Volkswagen might not be launching any new vehicle in India in 2013 but the company does plan to bring out more variants of existing products, especially the Polo. One such variant which is set to go on sale in our country later this year is the Cross Polo. It is quite similar to the Skoda Fabia Scout, as there are very few mechanical changes. The ground clearance is higher, there is body cladding all around, new bumpers and roof rails. All these changes are purely cosmetic and will no way help Volkswagen compete in the emerging compact SUV segment.
However these changes do make the Volkswagen Cross Polo look muscular which might appeal to a few buyers. The Fabia Scout hasn’t sold one bit so why is VW pinning its hopes on selling a similar body style? Well for starters the Cross Polo will be powered by a 1.6-litre diesel engine which could output as much as 105 BHP of power and 250 Nm of torque. This is the same motor doing duty on the Vento and Rapid. The Fabia Scout was offered with 1.2-litre engines which were very underpowered for the price.
Contrary to reports, the Cross Polo will not get a tail gate mounted spare wheel for several reasons. Firstly it is already under 4-metres in length although with the 1.6-litre diesel heart under its hood, it won’t get small car excise benefits. Secondly Volkswagen sells the Cross Polo in Europe without such a configuration and there is no real reason why the company will do such an engineering exercise for a product which might not even sell. Thirdly and most importantly, the Cross Polo uses the same tyres (at least that is what the pictures depict) as the regular Polo and thus the spare wheel can easily fit in the boot.
Now the crucial question, will the Cross Polo sell or will Volkswagen re-create the Fabia Scout story? It’s difficult to say as the price is still an unknown quantity. But if we factor in the Polo TSI’s Rs. 9.33 lakh price, we can expect the Cross Polo to cost no less than Rs. 11 lakhs (all prices on-road, Mumbai). At this price, will customers accept a pseudo crossover or will they instead prefer lower variants of the Renault Duster of Ford EcoSport? We have our bets on the latter but we hope Volkswagen proves us wrong.
Source – Team-BHP
