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First spy shots of Lupo replacement
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 12:50 am
by Babe RuthLess
These are the latest spy shots of the 'Lupo' replacement that should be presented over here in October and should go on sale in your part of the world by late 2004 as a 2005 model.
Ok, this is a post I made in another forum in reply to a comment about this VW model, and should help clarify things:
This is project 249, nicknamed 'Tupi' and it's been on the Brazilian - and international - motoring press for quite a while.
It turns out that VWB developed quite a lot of R&D capacity during the '70s and '80s, when nearly all Brazilian-made VWs were developed in-house by VW Brasil instead of just being transplanted European cars.
One of the results of that strategy was the VW Gol, which in its two generations (though VW calls its 1999 facelift 'Generation 3', like it did with the European 6N Polo facelift) has sold more than 3 million units in Brazil alone.
But the Gol is ageing. Badly. The current car, a facelift of the 1994 model Gol, is a very robust but also outdated car, a point made even more clear by the new Polo (which itself was developed with a lot of input from VW's Brazilian R&D facilities).
Trouble is, the Polo is more expensive than the Gol if compared model-by-model, so VW still needs a replacement for its champion. Since this new car has to meet simpler requirements than the Polo (and could be somewhat smaller yet still boast better interior space than the old-school Gol), VW had in its hands a unique oportunity to replace both the Gol and the european Lupo on the cheap (using the Polo platform and spare R&D capacity in Brazil).
Thus was born project 249, nicknamed 'Tupi' (after a Brazilian indian nation and the common language used by the indigenous Brazilian tribes in dealing with each other, sort of an 'English' for them).
249s will be small hatchbacks (probably about the size of a 6N Polo) in 3- and 5-door forms, though Europe will only see the 3-door as a Lupo replacement. While meeting the same emissions and safety requirements as its bigger brother the Polo, '249' will be simpler in trim and detailing, and will use cheaper, more robust powertrain choices (no 1.6, 1.8, GTI or TDI-100, TDI-130 options). '249' will be both shorter and taller than a Polo, emphasizing a mini-MPV look. Likely engines for the Brazilian market are the EA-111 family introduced in 1999 and 2000: two 4-cylinder, 1-litre units with 8v (47kW/65bhp) and 16v (58kW/79bhp) heads and possibly a 1.4-litre EA variant. These are very up-to-date engines and employ some clever technologies to achieve high specific outputs (58kW, 95Nm from 999cc).
Styling will be significantly different from the Polo and is said to take a lot of design cues from the next Golf (though naturally in simplified form). The picture of something like a 3-door Polo with single headlamps that has circulated on the internet and in a few magazines is most probably just a Photochop - '249' is said to have oval or elipsoidal headlamps, not round ones.
As for the choice of Anchieta, Brazil as the assembly site, it was a political decision as well as strategic one for the company - since project 249 was carried out in Brazil, it'd have been more difficult - and costly - to make adjustments and improvements in production if it took place far away. Or haven't you noticed that changes in cars appear first in their home markets (or more precisely where they're developed) and then are gradually introduced in other places of manufacture?
Cheers (and sorry for the long post!)
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 4:32 pm
by Speedlaw
Cool post. The car kinda reminds me of the Yaris/Echo model by Toyota.
Even so, I think I like it already.
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 6:09 pm
by ciden
It doesn't look like a VW. The front looks like a Toyata Yaris/Citroën C3, the front door like that of a Corsa, the back side window like the Megane II and the back like a Corsa again. I don't like it!
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 6:31 pm
by Babe RuthLess
This prototype had all cosmetic details heavily disguised, that's probably why you thought it didn't look like a VW. You can see though that the shape of the car is pure VW, even if it's taller than, say, a Polo.
Here's a rendering of what the 249 might look like in production form:
I'll look for a rendering of the five-door. I've seen it in magazines and it's kinda like a mini-Touran. The five-door 249 won't be sold in Europe though.
Cheers,
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 6:37 pm
by ciden
Ahhhh ok, that looks a whole lot better!!!!!
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 6:50 pm
by Babe RuthLess
A little update on the engines that will be available for this model:
The 1-litre versions will be 'flex-fuel', meaning they'll be able to run either on petrol or ethanol (plain old sugar-cane alcohol) or a mixture of the two in any proportion.
This technology is already available in Brazil with the VW Gol and the Chevrolet Corsa. Around 30% of the Brazilian fleet runs on ethanol but sales of that engine type have been slow since the early 90s. Alcohol-powered cars accounted for 90% of sales in the mid-80s, but in recent years they haven't represented more than 5% of total new car sales.
