Volkswagen: Post-Dieselgate social stance?

In the wake of record financial settlements in the USA, the question remains whether or not the #Dieselgate scandal has caused irreparable harm to the Volkswagen brand. Is it possible Volkswagen can change its corporate deception to positive brand perception and successfully appease the disgruntled consumers?

Will consumers still value the rock-solid reputation of the Golf GTI, when shopping around for a hot hatch? Will family buyers care about the bigger and bolder VW SUVs that are just around the corner? Or will they stick with a Toyota Kluger just on principle?

Last year, it was revealed by social analytics company Meltwater that the world-wide #Dieselgate scandal put Volkswagen at the top of Facebook and Twitter news feeds, with a surge in the usage of the hashtags #vwscandal and #vwgate. There were 131,104 conversations about the Volkswagen scandal between the September 13 to October 13, 2015, and a fair chunk of the sentiment was negative with many fans opting to dissociate themselves from the brand.

Scathing memes about the scandal were tweeted and retweeted and the brand’s share value plummeted.

Since then, the company has rolled out a crisis communication plan and committed to transparency by admitting to wrong-doings and posting a consistent message across channels: “We messed up. We are sorry. We will fix it.”

The results seem to be trending towards the positive, with the @Volkswagen Twitter account followers climbing from 40,000 (before the scandal) to 46,500 followers. While the Volkswagen USA Facebook page fan base followed a similar increase. And with each new development, it appears there’s a spike in followers and fans. We took to the carsales and motoring.com.au Facebook this week to ask fans whether or not they would still buy a Volkswagen and why/why not. The answers were varied, with the majority of fans saying they still believe Volkswagen is a great brand.

Would you still buy a Volkswagen? We have selected a few responses as per below and enough you to comment below.

MOTORING

Check out motoring.com.au Facebook feed

Jon Giessler All car manufacturers have upped their game.. E class invent a revolutionary car innovation it use to take decades for other car manufacturers to copy. How times have changed...

Zain Kazmi No, because Japanese cars are more reliable. As much as I would love to, because they look really solidly built -- in terms of aesthetics.

Jake Byrnes Yep, still awesome cars

George Pudja VW may well make good cars, but they have also betrayed the trust of customers world wide !! That trust has to be hard earned, and if given easily, will be betrayed easily again in the future ... for me, I wouldn't buy anything they make, ever again !!!!!

Kareem Obeid I did. I don't regret it a bit. They are great machines and affordable.

Anton Kraus Yep. Premium Euro brands set the standard. The rest follow.

CARSALES

Check out carsales.com.au Facebook feed

Jeremy Sorel I bought a 103tsi because it was nice to sit in basically. It was more comfortable, better built, sounded better than the competitors I drove. Had some issues with the gearbox that got fixed under warranty, been fine ever since. Some people think I was crazy to buy a Volkswagen, other people think it's an awesome car and wish they had one of their own. Just opinions I guess.

Gary Wellsmore Definitely! VW is a great company. They have made mistakes just like most other manufacturers and their product keeps getting better. Best Buy is the new Tiguan.

Rick Foster VW have lost the trust of the car buying public. How can we believe anything like power, torque, fuel economy, hidden quality, all the things that influence the purchase?

Nathan Thomas I wouldn't, since the equivalent Skoda is better value, if not the better car.

Kristian Becker Looking at the Tourag at the moment. Have no issues in buying one. Great quality

Locklan Crawford I have to say we have 4 late model VW's at home and the only issue has been a fuel pump on the 2013 tdi golf 7 which was replaced as goodwill. I know a few others with VW and Skoda models that have had nothing but good times in them and I've personally owned 13 cars from varying brands and the 2 VWs were by far the nicest to own and never had a drama with either Amarok or golf. Why judge a brand by the "emissions scandal" that the yanky gov have dramatised to line their own pockets?