2010 Volkswagen Tiguan Se on 2040-cars

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VW budget sub-brand stuck in limbo over VW standards, costs

Reports in October 2012 claimed Volkswagen had begun investigating the creation of its own budget brand. This came after having failed to purchase Malaysian car company Proton or produce a meaningful partnership with Suzuki, and after watching Renault-Nissan make piles of euro on Dacia and plot the return of Datsun.
For VW, more important than the question of what to call it was how to build it profitably and in a way that didn't damage the VW brand. According to a report in Autocar, a satisfactory answer still hasn't been found. The hurdle is how to hit "'necessary' quality and safety levels" at the price points needed to make the venture worthwhile. At the time of the 2012 report, German outlet Der Spiegel said VW was trying to get prices down to 6,000 to 8,000 euro ($7,784 to $10,379 US), about two thousand to four thousand euro under the price of the VW Up and in line with the cost of a 6,790-euro Dacia Sandero in Germany.
In March 2013, VW announced, "We want to bring a true budget car to the market in China in the foreseeable future," the most concrete move in that direction after years of planning to make a decision. Working with local Chinese maker FAW, it was predicted that the vehicle in question would appear around 2016, but as of November last year a final vote on it needed to wait until this year because "We are still working on the cost side" and profit possibilities for a car that "has to be durable, it has to be precise, it has to be safe."

Subaru WRX vs. Volkswagen GTI | Under-$30K fun

If financing a new car purchase for 60 months, you'll spend roughly $200/month for those five years on every $10K you finance. Subaru's WRX and Volkswagen's GTI, each with a base price of around $25K (which equates to roughly $400/month with 20 percent down) can easily become $40K (in WRX STI and Golf R trim). That extra $15,000 will cost you almost $300/month over the life of a 60-month payment book. A $40K Subaru or Volkswagen is cheap in terms of enjoying the additional performance, but if your goal is only to get places in a fast hatch or sedan, you can keep your outlay far closer to the base price. Just mind the options. VW GTI: In the increasingly popular hot hatch segment, the GTI was arguably the first. Based on the revolutionary (for the mid-'70s) Golf hatchback, the GTI offered upgraded power, improved handling and just enough cosmetic enhancements to let others know you were driving something special. Consumer response was immediate, and imitators came out of the woodwork. Now in its seventh iteration (as of the 2015 model year), the GTI has consistently evolved. Its 2.0-liter turbocharged four makes 210 horsepower and — more important in day-to-day driving — 258 pound-feet of torque. Its footprint remains comfortably small, with easy access to front and rear seats and, if you need to carry something large, it has an expansive hatch and fold-down rear seat. Like most of the VW/Audi family, its interior design and appointment bat well above the $25,000 price point. Whether selecting the six-speed manual transmission or six-speed DSG automatic, know that a responsive, agile hatchback is just a throttle tip-in away. It's perfect for the in-town commute, weekend getaway or cross-country romp. And it appeals to a wide demographic, so resale value will remain high. Subaru WRX: This once was a performance derivative not shared with American consumers. But with its success globally, Subaru brought the WRX to the States, with the high-performance STI variant not long after. Having been offered in the U.S. as a sedan, wagon and hatchback, today's WRX is available only as a four-door sedan. As on every Subaru available in the U.S. (except the BRZ), all-wheel drive is standard. Power is supplied by a turbocharged flat four displacing 2.0 liters but upping the horsepower to 268, while available torque is numerically identical to the GTI's at 258 pound-feet.

Volkswagen considering a four-door, four-seat XL1

According to a report in Autocar, Volkswagen might have more in mind for the XL1 than mining it for advances to grace the next-generation Golf. Aiming to fight the Honda FCEV due for public consumption next year, we're told VW executives have put a four-door, four-seater version of the XL1 - it could be called XL2 - on the drawing board. The impetus is said to come from the top, with VW Group chairman Ferdinand Piëch intent on staying in the deep end of "super-efficent vehicles."
Autocar suspects the necessary changes could raise the weight of the car from 1,749 pounds to 2,068 pounds, which would make it four pounds less than the 2,072-pound Up! we drove a few years ago. Crucially, however, the mag thinks the extra capacity wouldn't change the two-seater's 310-mile-per-gallon rating, with tech tweaks and the aerodynamic benefit of a longer car offsetting the weight. Speculation is that the back seats would be staggered like the fronts in order to maintain the XL1's overall profile.
We recently heard about another XL1 variant that's gone off the radar entirely, the Ducati-engined XLR that we thought we'd see at the Geneva Motor Show and that was said to be going into production, so this one could go the same way. The biggest hurdle to making such an idea a reality, though, could be the price: the current XL1 costs 110,000 euros ($146,116). If VW really is going to compete with the Honda FCEV and the Toyota FCV - $70,000 in Japan - that might be where it wants to start.