The Arteon is a very nice driving sedan. The Arteon is well engineered. The Arteon offers impressive performance. The Arteon is going to get dropped from VW’s lineup because no one is buying it.

The sad reality in today’s American market is that sedans are going the way of skinny jeans and Emo bands. They’re out of fashion. Sales of the Arteon plummeted 68% last year and when the last ones are sold, it’ll be gone for good.

Traditional 3-box sedans don’t stand much of a chance against crossovers that offer more cargo area, a higher seating position and a certain cache that has consumers thinking they’d be daft to consider anything else.

At least the Arteon is going down swinging. As part of a last-gasp effort, VW put a 300 hp engine under the hood, up 32 hp from before. It made all the top of the line R-line trim pieces as standard equipment. It added new wheel designs. It added Alexa. It added more options like a driver’s massage seat. And yet none of this moved the needle. Only 1,742 people bought one last year in the American market.

One problem the car faces is its price. It starts at $42,000. And while that’s under the average transaction price for cars today, that’s a lot of money to ask for an invisible car that’s in a shrinking segment. That’s thousands more than a top line Honda Accord or Toyota Camry. And while the Arteon arguably drives better than they do, when people are comparison shopping online it’s probably the first car they drop from their list.

VW has a lot of heritage and street cred with the GTI and Jetta. People know those cars, even people who have never owned one. The Arteon? Not even close. No one will even notice when it’s gone.

If you’re in the market for a sedan in this price range, the Arteon definitely deserves a test drive. Don’t judge it by the specs, drive it. I think you’ll like it. And if you do, better get your order in fast. Because when they sell out what they’ve got, that’s the end of the line.

–John McElroy

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