Lavida Loca? VW Reveals First China-Developed Car

Justin Berkowitz
by Justin Berkowitz

VW's Lavida Chinese-developed sedan looks about as exciting as a postage stamp (apologies to philatelist pistonheads). Worse, the car's interior lacks VW's trademark style and quality, what with the world's worst fake wood trim (excluding the press-on plastic wood from the '60's). Never mind. Based on the VW MkIV Jetta/Golf platform, the Lavida will be cheap as chips to build. The selling price is a rumored 150k – 190k RMB ($21k to $27k). Talk about product overlap: China's version of the current MkV Jetta sells for 120k – 180k RMB. So, dollar for dollar, yuan for yuan, Lavida or a Jetta? Meanwhile, if VW could bring a lightly-contented version of this car to the US for say $10k – $15k, even if it had only 120 horses, it'd be a huge hit for a company that's abandoned its cheap and cheerful brand reputation stateside. It could happen…

Pixamo gallery includes the press photos and live pictures from the Beijing Auto Show.

Justin Berkowitz
Justin Berkowitz

Immensely bored law student. I've also got 3 dogs.

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  • Seoultrain Seoultrain on Apr 21, 2008

    Lavida = La Vida?

  • Seoultrain Seoultrain on Apr 21, 2008

    I'm stupid. Didn't read the post. Sorry.

  • Paradigm_shift Paradigm_shift on Apr 21, 2008
    @ cretinx Ummm, Rabbit 4 door starts at $17,575. GTI starts at $22,800, SI 4 door starts at $21,310, explain to me again how this is a $5,000 difference??
  • Ricky Spanish Ricky Spanish on Apr 22, 2008

    Rabbit 5-doors were selling for $19,000-$20,000 I got my SI down to $20,000 GTIs were selling for $25,000 There's a difference between what the manufacturer's website lists the car's price as, and what they come to the lots equipped with and the dealer asks for. And, at the end of the day, the SI was a dynamically superior vehicle to the GTI - which is fantastic. My wife can drive it with the baby seat all week and I can autocross it on Saturday.

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