Life has been no smooth driving adventure as far as anything the Germans have manhandled this year. From the government to industry to the average Frau und Herr tryin to navigate the economy and roiled social waters, Germany’s been a bumpy ride to nowhere lately.

Nothing illustrates that better than the fall of a German icon. Decades ago, Volkswagen made up a goofy German sounding word to describe what driving their cars was supposed to be like: Fahrvergnügen.

…A portmanteau of fahren (“to drive”) and Vergnügen (“pleasure”), the term adds up to “driving pleasure,” but to U.S. audiences at least, it was just a nonsense word which was fun to say. As auto publication Hemmings attests, the word “became a cultural catchphrase.”

They built all sorts of fun advertising around it, even with ubiquitous boxy 90s cars at the center.

The problem was they were still VWs and the company had problems selling cars in the early to mid part of the 90s regardless of what they did. But dang if the snappy little word with its limber stick figure didn’t catch on. Those stickers were everywhere, and, more importantly, related directly to VW – everyone knew what brand used both.

VW saved itself with the ’97 reintroduction of the hippie-dippy 60s Beetle, this time reimagined as a pretty hep chick car. Sold like hotcakes, and the color palette helped it fly off lots. It underwent a refresh in 2011, removing some of the more feminine aspects in an attempt to woo male customers, while beefing up the “spare” interior, plugging it full of the modern amenities of life, like GPS, etc., and put some zoom under the hood. All in all, still a money maker.

The final version of the Beetle made its appearance at the LA County Auto Show. The company was preparing to turn its focus to electric vehicles, and wanted to send off their iconic bug with a bang instead of a whimpering fade into black.

The final version of the VW Beetle, named the Beetle Final Edition, was revealed on Saturday at the Los Angeles Auto Show. A spokesman for the German automaker said there are no plans for further versions of the iconic vehicle, but added the caveat, “We’re never going to say never.”

“This is a really important edition of the Beetle because it’s the last one that’ll be made as far as we know,” said Mark Gillies, Senior Manager for Product Communications at Volkswagen US.

The final version of the classic car comes as the American branch of the automaker turns its attention to mass-market electric cars to appeal to a new generation of environmentally conscious consumers — children and grandchildren of the 1960s Beetle enthusiasts.

Five years later, it’s the company whimpering, and the Beetle might be only a fond memory of the golden years. About that EV transition – yeah. How’s that going again?

Volkswagen is ‘no longer competitive,’ job cuts intensify to keep up with Tesla

Volkswagen is struggling to keep up as buyers shift to EVs. CEO of VW brand cars, Thomas Shafer, warned, “We are no longer competitive,” after announcing additional job cuts Monday.

…“With many of our pre-existing structures, processes, and high costs, we are no longer competitive as the Volkswagen brand,” Shafer explained at a staff meeting Monday. According to a post on VW’s intranet reviewed by Reuters, Shafer warned high costs and low productivity were leading to uncompetitive cars.

The Volkswagen brand is no longer competitive.

WOWSAHS

I’ve been posting about a deindustrialization trend taking hold in Germany since the end of summer, and not in just the auto sector, but across the board.

Besides inflation and competition from the Chinese, the energy sector has, as you all know, been a huge drag in Europe. The rush to a renewable transition has been a pet project of the take-no-prisoners Green fanatics running Germany, and, with the Ukraine War and sabotaged Nord Stream pipeline, one fraught with arrogant missteps, egregious government overreach, disastrous mandates, energy shortages, and skyrocketing prices. The inept bunch in power in Berlin has been handing out subsidies to everyone from households to factories to mitigate some of the utility price damage, but it looks as if those days are coming to screeching halt as well.

In addition to a recent German supreme court decision that stripped Scholz of his ability to continue using COVID era pandemic accounting to circumvent Germany’s constitutionally mandated budget break for his grab bag of handouts…

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised that his government will forge ahead with investments needed to modernize the economy and maintain international competitiveness even after this month’s court ruling upended its budget planning.

The Constitutional Court judgment means Scholz’s ruling alliance has to move tens of billions of euros in special funds into the regular federal budget. That will drastically limit its room for maneuver and potentially threatens projects ranging from greening manufacturing to building out solar energy and expanding battery and semiconductor production.

…As a consequence of the Nov. 15 court ruling, Scholz’s coalition of his Social Democrats, the Greens and the Free Democrats on Monday approved a supplementary 2023 budget that includes the suspension of rules limiting net new borrowing for a fourth consecutive year.

…The government will have to account for more off-budget new borrowing in next year’s finance plan. Scholz said that consultations on the 2024 budget have not yet been completed and cautioned that “care takes precedence over speed.”

…(which has the opposition reveling in Scholz’s discomfiture and frustrated tantrums)…

…“Compared with the chancellors your once so proud SPD party has produced — Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, even Gerhard Schroeder — one has to come to the conclusion after this statement this morning: You can’t do it,” [Conservative Leader Friedrich] Merz said, prompting laughter and wild applause from conservative allies in the chamber. “The shoes you are standing in as chancellor of Germany are at least two sizes too big for you.”

…the European Union itself is putting more and more pressure on their bigger members to cut energy subsidies, period.

Brussels has called on several member states to stop subsidising companies’ and households’ energy costs, claiming the measures to curb the crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine soon risked breaching EU budget guidelines.

The EU suspended its rule that country’s budget deficits should not exceed 3 per cent of GDP during the pandemic, but wants to reintroduce them in 2024.

Under countries’ current plans, Germany, Portugal, Malta, France and Croatia should curtail the support unveiled in the spring of 2022 after energy prices surged following the breakdown of relations between Russia, a major source of European gas and oil, and member states.

The European Commission said in the case of the first three their measures should be removed “as soon as possible”.

As Germany had to completely freeze their budget when the court decision came down, this is salt in the wound. They’ve got themselves a €200B magical COVID euro slush fund set up to help German households with energy bills which could now be ruled unconstitutional if they tried to use it, as Vice-Chancellor and Green Party leader Robert Habeck gloomily noted.

Scholz himself is trying to sound a more positive note, appeasing both the EU and his CDU critics, while hedging those bets…with a little whining about his compromised Green dreams.

Germany’s energy crisis is “definitely not finished,” with high natural gas prices still putting a strain on the country’s economy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told lawmakers.

Germany was among the countries hardest hit when Russia curbed shipments of pipeline gas to Europe last year, driving up energy costs and forcing Berlin to hand out billions of euros to ease the burden of soaring power and gas bills. The country is the only Group of Seven nation whose economy the IMF expects to contract this year.

But while prices still are above pre-crisis levels, they are mostly below the upper price caps set by the government and will allow the phaseout of energy subsidies next year, Scholz said in a speech to the country’s Parliament Tuesday.

It would truly be “unforgivable” if this constitutional financial annoyance put the brakes on all the wonderful things the Scholz government has been doing, you know?

…In a statement to the lower house of parliament in Berlin on Tuesday, Scholz said it would be “a serious, unforgivable mistake to neglect the modernization of our country” given challenges that Germany faces, including dealing with the fallout from Russia’s war on Ukraine and tackling climate change.

Keep talking, pal.

If Scholz and Co. can’t take any sting out of the price of the marvelous, expensive renewables they’re shoving down collective throats, what’s to become of the entire transition they’ve been selling as cheaper and better for the planet? The premise AND promise are already in shambles, and the German people seem to be about over the Banbury tales they’ve been told by the climate cultists in power.

Voters are going to relish handing out some nügies of their own to Greens – ja, sicher (for sure)!