VOLKSWAGEN Australia has revealed its top-performing dealerships, honouring the best of its national network at its 2021 Dealer of the Year Awards last week.

Mawson Lakes Volkswagen of South Australia was awarded top metropolitan dealer, with Taree Volkswagen of New South Wales taking the title of best national and rural dealer of 2021. Wippells Autos of Toowoomba, Queensland, was awarded best provincial dealer.

Volkswagen Australia also recognised Beachside Volkswagen, Gerald Slaven Volkswagen, Griffith City Volkswagen, McCarroll’s Automotive Group, Melbourne City Volkswagen, Warrnambool City Volkswagen and Woodleys Volkswagen as its premium dealers of 2021.

Last year was a challenging time for Volkswagen, the brand impacted heavily by semiconductor shortages, other supply chain issues, and the mass retesting of its portfolio to accommodate the adoption of the WLTP fuel consumption standard in Europe.

So far this year, Volkswagen Australia is just over 6000 units down in sales versus the same period in 2021, with supply constraints on most of its key models, including bread-and-butter vehicles like the Amarok, Golf and Tiguan hitting the brand hard when it comes to satisfying demand.

The eighth-generation Golf has seemingly hit the ground running since launching mid-2021, with its year-to-date sales currently up by 77 per cent compared to this time last year.

However, with the Mk7.5 Golf being in runout for the first half of 2021 this result is no surprise, and with just 280 cars sold in May, the Mk8 Golf has yet to notch up the four-digit monthly sales numbers that its predecessor was capable of. Supply is clearly holding VW’s mainstay model back from its true potential.

The Polo, T-Cross, T-Roc and Tiguan Allspace do not suffer the same constraints, and the Tiguan Allspace is currently outselling the regular Tiguan – which is subject to delays in delivery.

A new five-seater variant of the ordinarily seven-seat Tiguan Allspace will enter VW showrooms in August in the form of the $51,990 (before on-road costs) Tiguan Allspace Adventure, which should help absorb some of the regular Tiguan’s order bank until supply improves.

Likewise the Polo, the latest update of which arrived in Australia last month with a top-heavy spec designed to entice would-be C-segment hatch buyers to instead “buy down” into the B-segment Polo – at least until the Golf supply line is back to its usual health.

By Tony O’Kane