Does VW Need a True Roadster?
August 9, 2007 – 12:18 pm by Matt Radel
Filed under Cool Stuff
Should VW jump on the roadster bandwagon?
There seems to be three current trends in automotive design.
1. Make something environmentally friendly with great gas millage (example: Prius).
2. Make something gigantic that guzzles gas like crazy (example: Hummer).
3. Make a great looking, sometimes underpowered roaster (example: Solstice)
While the first two are fun and annoying in their own ways, it’s the latter trend that I’m more interested in. I’ve been told time and time again, that my generation (I’m 26) will never have the buying power of my parents. Chances are, I won’t be able to go out and snag a 50K sports car any time soon - no matter how much I want to. But if I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of power and prestige, I can grab a roaster for around 35K or less and have a bunch of choices including (but not necessarily limited to): the Honda S2000, Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky, and the Nissan Z.
Obviously there’s a strong market here, and not an over saturated one at that. While the Eos is great, I don’t think it fits this market. It has a more high class appeal, and doesn’t have that “oh cool!” look to it. I’d love to see VW bring the Scirocco to the U.S. - as a roadster. Not only would that separate it from it’s Rabbit and GTI siblings, but offer a bit younger looking convertible.
What do you guys think? Sure, the idea is a shade out there - but a guy can dream can’t he?
Does VW Need a True Roadster?
August 9, 2007 – 12:18 pm by Matt Radel
Ooh, very eeeeeinteresting. I’d liketo see what VW would come up with for a roadster nowadays. I’m not a big fan of convertibles of any type, but I could dig if the look, specs and price were right.
If VW was going to put out a roadster, I think they’d need to aim for something in the $25-30k range. Anything above that and it’s going to start competing with the Audi TT. Really, I don’t see why they couldn’t do it. The 2.0T puts out more than enough power to have some fun with and if they wanted to keep development costs down, they could do what they did with the first gen TT and build it off of a Golf platform. Wouldn’t wow anyone with the handling, but it’d probably be respectable enough for those who weren’t petrol heads and the price would be much more manageable.
Concept R. nuff said…
Haha nice Sonjador. :] The ol’ Concept R was a right pretty one.
Ohhhh - I totally forgot about the Concept R! I must be too busy.
I just looked up the Concept R. That is one sexy vehicle. If they made that, I would totally want to buy one.
If they build it we will buy it!!! Imagine that car with a Big Turbo 2.0 Turbo in it pushing nearly 400 HP to the wheels!!! Now that, is what I think a VW is.