Flex-fuel is their comeback. Consumers will have a choice of fuels, and will be able to use whichever is cheaper. Although alcohol consumption is around 30% higher than that of petrol in same engine design and environmental conditions, the vegetable fuel is cheaper at the service station.
As for diesels, they can't be sold legally in Brazil so any info on that remains scarce. Export versions will likely use the Polo's 3-cylinder TDI-75 and the Lupo's 4-cylinder SDI for markets with lower quality diesel fuel.
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 7:06 pm
by polo2k
calling it a chevy corsa, almost, makes it sonud manly
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 7:16 pm
by KarlM
just need a big 9litre v8 now
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 7:20 pm
by polo2k
you gunna put that on a trailer?
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 7:20 pm
by Josh_PoloGTi
Big Block Chevy
(corsa)
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 7:24 pm
by KarlM
anyways... that car is ugly ugly ugly ugly!
It better have 4wd and a 1.8t!
What have VW design engineers been smoking? they design the gorgeous (if your a hairdresser) polo roadster and then come up with this pap!
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 7:36 pm
by polo2k
yes but i doubt that there will be many people sat there at the dealers going hmm now which car do i wnat? a practical and small car or a roadster thats going to scare me so badly id actually prefer the bus. hmm its all about market placement and design and marketing analysis (hu hu huh uh bevis he said ****) and even if they dont make it with mad engines at least it holds the potential as a real sleaper becasue vws recent trend is under powered (in some cases) great, responsive handleing cars so whats to stp some one keeping it looking stock and getting it over 200 hp just to make you go green (nice bit of color coding for you tyhere karl
) as he goes into third by the time youve hit 40 mph and all your left with is strained eye lids and the memory
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 8:28 pm
by Babe RuthLess
Well, there's always the 112bhp, Turbo'd, VVT'd 999cm³ (!) 16V engine from the Gol.
As for the Chevy Corsa, it's got a sort of big-block engine (for a Corsa anyway): 1.8-litre, 108bhp. But people have them fitted with 2.0 16Vs from Astras too. Too bad the chassis is such a girl.
BTW I've found a pic of the 249 interior somewhere, I'll scan it later and post here.
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 10:43 pm
by dxg
I can't believe the huge mistake VW would be making in realising such a dull car in that marekt segmentm, IMHO.
With cheap competition from the pacfic rim conglomorate auto divsions, offerings cars that start at around £6k in the UK and which are fully featured. VW can;t possibly hope to compete on price at that markt segment, and I doubt if the supposed brand values of quality, durability and rattle-free
cars would be attractive to purcahsrs of small entry-levels cars like this. After all, price must be king in that segment.
That leaves design as the differentiator and that is why I think this car would sell even less in the UK than the Lupo currently does.
Where did the gull-wing doors and the round headlights from the Lupo2 concept sketches go??
A huge mistake (have I said that enough now
).
Anyway these are my thoughts on the matter. Make of them what you will.
Deek.
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2003 1:19 am
by Babe RuthLess
Considering VW's aim of making this the chapest (modern) car in the world, I think the design actually makes sense.
This car is supposed to cost from US$6,000/£3700 in its key markets (Latin America, Africa, China) while offering VW's usual high engineering and quality standards (it's a simplified Polo underneath!).
It just happens that the choice of materials, as far as people who have actually photographed the interior say, is the same as in the Polo and the Touran, albeit with a much simpler design. In the photo I saw the car had a rather nice airbag-equipped steering wheel and a Citroën C3-style instrument cluster. The plastics didn't look shiny at all, but the radio was a single-slot job. No point in adding a full sat-nav system in such a cheap, no-frills car, so why bother with a double DIN set-up?
Air-conditioning will be carried over from the Polo, and will be an option just like (standard in Polos) electro-hydraulic steering. The list of such synergies goes on and on.
As far as the styling goes, yes it's nothing revolutionary. Thing is, I can't recall that many ground-breaking VW designs, apart from the 1974 Golf I and 1996 Passat. So it's a short, tall, eco-friendly, cheap car.
That's what the world can afford at the moment (even Ferdinand Piëch knew that, this project was signed off by the man), and that's what VW is delivering.
Of course, we would all prefer V5-engined Polos and mad aluminium coupés equipped with 4-motion, EBD, DSC and every other techno-acronym they could throw at it without making things go terribly wrong over a blown fuse or something. But for most people out there - in Europe too - this plain little car is all the car they'll ever need.
Not that I'd buy one. It only happens that most of my coleagues would. In fact, most people (in a broad, world-wide sense) would. Or Toyota wouldn't have been in continuous profit since the early 1960s. You don't seriously believe they made all that money from a handful of Celicas and other grey-import-type exotic coupés, do you?
Edit: typos