The days when Volkswagen sold older engine models in China are a thing of the past

Mondo Cars Updated on 2024-01-31

As early as the 80s of the 20th century, Volkswagen introduced Jetta A2 and Santana (Passat B2) into the Chinese mainland market by uniting China's two major state-owned car companies and achieved great success. For a time, Volkswagen became synonymous with high-end cars in the Chinese market.

Especially in the 90s of the 20th century, Volkswagen upgraded the chassis of the ordinary Santana, changed the interior design, and designed the new Santana 2000, which is a later version of the model, the Santana 3000 and Santana Vista models. The common feature of these models is that the engine used by Volkswagen has been phased out in the European market6-liter naturally aspirated single overhead camshaft engine (1The 8L naturally aspirated single overhead camshaft engine consists of 16l evolved).

Even in 2003, Volkswagen has China's Bora-* Jetta, which was later remodeled into a Bora classic, also used this single overhead camshaft engine. What's even more ridiculous is that Volkswagen also used the 2 on the early Passat B5The 0L single-static camshaft engine, which was used even in the later Passat field and the new Passat field, was the power that Volkswagen had installed on the Passat B4 model in the 90s of the 20th century.

What is puzzling is that when FAW-Volkswagen introduced the Magotan model - Passat B6, in order to lower the market price, FAW-Volkswagen also used this 2 that has been eliminated for nearly 20 years in 20100-liter naturally aspirated engine.

At that time, Volkswagen did not introduce new engines into the country

First, because the Chinese automobile market was not mature at that time, especially the B-class car market was still monopolized by the joint venture car market, and the Chinese did not know much about cars.

Second, in the automobile consumer market at that time, the car was still a luxury product, and the Chinese people had limited funds to come up with, and the joint venture car could win the market demand by changing the external characteristics of the vehicle, such as the shape and interior.

3. Although there are more advanced models abroad, the Chinese people at that time did not have high technical requirements for vehicles. I remember that when Volkswagen introduced Polo into China for sale, the price of the car exceeded that of the ordinary Santana at that time, which was not understood by the Chinese people, and the sales were not as good as Poussin, although the Polo used Volkswagen's latest technology engine and gearbox, and the body used galvanized steel, but Chinese car consumers at that time still felt that Poussin was more magnificent. This phenomenon has made Volkswagen executives lament that Chinese do not understand technology.

Fourth, consumers in the Chinese market at that time were not as sensitive to oil prices and environmental protection as they are now, although the old engine was inferior to the first engine in terms of power performance and fuel consumption, but the car price was cheap.

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