18 Sep 07 13:26
Volkswagen seems to be quite serious about putting its cute Up! mini-car into production.
The square-cut four-seater, with a three-cylinder engine secreted in the tail, is surely the car the Smart ForFour should have been and you can bet that Dr Ferdinand Porsche, a man wedded to the rear-engine idea, would have approved thoroughly.
But what makes us think this is more than just a fanciful concept jumping on the eco-bandwagon? Within a minute of looking over the Up!, 4Car was accosted by a young lady holding an electronic notebook pre-programmed with market research questions. What did he think of the idea, on a scale of one to five? The front view? The front-side view? The full side view? The, um, rear side view?
How much did he think it should cost? What would be too expensive? At what point does the price become too low to give a credible message of quality? Interesting one, that: make a car a certain price and the buyer builds in an appropriate notion of quality, as opposed to making a quality car and charging the price needed to make a viable business case. Are we, perhaps, looking at the first European-market Volkswagen to be sourced from China?
