All-new VW Taos: is it the Chinese Tharu?
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As I mentioned earlier, this “new small VW SUV for the US” looks a lot like the Chinese Tharu.
Which is OK I guess, since it looks just like a small Tiguan. The Tharu came out in 2018, so I guess a facelift is scheduled for 2021 and that’s the one we will be getting.
The North American model will be called the Taos and built in Mexico. No word about specs yet. But I would assume the 1.4 Liter Turbo from the Jetta would be a good bet.
At 175 inches long, the Tharu is about 5 inches longer than a Honda HR-V. 3 inches longer than a Nissan Rogue sport and even a couple of inches longer than the Mazda-CX-30.
It’ll play the same game as the Tiguan in its segment. Basically, offering a larger/roomier model for the price of the competition (or even less).
As you can see in the last pic, the interior of the Tharu is [retty decent. Since VW doesn’t really modify their interiors for mid-cycle refreshes, I would expect the Taos to look very close to this…
What do you think? (VW seems to be the last player to enter the sub-compact SUV segment in the US.
Will this work?
The 1.4t is kind of crummy in he Jetta because of the aisin 8 speed. I feel like this will suffer even more knowing it will likely have the same drivetrain. Having said that I haven't driven the competition like the trailblazer and Seltos, so maybe it'll be in line with those and I'm just being critical of the segment having been spoiled.
Basically the replacement of the Golf and will also cut Jetta sales in half. It will definitely do well.
It looks like the they've given the Tharu a facelift to bring its looks in line with revised Tiguan.
Vince, I'm not sure what has changed, but this site has been loading waaaaaay slower for the past 2 weeks, and has gotten particularly bad the last couple days. Not sure if you got a new host but I've had this issue on multiple devices on multiple wireless and cellular networks.
Sorry about the speed. There is no change here. Same server etc…
It loads fine on my computer, iPhone, and iPad. Not sure what it could be… maybe a browser problem?
VW seems lost, 20-30 years ago they had a lot of hot products: Corrado, GTI, Passat, Jetta, Touareg, new beetle… look at today's lineup: lots of "me too" SUVs, nothing industry leading, nothing "edgy"… i think this new SUV will sell IF they price it right and increase the warranty coverage…
they will have a tough time going against KIA/Hyundai whose designs are industry leading AND have the quality and warranty coverage
Would have preferred the SWB Tiguan (especially with the GTI engine) than this. Maybe one day VW will figure it out.
As for the website's loading issues, I'm experiencing the same slow speed trying to get the site to open.
It needs to be priced under 30,000 CDN dollars to be competitive in the over crowded marketplace for small SUV/Crossovers. Also the quality needs to be at least comparable to Koreans or better. I seriously doubt VW can sell even a Comfortline Taos for under $30,000 CDN.