My highschool and college French are practically nonexistent. Even the shopkeepers in the French Cantons of Switzerland were offended, but I'm going to give this a try. Bear with me.
*Dr. Bernd P. : "A quelques rare exceptions, le style rétro n'engendre pas le succés. Et encore celui-ci se limite-t-il à quelques niches, je citerai la Mini, la 911 et. la Beetle.*
"Dr. Bernd said, 'With a few exceptions, the Retro styles were not a success. And also (no idea, something about the limited niche), I'm talking about the Mini Cooper, the Porsche 911 and the New Beetle.' "
I think that what Dr. Bernd said essentially was that the Retro's weren't successful, even the Mini Cooper, the 911 and the New Beetle, that they turned out to be a limited niche market.
On we go:
"Au sujet de cette dernière, elle connaîtra une descendance."
"On the last subject, (she) was contrary to (modern technical developments?)."
I think that what he said was that the New Beetle, based upon the old Beetle shape, proved to be too difficult to evolve into a modern vehicle with all of the modern standards of safety, performance and driver experience. That's crap. VW could never get the electrical system integrated into the miserable computer so that the New Beetle wasn't bug-ridden. He's blowing smoke here.
On we go:
"Quant au Minibus, il n'existera pas sous cette forme, nous allons produire un véhicule en collaboration avec Chrysler et exclusivement destiné au marché américain."
"As far as the Minibus goes, it is not of a set formula, we are going to produce a vehicle in collaboration with Chrysler and it will be destined exclusively for the American Market."
"D'un format identique, il coûtera moins cher à fabriquer que le Minibus : une exigence imposée pour des questions de rentabilité et aussi parce que ce marché n'offre plus les même espérances de volume qu'il y a cinq ans."
"On one identical design, it will be tailored (something about making it suitable for a rental vehicle and something about being able to expand the Minibus line over or in the next five years)."
Okay, that was really butchered, but the essense is: Old styling is out, new styling is in with Chrysler steering the VW American Minibus Line in the next five years.
Oh, joy.
Sue
