Volkswagen just remembered that it still builds the ancient Eos folding hardtop convertible, an epiphany which must have reminded the company that it sells relatively few of the things. In light of this, and according to Automotive News Europe, VW has officially decided to kill off the model mid-way through this year after a largely mediocre nine-year production run.
Regarding VW's decision, the Eos boasted the uncommon and feeble one-two punch of being both too expensive and not flashy enough for its sales segment. When it debuted in 2006, the Eos plopped into the same waters Chrysler's more-affordable Sebring convertible had been floating in for decades; with less space and even more anonymous styling than the Sebring (later renamed the 200 before being discontinued itself), it's little surprise that the Eos fizzled almost immediately. Monthly U.S. sales peaked at just over 1600 in June 2007, before gradually sliding to the low-three-digit range; last year, VW moved just 409 of the things in June and only 3411 the whole year. And we haven't even brought up the four-seater Ford Mustang convertible or its foil, the Chevrolet Camaro.
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Yet flagging sales weren't the only reason for its demise. The droptop's underpinnings date back to the fifth-generation Golf, and with the seventh-generation, MQB-based Golf now on sale, it's nt particularly practical to keep Eos production running. It isn't presently clear whether VW will replace the Eos with anything, but the corporate mothership may be content filling the Eos's niche with the Audi A3 and VW Beetle convertibles. In a world rapidly losing interest in mainstream topless motoring, that might just be the right call, although Buick is repurposing the Eos-sized Opel Cascada convertible for U.S. sale as you read this. To the Eos, wave goodbye—it's headed for that sunny two-lane in the sky, where it'll share space with, among many other departed droptops, the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet and Pontiac Sunfire convertible.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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