VW Campaign in U.S. for World Domination

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: July 21st, 2008

Auto Motor und Sport reports Volkswagen vants to conquer ze world! The German automaker aims to displace Ford as world number three automaker this year and then, eventually, take on Toyota. Yes, well, anyway, Wolfsburg can't get there from here without fixing its NorAm ops. To that end, VW is considering bringing a subcompact "similar to its Polo" stateside. The Yaris/Fit fighter would take VW back to its small, fuel-efficient American roots. Bloomberg reports that Vee Dub's also looking to produce a market-specific version of a future Polo in the U.S. of A.. Power could come from one of VW's new low-pollution powerplants, built at a forthcoming engine plant in Puebla, Mexico. Better late than never?

Edward Niedermeyer

More by Edward Niedermeyer

Comments

Join the conversation

4 of 29 comments

Brettc on Jul 22, 2008

It would be nice if VW would do this. VW enthusiasts have only been begging for a Lupo and Polo for about 8-10 years or so. (Slow down, VW) I don't need a car as big as my Jetta. I think a Polo TDI would be great. However, if they Americanise it, then I'll have no interest in it. I'll take a base Polo TDI with an AM/FM CD player and crank windows. They should include ESP as standard equipment, and make A/C an option.

Like Reply
Psarhjinian on Jul 22, 2008
43 mpg euro speced right? it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen vw mpg drop once american safty is added. It's not safety regulations, it's different testing procedures. European figures are much more optimistic, and there's far weaker regulations about how those can be obtained (manufacturers do their own testing, for one). There was a story posted recently, about an independent journalist discovering European ratings were grossly inaccurate for many cars. And yes, this is after the conversion from Imperial to American gallons. I blame a lot of the diesel enthusiasm on people taking the European highway figure for a given car, rounding up to the nearest 5mpg mark, and then somehow assuming that this translates directly to EPA combined.

Like Reply
Yournamehere on Jul 22, 2008

i would like a Polo GTI. i believe they have 180hp version. that would be great. I love my MK5 GTI but 98% of the time its just me driving around so there is no need for all that extra car. There is deff a hole i the market for a performance oriented sub-compact. most are in the 110hp bracket. If VW brings me a polo with 180hp, disc brakes, 6spd MANUAL and it sunder 20k...im sold.

Like Reply
Ricky Spanish on Jul 22, 2008

oh god just what we need more of these pieces of crap I've owned a vee dub and two audis - all garbage.

Like Reply