The Volkswagen Up’s Indian foray with the XL1 concept’s uber-frugal diesel engine maybe a heated boardroom discussion topic in Chakan and Wolfsburg at this moment, but there are countries the Up’s reached where Volkswagen’s marketing team is busy coining the term “creative absurdity.”
They first covered cars on the streets with VW Up! car covers. They then mounted an example scaling a building in France. This campaign shows the compactness of the vehicle in a manner never seen before.
If they had used the rugged-looking Cross Up!, customers may have believed its gradability is 90%, thankfully the marketeers were quick to sense that possibility and used a three-door model.
Aren’t these Germans are ready to go to any heights to get your attention?
Although there is no official confirmation, Volkswagen Up! is being seriously considered by VW India for the Indian consumers. Its small dimensions coupled with super efficient engineS make it nearly a perfect entry-level car for India.
However, the VW Up! is only available with a petrol motor which may work against its favor as Indian auto market is dominated by diesel cars.
However, VW has confirmed that the Up! will get a diesel engine very soon. This is not the normal TDI that we find in the Polo and Fabia.
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Shanghai-VW has cloned the latest generation Passat, made it smaller and is introducing it as the Volkswagen Lavida in the Chinese market. Everything from the car’s daylight opening, tail light, kink on the C-Pillar to the car’s headlights are similar to the Passat (NMS). Volkswagen has many tie-ups with local Chinese auto makers but the latest Lavida’s development used very few inputs from Wolfsburg.
Ford has presented the B-Max five-seat MPV on the internet. The public will see it in flesh for the first time at next month’s Geneva Motor Show. The B-Max is the MPV counterpart of the EcoSport SUV. It will make it to India by mid-decade with a longer wheelbase. The bodywork, front-end and rear are likely to stay similar on the extended wheelbase version.
Renault is finalizing last minute details on the fourth generation B-Segment Clio as it gets ready to present the vehicle in October’s Paris Motor Show. The new Clio will be the most stylish of generations as Renault is trying to connect emotionally with its would-be buyers. A 900cc, turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine is said to be the driving force on the Clio 4. Isn’t that engine ideal for the Indian market as Nissan could also benefit from it?
Here at IAB, we generally focus at the outcome rather than the components. However, something very interesting was unveiled yesterday that will change the way one of the biggest manufacturer in the world makes its cars.
Yes, we are talking about the MQB platform from VW which will underpin pretty much everything the VW group has to offer.
The MQB or Modular Transverse Matrix platform will unify all the products that fall under the VW group. The platform is so important for VW that they call it – “the backbone of light and safe cars.” It is an extremely flexible platform that can be stretched, or shortened to fit anything from a Golf to a Passat.
The biggest advantage of this platform is the uniform position of all motors (diesels, plug-in hybrids, electrics, gas engines) and transmissions. This will provide an unbelievable efficiency and flexibility to the VW group. Also, the company can now manufacturer VW, Skoda, Seat and Audi models on the same assembly line thus gaining massive economies of scale.
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Volkswagen India has been very smart when it comes to product launches in India. Sensing the huge parity between petrol and diesel prices, the company has only chosen to launch diesel variants of its über expensive cars in India.
The Jetta was launched with a TDI engine and so was the Passat. The latter had BlueMotion technologies that save fuel and reduce tail pipe emissions. However it is being reported in the media that VW India is also planning to launch the petrol version of both the cars very soon.
The Jetta with a TSI badge has been caught testing a number of times on the Pune roads. Our friends at BSMotoring claims that the German giant is planning to increase the market share of the Passat by launching the petrol variant in February.
The only special edition model India’s received since its early 2010 release is the ‘Breeze.’ But back in Europe, the Polo’s had a few of them already and the the recently introduced ‘Match’ edition has every feature one can ask for.
The ‘Match’ models have traditionally meant more for less. They are popular in the UK and this year, VW is using the same concept in Germany. The Match edition can be bought on the Polo, Golf, Golf Plus (crossover), Golf Variant (station wagon), Jetta, Scirocco (premium hatchback), Sharan and Touran (MPV models) which saves Polo customers, believe it or not, 2.15 lakh rupees when the options are added individually!
The Volkswagen Polo is making headline news around the world as it finished 2011 as the second best selling vehicle in Europe. You must have already guessed the best selling vehicle, its without doubt the Polo’s elder sibling Golf that India unfortunately doesn’t have in its lineup.
The Golf has yet again proved that practicality tied together with fun can lead to impressive results. VW India has been spied testing the Golf in Pune but once told IAB that for its price, Indian customer is looking for a sedan.
Finally the day has come when VW has unveiled the 5-door version of the popular budget car – Up!; Not that you should be surprised because you saw it before much thanks to SRK’s renderings. The VW Up! made its debut at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show in a three door version.
The five-door Volkswagen Up! has the same dimensions as the three-door version. So the wheelbase is the same 2.42 m along with the 251-liter boot.
The Volkswagen Up’s Indian foray with the XL1 concept’s uber-frugal diesel engine maybe a heated boardroom discussion topic in Chakan and Wolfsburg at this moment, but there are countries the Up’s reached where Volkswagen’s marketing team is busy coining the term “creative absurdity.”
