100,000 units, and four years later the one millionth Jetta rolled off the assembly line.

In 2019, Volkswagen announced that it would make the Jetta brand independent. The plan at the time was that it would focus on the low-end entry-level segment. Jetta executives also set a goal, saying that Jetta would exceed 400,000 units in annual sales three years after its establishment.

In fact, Jetta's subsequent development was not satisfactory. In 2020, the Jetta brand sold a total of 155,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decline of 4.3%; in 2021, sales increased slightly to 169,000 vehicles; in 2022, it fell sharply again to 146,900 vehicles; and then in 2023, it increased to 162,000 vehicles.

It can be seen that Jetta's sales have actually been increasing slowly and decreasing quickly, just like stocks in the A-share market. And it has never exceeded 200,000 units. You know, even the old Jetta, which still had the Volkswagen logo in 2018, achieved a sales of 326,600 units, which is almost catching up with the total sales of Jetta in the past two years.

Why did such a once prosperous car brand end up in such a state after becoming independent?

In fact, this is not a problem of independence itself, but that the times have changed. Jetta, an old friend who once accompanied us through thousands of mountains and rivers, has not changed with them.

Before 2018, the new energy trend in China's auto market was not as obvious as it is now, and Chinese people were still obsessed with joint venture fuel vehicles. Therefore, Jetta, which had a high cost-effectiveness and a reputation for being "durable", was naturally very popular.

The years since Jetta became independent have coincided with the most rapid development of new energy in China. Chinese independent brands have gradually emerged, and low-priced and high-quality new energy products are becoming more and more common in the Chinese auto market.

Although Jetta has Volkswagen's technology, it does not have any highlights in terms of intelligence and new energy, and does not provide more new energy options that can compete with domestic brands.

In addition, the price war in the Chinese market is fierce, and even FAW-Volkswagen itself has joined in. At this time, focusing on Jetta models priced below 150,000 yuan has no advantage at all.

In addition, we can see that Jetta seems to have been "living off its past". The three pillars of the brand, namely "VS5, Jetta VS7 and sedan VA3", which were created at the beginning of the brand's establishment, have not undergone any new changes so far.

The lack of a rich product matrix and the inability to keep up with new energy technology have destined Jetta to lag behind. However, Jetta's situation is not unique among foreign brands. If we look at Corolla, which is also a foreign brand, we will find the commonality between the two.

Although Corolla is not independent from Toyota, as Toyota's main model, it once replaced the Volkswagen Beetle to become the world's best-selling model in 1997.

In 2013, Corolla set a world record of 40 million units sold. Corolla, which entered the Chinese market, also became the "trump card" of FAW Toyota.

It can be said that it, like the Jetta, was once a legendary car in the Chinese market. Similarly, the performance of Corolla in the era of intelligent electric vehicles is not so satisfactory.

According to the data from the China Passenger Car Association, the monthly retail sales of Toyota Corolla in August 2024 were 9,578 units. Compared with the previous month, the monthly retail sales of Corolla fell by 17.1%.

In the following September, Toyota Corolla's monthly retail sales were 7,604 units, a 20.6% decrease compared with the previous month.

In September 2024, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed that the month-on-month increase in domestic narrow passenger car retail sales was 10.6%.

That is to say, when the entire market performed relatively well, Corolla still experienced a decline, and we can even describe it as a "decline against the trend."

The key reason is that it is too "outdated". The main selling point of Corolla in the past was its low price and low fuel consumption. Although its configuration was average, it still made a name for itself in the era of fuel.

Now, if you want low cost, domestic pure electric vehicles can easily solve the problem. If you want to balance battery life and low cost, domestic plug-in hybrid vehicles are also very attractive. For example, Qin PLUS, with the support of new energy technology, has lower fuel consumption, and pure electric battery life can also meet daily commuting needs.

In addition, domestic cars pay more attention to vehicle design and texture, and even a plug-in hybrid car worth 100,000 yuan can show good performance and quality. This is something that "Jetta" that insists on "classic design" cannot compare with.

Jetta and Corolla's previous sales leadership was partly due to brand influence, but now this advantage is declining.

For example, Daihatsu Motor, a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Motor, once released a 162-page third-party investigation report, admitting that the company had as many as 174 illegal operations and fraud cases, including falsifying collision safety test data. Such news undoubtedly seriously affected Toyota's position in everyone's mind, and in turn affected Corolla's sales performance.

Whether it is Jetta or Corolla, many joint venture models have a "common problem", that is, relying on their "seniority" and not working hard on configuration, new technology, or even reputation.

Little do people know that Chinese car consumers have long passed the era of being obsessed with joint ventures, and are more concerned about the value of the vehicle itself. Therefore, if "Jetta" wants to gain a foothold in the Chinese market, it must learn to let go of the past and work harder on new energy technology, model layout and sincerity.