Volkswagen's 2025 Sales Take A Dip

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Volkswagen had a bit of a rough 2025, sales-wise.


The much-hyped ID.Buzz never truly took off, selling just 6,140 units, and most of VW's vehicles showed double-digit declines from 2024 to 2025. The Buzz, due to launch timing, appears to be up 428.4 percent from one year to the next, but that's because of the late launch in 2024. Only 1,162 units moved in 2024.

This despite a product blitz that includes a new GTI and Golf R along with a new Tiguan. The Taos also got a facelift for the 2025 model year -- and while the ID.Buzz launched late in 2024, 2025 was the first full year it was available. It's already been shelved in North America for 2026.

Volkswagen is down 13 percent overall from 2024 to 2025, and 19.8 percent for the fourth quarter.

We've not included the on-its-way-out Arteon here, but if you're curious, 28 of them were sold in 2025 -- down almost 98 percent from 2024 when over 1,600 units moved.

It's unclear how much tariffs factored into VW's numbers, at least for the Volkswagen models not built in the U.S.

[Image: Volkswagen]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Normie Normie on Jan 08, 2026

    Does VW need the US market?

  • Tane94 Tane94 on Jan 08, 2026

    A brand sorely in need of a marketplace identity -- VW is not a value brand, not a luxury brand and not a sports vehicle brand aside from the GTI. An aspirational brand, I don't see that either. The $0 down promotional offers is what comes to mind for me but I'm cheap.

  • Jam169859557 More regulation is needed for ALL vehicle lighting systems. [list=1][*]The lighting that is most blinding are the rapidly flashing red, blue and amber lights on emergency vehicles. The lights themselves are blinding, flashing so rapidly that it's impossible for even the sharpest eyes to adjust. What's worse, is the nature of the emergency requires a careful view of the area surrounding the emergency vehicle. There is something going on that needs to be seen. More flashing lights is not the solution.[/*][*]Brighter headlights need to be regulated. The tall riding vehicles do not need headlights positioned so high that they blind drivers in lower riding vehicles. And those heasdlights need to be aimed properly. When I first started driving my 2020 Subaru Outback, many drivers would flash their lights, hoping I would dim my lights. This stopped after I performed am easy adjustment that tilted the beam lower. Late model Subaru headlamps are designed with a sharp cutoff that project less glare above the hood line. When the headlights are properly aimed, other drivers are not blinded by the beam.[/*][*]Customized light assemblies make it more difficult to see the marker lights (tail lamps, turn signals and side marker lamps) that have been tinted. There are many municiple codes that prohibit this tinting, but these laws are seldom enforced.[/*][/list=1]Solutions: Tight controls on emergency vehicle lighting. In trying to make these vehicles more visible, a dangerous side effect is reducing the ability of drivers to see the surrounding perils.Headlight design regulations that reduce the height of the headlight assemblies. Just because a pickup truck has a hood that sits 4 feet abouve the pavement, it does not mean the headlights need to be so high. Owneres should maintain proper adjustments to their vehicle headlights.Establish and enforce regulation requiring a illumination standard be followed.
  • Stl170698708 as someone who hates big government, and their interference;but you can add me to the list of people that are blinded by the lights.unfortunately "the poop is out of the horse and no way is it going back in"They have had 5 years to make lights bigger, badder and brighter because in the vehicle work it is go big or go home!Trucks are the worst because so many people use them to express their dominance and that is big, big, big $$ both at the Original Purchase and in the Aftermarket world.If, we are so lucky to get some good government regulation on this it will also take some very good Court enforcement to get the aftermarket people with fines and lawsuits.Much like the EPA did with the Diesel Tuner Industry that felt emission regulations didn't apply to them.This is from someone that owns said pickup truck with the same bright headlights,but i only use the truck when I have too and always turn off the Fog lights when driving in traffic.
  • Art65765977 I saw a porsche 911 with the most amazing headlights from behind approaching the Sunshine skyway in Florida. The pattern was 108 degrees across sweeping the road like a broom. My brother and I were amazed. I don't know what it looked like from the front but i am sure it was better than American cars
  • Master Baiter This is what happens when you take a chance on a startup auto company. Designing and building cars is hard.
  • Pwrwrench IIRC the most efficient version of the CRX was not sold in California, due to the "tune" of the 50+ mpg engine not meeting the emissions standards. The ones sold in California were rated in the upper 40s.Also, nearly all of these that I saw in SoCal were red, except for a few white ones.
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