I'm a little bit puzzled by VW these days. Lots of large car companies own other car companies or operate alternative brands (GM, Ford, Toyota, Mercedes, Fiat and many others own several brands) however VW seems to take a unique approach to automotive family living.
Whilst some groups have similar (and therefore competing cars) in their ranks, few replicate VWs tendency towards inbreeding. The 'A5' platform is a rather good case in point. The Golf, Octavia, A3, Touran, Caddy, Altea, Toledo, Jetta, Leon, Eos, TT and Tiguan are all based on this platform and, you'll note that many of them are competing against each other in the same market segment. It's also slightly ironic that in many measurable respects the cheaper of the models is the best (see Octavia vs Golf).
Why on earth would a company compete with itself, especially on this scale? It really does seem to defy sense, and the state of VW at present may well indicate that it's not the bests idea. I can only think of one other manufacturer who had so many similar vehicles on sale at the same time, and we all know how it ended for Leyland...
Whilst I'm on the topic, why on earth did VW produce the Bugatti Veryon? Ugly, expensive and - ultimately - a bit pointless, it seems to be an incredibly poor business decision as well as an incredibly idiotic thing to buy, even if you are ultra-rich. Maybe I need to have a few hundred million in the bank to understand such things.
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