HAVING had a long look in the mirrors and swivelled my bonce to take in the blind spot, I deem it safe to slip out of my default lane, titled Inane Ramblings, into the one called Brand Loyalty, or more pertinently for these pages Marque Loyalty, an area of consumer psychology in which the lion’s share of research is funded by corporations whose sole concern is generating repeat custom and unimaginable riches.
Mercifully I am not here to deliver a seminar howked clumsily from the syllabus of a business degree course. Rather, my thoughts have turned to the fealty which many motorists show to car manufacturers after falling back under the spell of Volkswagen following more than half a decade of Saab ownership.
So smitten am I that within the space of three months my two-litre Corrado 16V (see On the Roads passim) has been fitted at fairly hefty expense with spanking new suspension which allows it to sit at a less extreme height while delivering a ride that can be generously described as sporty. Then there are simpler improvements such as new OEM mats (thus far unused; you wouldn’t want me to sully them, would you?), a new battery, a Thatcham category-one alarm, new power steering and alternator belts, uprated headlight bulbs and a level of obsessive detailing that has given it the mirror-like lustre of a new car, inside and out. You could eat your dinner out of the ashtray (trust me, I’ve done it).
The Rado, an M plate with almost 96k miles on the clock, is my fifth VW and follows a pattern established almost 20 years ago. The first car I owned was an A-reg Volkswagen Jetta 1.3L, which I found in the paper and had covered just 17k when my mother helped me buy it from the late owner’s widow in 1999. Being a Mk1 it was slow (around 55bhp) and basic – no power steering or FM radio, kids. Imagine! – but in timewarp nick.
When I decided to sell the Jetta I headed south to Biggar showground and the annual VW show, where I put it in the For Sale section next to a Derby, a Karmann Ghia and a B1 Passat. Over two days none of these treasured old nags found a new home.
Providing it doesn’t hammer down, that’s where you’ll find me this weekend, a good 15 years older but no less in thrall to a marque that hasn’t covered itself in glory of late. At the time of writing the diesel emissions scandal has cost Volkswagen more than £14 billion in the US (equivalent to the sales of 1,169,590 base-model Polos) and an untold amount in the UK and Europe, where it has so far rejected compensation claims while offering a fix for affected vehicles, which number almost 1.2m in the UK alone.
Yet Volksfling is assured to bring together VW nuts – or dubbers, as they’re known – such as myself to admire (or scoff at) each other’s vehicles, swap hard-to-find parts and accessories and talk Volkswagen ownership. The tribal urge overrides any sense of logic or rationality every time. See you there?
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