Shame On You: Volkswagen Touareg SUV

A CBS 2 Special Report

Oct 30, 2003 11:53 pm US/Eastern

NEW YORK (CBS) The ad sure is dramatic. It's part of Volkswagen's catchy campaign for its new Touareg SUV, a luxury truck so tough it's shown towing a massive Airstream trailer with ease, "Touareg, the Volkwagen that does what other Volkswagens don't."

It wasn't just on TV, there's a Touareg pulling an Airstream in VW's national magazine ad. "I thought, well, this is perfect, it's the
 perfect car," says Airstream owner James Sinclair.

 New Yorker James Sinclair owns an Airstream trailer similar to the one in Volkswagen's ad, and needed a new vehicle to tow it. So he went to his local VW dealer for a test-drive. CBS 2's Arnold Diaz reports.

 When asked if they assured him that it could pull the trailer, Sinclair told Diaz, "Yes, they did assure me that it could pull the
trailer."

 He was sold, and paid over $42,000 for a new Touareg, but when he got home and hitched up his trailer he says it didn't work like the ad showed. "I just noticed that it wasn't driving very well. It was porpoising, which means that when you hit a bump you can feel the
whole car going like this."

 What's the problem? According to his local Airstream dealer the Touareg's towing hitch is not compatible with the trailer. "He said
don't even try it, don't even attempt it."

 And when Sinclair tried to install a different hitch Volkswagen told him that would void his warranty! "I was very surprised, I was, I
felt very deceived."

 While Volkswagen of America insists the Touareg can safely tow Sinclair's Airstream, unbelievably, the company now admits its
 nationwide TV and magazine campaign is misleading. The ads showing a larger Airstream being towed are a gimmick, they're simply not true!

 "We did make a mistake." Volkwagen's embarrassed Press Relations Manager spoke with us via satellite from Detroit. Tony Fouladpour admitted the tongue weight of the trailer in the ad is too heavy for the Touareg, a fact VW's marketing department failed to check.

 "It's our first SUV and our marketing folks wanted to be very dramatic in what the car can do," said Fouladpour. "They got a
little too excited, they took too much artistic license."

Artistic license? But this is a major ad campaign from one of the largest corporations in the world!

A lot of people would wonder, how could a big company like VW base an entire ad campaign on what's basically a phony premise?

 "I don't think they meant to be dishonest and as soon as we found out about it we wanted to take the most honest approach and that was to come right out on shows like this and say we made a mistake," adds Fouladpour.

But it was more than just a mistake to James Sinclair. He told Volkswagen to take the car back, "I'd call them everyday. I said I
 want my money back, I would like you to return my money, and they said well, I don't know if that's gonna happen."

 "Mr. Sinclair says he had been calling VW for weeks and had been told basically they couldn't do anything about it," Diaz asked
 Fouladpour. "Well, we are doing something about it, we are doing something about it right now," responded Fouldapour.

 What they've done is pull all of these ads, but only after Shame on You contacted the company did it agree to give James Sinclair a full refund for his Touareg. "I think they realized that you guys were involved and it was gonna be a big deal."

So into the CBS 2 Hall of Shame, we induct Volkswagen of America for trying to hook the public on its new SUV with a misleading ad.

VW says it's in negotiations to compensate other owners who were misled by the ads. It plans to send letters to every Touareg owner
 explaining its towing capabilities.