Lavida Loca? VW Reveals First China-Developed Car
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.