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| Volkswagen -FAW Jetta |
The Chinese auto market, just like India, has many peculiar characteristics. One among them is the existence of closely spec-ed models or product twins. I remember few years ago, (since I owned Siena, I got to read some related) Chinese had the global Fiat Siena, with the co-existence of a marginally altered Siena named as the Perla. And there are many cases like this. Now they would offer a novel Jetta by Volkswagen by the month of March, which is all alike what we described as Vento's Chinese cousin! So it is essentially the second cousin, let others continue to call it as Jetta!
The Jetta belongs to the same PQ25 platform that also accommodates its sibling Satana, Vento, Rapid, Polo and Seat Toledo.The car is a product of the Volkswagen-FAW joint ventures, owing to the fact the China is less liberalised in Auto sector and JVs with local companies are the only option for foreigners. The production has already started in the Volkswagen’s Chengdu factory but the launch is slated for March.
The company must have tried had to make the siblings (Satana and Jetta) look different, though the there isn't much. Bumper, grille, headlamp edges and fog-lamp assembly are the only goodies that try to make that hopeless differentiation. Alloys are of different pattern. But of the lot, the Satana looks a bit premium and so customers got to pay more unfortunately. That's the same strategy companies adopt in our own market as well nowadays. Scala or Sunny? Vento or Rapid? Cheating or Marketing??
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| Volkswagen Satana |
Do you think that the Jetta is gonna have new engine options? Absolutely not. Product twins do share the prescribed platform engines. So, the same 1.4 litre and 1.6 litre petrols as the Satana, with 5-speed manual and 6-speed auto gearboxes.
What Volkswagen does is more a number game. The company hopes to sell 2.2 million cars within 2019 untill the entry of the next generation. But what ever may be, the new Jetta offered here in India look a bit upmarket I presume.
[This article was written for and has also been published in Indianautosblog]
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