Enter the rumormill: VW planning rear-engined answer to the MINI?

Is the world really desperately crying out for another ass-engined machine? An even better question might be: if Volkswagen really wanted to compete with MINI on the diminutive nostalgia front by making a rear-engine compact, why wouldn't they just scale down the new Beetle and put its engine where it was originally intended? Granted, that's a loaded question, since the amount of engineering resources necessary to fit any mill able to get out of its own way into the cramped confines of a new Beetle would be beyond even the most geeky of Deutschland's engineers. But we digress.
Our boys at the German Car Blog are helping to spread AutoBild's rumor that VW is planning a rear-engine vehicle to fight it out with the MINI. As GCB pointed out, "...it would certainly fit [sic] Dr. Winterkorn's statement to go into lucrative niches." Sure it would. And if this comes to fruition, we'll eat AutoBild's first road test of the RR V-Dub.

[Source: AutoBild via the German Car Blog]