The Germans are coming! And they're bringing a sedan!
Journo Diana T. Kurylko recently interviewed the CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, Stefan Jacoby, who had a few details to share about the company's plans for a new four-door model. Here are a few of the highlights, which we've put in bullet format, for easy digestion:
- The car will be built at VW's factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (After the factory's been built, we presume.)
- The car will contain mostly American parts.
- Prototypes haven't been developed yet, but designs were shown to members of the company's dealer council a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, they were giddy as schoolgirls.
- The sedan in question will be very different from the Passat: "It will be bigger and sleeker, and it has items necessary for Americans -- space, seat comfort, cupholders, Bluetooth and other electronics. Very importantly, it remains a VW. It has been totally designed and engineered for the needs of American consumers." Is he trying to say we're fat?
- It'll hit lots around 2012 and retail in the $20,000 range.
But, of course, Jacoby didn't just talk about the sedan. Here are a few more VW-themed news nuggets that emerged during the interview:
- The next-gen Jetta will drop in the fall of 2010 and retail for less than the aforementioned mystery sedan.
- The company is definitely dropping the Rabbit name in favor of Golf, but rumors of changing the Jetta name are totally speculative.
- Still no word on whether the Polo will come to the U.S. or not. Suspense builds.
- VW's U.S. sales are down, but its market share is up to almost 2%. Nice trick.
- Jacoby doesn't see any sign of economic turnaround before 2010.
Except for that last bullet point, it sounds pretty good for VW. Coming up: our update on Chrysler, which probably won't be so chipper.
[source: AutoNews, sub req'd]
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