Volkswagen’s US November Sales Drop 25%

After a surprisingly decent couple of sales months in spite of everything, it seems the Dieselgate scandal has finally taken its toll on Volkswagen’s sales figures. The Tiguan, which doesn’t even have a diesel variant (weirdly), is heavily incentivized and sales were up almost 90 percent year over year, and new models like the Golf R and e-Golf (VW’s only electric car) bumped sales a little bit.

More bad news for Volkswagen. It was the steepest monthly decline for the VW brand since the start of the Great Recession.

In November 2014, back when things were shiny and handsome and buyers were blissfully unaware that their TDIs were emitting oxides of nitrogen many times over the limit, VW’s US sales were around 31,000 cars and diesels accounted for more than 5,000 of those cars.

The crisis affects both four- and six-cylinder diesel engines and the company is still working on a solution. “During this time we would like to thank our dealers and customers for their continued patience and loyalty”, said Mark McNabb, chief operating officer, Volkswagen of America. Sales of the once popular Jetta were off 23 percent and deliveries of the Passat midsize sedan fell a whopping 60 percent.

There were a few bright spots.

“As we head into the final sales month, we are on track to achieve our sixth-consecutive record year and exceed 200,000 annual sales for the first time”, Del Rosso said in the statement.

The company is reported to be near receiving European regulatory approval for a fix to the rigged diesel vehicles. That means Volkswagen is selling way fewer cars. It is still waiting for those agencies to either approve or reject those suggestions.