Volkswagen is set to release a new brand name across the world market. And it turns out the future of VW will look a lot like the past.
Over the years, Volkswagen has gone from the maker of cheap, basic transportation that worked nearly 50 percent of the time to making basically Audi’s lowest trim level. Nowadays, it’s hard to find a single car in VW’s American lineup that counts as a “people’s car”.
The new vee-dub brand is aimed to take VW back to its basic roots. Details are still sparse but Autocar reports that a complete release of information is due in the next year.
The brand will likely include some cars currently sold as Seats, VW’s Spanish subsidiary, as well as basic versions of existing cars. What is less clear, however, is how much of the lineup of the mystery brand will be sui generis.
It does seem clear, though, that the company will be competing with the budget arms of companies like Renault’s Dacia or Nissan’s reborn Datsun.
If these names don’t sound familiar, it’s because those brands aren’t sold in the United States. Instead, they’re sold in developing markets like Latin America and Southeast Asia.
I am sure that VW hopes not only to make a profit selling cheap cars, but also to get up-and-coming buyers hooked on VWs.
Unfortunately, Americans aren’t going to be getting any of these basic VWs, as the Germans would much rather sell us $50,000 crossovers at an obscene markup.
So if you want a simple, down-to-earth VW, I suggest you go out in your yard and pull the ivy off that air-cooled van slowly becoming ‘one with nature’.
