Volkswagen Teases Yet Another CUV

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Hey kids! What time is it? That’s right, it’s teaser time!

Add Volkswagen to the list of brands looking to fill every possible niche in the SUV/CUV lineup, from subcompact to Canyonero sized.

In this case, the company is looking to slot a compact crossover below the Tiguan in size (and presumably, price). The brand currently offers just three SUVs: The aforementioned Tiguan, the three-row Atlas, and the five-seat Atlas Cross Sport.

That’s a problem in crossover-crazed America. So, come October 13th, the wraps come off the next VW crossover.

Whether it will be related to the T-Roc ( which wasn’t supposed to come to America) or T-Cross is unclear from the teaser shot, in which the headlights obscure the front so much that we only get a vague sense of the overall lines at best. There’s a video, too, for those so inclined, but the format isn’t friendly to our content management system, so you’ll have to seek it out if you want to see 13 seconds of the still image.

It is, of course, separate from the ID.4, which is based on the ID.Crozz concept.

The press materials are similarly detail-free, providing us with only this boilerplate statement from Scott Keough, president and CEO of Volkswagen of America: “We’re excited to share the first glimpse of the newest member of the Volkswagen family. Great things come in small packages, as Volkswagen has proven throughout the years with its iconic Beetle, Golf and Jetta. This next car will be no exception.”

Not much to work off of there, and one wonders which canceled auto show this vehicle was supposed to debut at.

This is pure speculation, as I have no inside sourcing, anonymous or otherwise, but it wouldn’t be shocking if the 1.4-liter turbo four from the Jetta and Golf makes it way into whatever this new vehicle is, probably paired to an eight-speed automatic.

The answers will be revealed on Tuesday, October 13. Given the way 2020 is going, it’s surprising that the 13th of October isn’t a Friday.

At least this new compact will have a name by then.

[Image: Volkswagen]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Schmitt trigger Schmitt trigger on Sep 08, 2020

    Is it only me who is tired of these teaser photos the auto industry is so fond of? They don’t hint, much less reveal, anything significant. For all practical purposes it could be the photo of an UFO parked in Area 51.

  • Superdessucke Superdessucke on Sep 08, 2020

    Yawn. In other news, I took a dump this morning.

    • RHD RHD on Sep 12, 2020

      It looks like VW did, too. The front lights are just the taillights, without the red pigment. Seriously, VW, do you really think you are creating "buzz"?

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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