November Volkswagen Passat Sales Take Major Hit

DETROIT (AP) – Volkswagen’s emissions-cheating scandal took a serious bite out of the company’s U.S. sales last month.

The German automaker reports that November U.S. sales fell almost 25 percent from a year ago. The company blamed the decline on stop-sale orders for diesel-powered vehicles that the government says cheated on pollution tests.

The VW brand sold just under 24,000 vehicles last month compared with almost 32,000 a year ago.

The U.S. is a relatively small market for the company. The VW brand sold 490,000 vehicles worldwide in October, 5 percent below a year ago.

VW has admitted that 482,000 2-liter diesel vehicles in the U.S. contained software that turned pollution controls on for government tests and off for real-world driving. The government says another 85,000 six-cylinder diesels also had cheating software.

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Chattanooga (WDEF) – The numbers were particularly bad for the Chattanooga-built Passat.

Passat sedan sales plunged by 60%.

The decline came despite heavy incentives by dealers.

And this could just be the beginning of tough times for the brand.

One industry watcher at AutoTrader predicts buyers won’t return to Volkswagen until they hear the plan the company comes up with to fix the diesel problem.