Volkswagen released their first SUV to much fanfare. They wanted to show that their SUV was a strong, tough vehicle. Their ads were very focused, showing how it could tow a massive Airstream trailer with ease. And the ads were initially very successful, as customers bought the Touareg SUV for this purpose. Unfortunately, the ads lied. The SUV does not have the power to tow large trailers – the ads were faked.



Volkswagen has yanked the fraudulent ads and is starting the process of compensating those who bought the SUV under incorrect expectations. I feel for the project team who spent a lot of time and effort working on the vehicle only to have their advertising agency give Volkswagen a black eye with their lies. I would never buy the first iteration of a new vehicle anyway since it takes a few years for the engineers to discover all the new problems and fix them. However, I certainly would not buy a product when its marketers falsely attribute capabilities that it lacks. How can you trust any of their claims?