Filed under: Concept Cars, Detroit Auto Show, LA Auto Show, Convertibles, Sports/GTs, Volkswagen
Volkswagen mid-engine roadster coming to Detroit, not LA
by John Neff on Nov 10th 2008 at 11:29AM 
Automotive News is reporting that Volkswagen has moved the debut of its mid-engine roadster from this month at the LA Auto Show to January at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The only reason given for the move is that VW expects there to be more interest for the concept two-seater in Detroit than LA. We would hazard a guess that it's also got something to do with budgets being trimmed back, but what do we know.There's still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the VW mid-engine roadster, like what size four-cylinder will be installed behind the seats and whether or not the platform will make extensive use of aluminum to keep weight down. Though the car debuting in Detroit will be a concept, a production version is expect in 2011 if things go according to plan. Because a two-seat, mid-engine roadster is anything but a volume seller, however, this new sportster from VW could be in danger of being cut due to the ailing auto market in the U.S.
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Icon149 11:38AM (11/10/2008)
styling is all wrong, this concept doesn't look enough like the Karmann Ghia. Back to the design studio, kidney grills and more curves please.
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Jared 12:54PM (11/10/2008)
That image is just someone's photoshop guess. We don't know what VW's concept car is going to look like, let alone the production car.
tankd0g 11:47AM (11/10/2008)
Wow, a Porsche Boxter but with a reliable engine. I think Porsche might have something to say about that shortly...
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BigMcLargeHuge 12:33PM (11/10/2008)
Porsche will probably thank them.
The Boxter and Cayman sales are the hardest hit this year. Almost 80% down in October.
If they could actually sell a VW roadster in volume, Porsche would probably make more money though their partial ownership than they are selling Boxters right now.
Duncan 12:03PM (11/10/2008)
Yes, because if there's any place that is more interested in open-air cars than Los Angeles, the land of 70-degree winters and 350 days of sunshine, it's Detroit.
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Clarence Young 12:35PM (11/10/2008)
Convertibles are quite popular in the rust belt. When they do get the rare nice day, it is quite wonderful to put the top down and drink in the great outdoors.
Luis 1:56PM (11/10/2008)
Detroit is no more interested in a convertible than I am here in CA. in a snowplow...
Todd 12:08PM (11/10/2008)
"VW expects there to be more interest for the concept two-seater in Detroit than LA."
Sounds more to me like they don't have it finished in time for the LA show. More interest at Detroit? lol!
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Chase 12:08PM (11/10/2008)
Autoblog, there is no danger of this car being canceled. VW is building its new plant in Tennessee, which will produce what VW hopes is its highest volume car in America (100,000/yr). In order to sell that car, they will have to conquest almost all of their sales. For conquesting buyers on such a massive scale, VW will need a lot of draw. Thus, there will be several sporty models, including this one, and a halo car, probably a worked up Scirocco.
To look at it another way, VW has lost money in US operations for over ten years. They did that because they wanted to maintain a brand presence so that one day they would hopefully enter the US market on a more serious level. That time happens to be now. While the rest of the automakers in the US are making cutbacks, VW is going to be using their massive profit from developing nations to muscle out some market share in the US.
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Travis 12:09PM (11/10/2008)
interesting concept, but I wonder if it'll be the "everyman's roadster", similar to the GTI in pricing and market placement, or whether it'll be the "we desperately, desperately want to push our brand up-market so it'll be priced at $35,000" crap that they've experimented with in the past...
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Clarence Young 12:37PM (11/10/2008)
Eager to see the concept in full bloom. There are never enough sports cars.
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Joel 1:16PM (11/10/2008)
This was one of the cars I was looking forward to seeing at the LA Auto Show. With more companies pushing new car debuts out of LA I am having second thoughts of going. I can stay home and read Autoblog's coverage.
As for the delay it must not be ready. So Cal is the land of convertibles. Oh and VW please make it the everyman's roadster. Really I want to be able to afford a car that doesn't look like a bathtub on wheels, yeah I'm talking about you Miata.
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adolph 1:21PM (11/10/2008)
Since when has VW had anything ready on time? Always have lame excuses.
And their quest to sell 100,000 cars in the US? HAHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHE
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estammel 1:41PM (11/10/2008)
VW has sold over 200k cars/yr in the US for a decade. 60-80k/yr from Jetta...
It's not so hard to believe. If they want to sell 500k+(800k minus Audi's hopes for 250k) by 2018, they'll need a big variety of models and atleast a couple halo cars.
I agree with the others, keep the price down, keep the weight/fluff options down, throw a clean diesel in it and have possibly the most efficient sports car built...
Khanh 1:31PM (11/11/2008)
What if Toyota resurrected the MR2 to compete?
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