Rising Sales Are Raising Expectations
And looking back at March sales, MINI managed 5,866 of them, the 500 just had its best month ever, with more than 3,700 deliveries, while the iQ, in just its second month on the market, posted 1,285 sales. That may not seem to be much in the way of volume, but once you get passed the Passat and Jetta, no other individual VW product sold more than 2,700 units in March—although the Volkswagen Golf and Volkswagen GTI combined for 3,633 sales.
Also, while it went unsaid at the New York Auto Show, the Up! appears to provide a not-insignificant efficiency advantage, even compared its similarly sized competition. None of those cars can reach 40 mpg highway, but the Up! is rated at up to approximately 56 mpg in the European driving cycle.
Given these kinds of benefits, along with the country’s historically high fuel prices, the prospects of VW’s award-winning city car coming to America are certainly looking Up!.