VW News: Rumorpile: Volkswagen Bringing Over Next-Gen Polo, Subcompact CUV To The U.S.

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

July 8, 2013

According to a report from Motor Trend, Volkswagen is planning to bring over the next-generation Polo and a new subscompact crossover to the U.S. within the next few years. The reason is due to the upcoming CAFE standards and Volkswagen apparently needs a few more vehicles to help out.

The new Polo and subcompact crossover will utilize Volkswagen's MQB platform which has the flexibility to support a wide range of gasoline, diesel, hybrid, and all-electric powertrains.

No one knows what's in store for these two models in the U.S. The only thing that we know is that the subcompact crossover will be underneath the Tiguan and be around the same size as a Buick Encore.

Source: Motor Trend

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[G. David Felt]

This totally makes sense since everyone has to get on the Nazi EPA Gas standards. This will hurt not help the US.

I am all for setting emission standards to clean up the air but they need to get over having gas mileage as a requirement.

[Drew Dowdell]

I wish they would bring over the Up!

[Drew Dowdell]

This totally makes sense since everyone has to get on the Nazi EPA Gas standards. This will hurt not help the US.

I am all for setting emission standards to clean up the air but they need to get over having gas mileage as a requirement.

The amount of carbon released into the air is directly correlated to the number of gallons consumed. Reducing the number of gallons consumed per 100 miles reduces the amount of carbon released.

[ZL-1]

Interesting... If VW sends the GTD to the US it might change US perceptions regarding diesel engines

[Drew Dowdell]

Given the approximately 25% take rate for TDIs that VW currently has across all models, I would guess that perceptions in the US are already changing.

[ocnblu]

Cool man. I am all for more VW models being sold here. Always liked the Polo. A TDi AWD X-over with a manual would be the bee's knees.

[ZL-1]

Given the approximately 25% take rate for TDIs that VW currently has across all models, I would guess that perceptions in the US are already changing.

No, no ,no... I meant as perceptions being of diesel being frugal but not the sporty choice...

[G. David Felt]

Given the approximately 25% take rate for TDIs that VW currently has across all models, I would guess that perceptions in the US are already changing.

No, no ,no... I meant as perceptions being of diesel being frugal but not the sporty choice...

Not really sure the perception that Diesel is Frugal will change much here in the US. Europe is already use to a cast system of those that can afford cars and those that cannot and must use mass transit. Here in the US I believe even with high fuel economy, an expensive sub compact or sub sub compact running expensive diesel will not appeal to the masses as people's perception is that the tiny little cars are cheap commuter cars and we all know diesel is not cheap.

Not sure that we will see the mass adoption of Diesel as a Frugal entry level auto that some people are hoping for, but I do wish the auto companies luck on going to more diesels as we need torque monsters to move the OBESE AUTO's due to all the stupid NANNY Devices being required on cars today.

[Drew Dowdell]

again with the :tinfoil: :tinfoil: Dfelt. Not one sentence you typed there was correct.

[G. David Felt]

again with the :tinfoil: :tinfoil: Dfelt. Not one sentence you typed there was correct.

I choose to Disagree with you Drew All my travel to Europe has pounded into me a clear attitude of driving is for the well paid mass transit is for the rest or a solid moped. So this is my perception and take on spending 15-20% of my life at trade shows around Europe. For those that do drive, they accept compact or sub compact diesel and the high prices that go with it.

That stated, in the US and this is probably colored by living in a state with high fuel tax's and a big Hi-tech industry that most people here in talking with them do not consider diesel in these two categories of cars. Due to a much higher than average income many have already moved up scale in the auto scene.

In regards to my comment on the obese auto's and their nanny devices, I am not the only one here that has complained about the waist line of the auto's getting thicker and the crazy required electronic devices.

But then it was just my personal take on what I see and interpet.

Thanks for the UFO Blast as I do miss them not visiting me as often as they did back in the 90's.

[Drew Dowdell]

again with the :tinfoil: :tinfoil: Dfelt. Not one sentence you typed there was correct.

I choose to Disagree with you Drew All my travel to Europe has pounded into me a clear attitude of driving is for the well paid mass transit is for the rest or a solid moped. So this is my perception and take on spending 15-20% of my life at trade shows around Europe. For those that do drive, they accept compact or sub compact diesel and the high prices that go with it.

That stated, in the US and this is probably colored by living in a state with high fuel tax's and a big Hi-tech industry that most people here in talking with them do not consider diesel in these two categories of cars. Due to a much higher than average income many have already moved up scale in the auto scene.

In regards to my comment on the obese auto's and their nanny devices, I am not the only one here that has complained about the waist line of the auto's getting thicker and the crazy required electronic devices.

But then it was just my personal take on what I see and interpet.

Thanks for the UFO Blast as I do miss them not visiting me as often as they did back in the 90's.

Well I'll knock down each sentence one by one with detailed explanations of why you're wrong.

But your perceptions do not translate to fact. Yes it costs a lot to own a car in the EU, but that isn't dramatically different from the U.S. anymore. How many articles have we seen about how the younger generations no longer care about cars and one of the reasons cited is cost?

However, Just because you see someone one a bike or moped or streetcar in the EU doesn't mean they cannot afford a car. None of those means of travel have a stigma attached to them like in the US, so there is no reason you can't see a banking executive on the trolly every morning or some well-to-do suburbanite riding a moped. The public transportation systems are so good over there that people don't feel the need to own a car. Why spend the money on a car when there are daily and hourly car rental places everywhere to pick up a car for those times that public transit won't do?

I still have the desire to live there some day, I love cars, but even I admit that I wouldn't need to own one while living there. There is a Sixt Auto Rental place around the block from our (possibly future) house, an U-Bahn (Underground Train...subway) stop 2 blocks away, an S-Bahn stop 4 blocks away (Surface Regional Train... like NJ Transit) both of which will take me to the DeutscheBahn station (long distance rail) in under 30 minutes from where I can go to nearly any city in Europe. With infrastructure like that, many Europeans simply don't see the need to own cars regardless of how wealthy they are. My friends that live in Cologne; one is the Director of HR for a huge insurance company and the other is the manager of the helpdesk for Rhein Energie. Neither of them own cars though they certainly have the means. Hell, I even take the bus often here in the US and I still own a car... so just because you see someone on a bus or riding a bike in the US doesn't mean they can't afford one.

You may not be able to see any change in perception about diesels only being frugal and instead more sporty simply because we have such a limited selection of such cars right now. At most, the best performing diesel cars currently sold in the US is the 535d. The Audis with the 3.0 diesel are mostly not here yet. Cars like this GTD and even the Cruze diesel (264 lb-ft of torque with 280 lb-ft overboost!!) will make good performing diesels available to to masses. We are literally just opening the door to this possibility in the US right now. Once people realize they can have performance and frugal driving at the same time, the perception will change rapidly.

Electronic devices aren't the primary cause of the weight gain in cars. Most of it comes from crash safety requirements. Up until the latest generation of platforms, most manufacturers were simply throwing more iron on the car to make them hold up better in crashes instead of investing in metal alloys with greater strength. One of the best examples of this is at GM with the Epsilon platform that started with the lowly 2004 Chevrolet Malibu weighing in at a relatively light 3100lbs where by 2012 it was up to 3400lbs on a variant of the same platform and up to 4200lbs on the Cadillac XTS AWD. There is over an 1100lb difference between a 2004 Malibu and a 2013 XTS on related platforms.... rear parking sensors, side impact airbags (which were in the 2004 Malibu anyway), Stability control and LCD Screens don't weigh that much... Compare this growth to the Cadillac ATS which was built with weight in mind. It weighs in at 3300lbs and has all the "nannies" of the XTS, but is light-years away from the 2004 Malibu in crash safety due to the use of super high strength steel. So blaming the weight gain on these nannies instead of the metal is completely off base.