Photo: Kolesa.ru
The U.S. launch of the Arteon has been relatively successful. It's not the cheapest car in the world, but people seem to like the styling and the fact that it's got a practical hatchback opening.
The Arteon replaces the CC four-door coupe, but is still called the CC in China. To make things even more confusing, a production prototype of a CC Shooting Brake was recently spotted and will hit the market in the People's Republic later this year.
This is the stuff of dreams for auto journalists begging for a new shooting brake model to come out. But we don't buy them, and neither do you, which is why VW made an interesting trade-off: it's not a shooting brake; it's an adventure vehicle.
The Chinese prototype we saw had been fitted with black extensions to the wheel arches, raised suspension and a new bumper with silver trim. They didn't change the gold paint that the Arteon already had because this type of color is usually seen on adventurous editions of cars.
Anyway, the Chinese prototype had been shot only from a couple of angles and was missing some trim bits. But you can always leave it to the efficient, swift folks at Kolesa.ru to figure things like that out.
The strange thing is that this may stay a China-only model for a while. Volkswagen likes to make dozens of powertrains for each car it sells in Europe, which is how they stay on top of the market. But it's so difficult to get them approved by regulators that it's not worth making another version of the Arteon, especially not one with AWD. For this reason, the Arteon is currently only available with a frugal 150 hp diesel there.
So what about America? Well, in a recent article, we discussed how the only wagon that's doing well is the Subaru Outback, which isn't really a wagon. Sure, the Arteon Shooting Brake has a rugged look, but Volkswagen tried that before and it didn't work. Due to factors like price, cabin space and equipment, the Golf Alltrack never got its foot in the door.
This is the stuff of dreams for auto journalists begging for a new shooting brake model to come out. But we don't buy them, and neither do you, which is why VW made an interesting trade-off: it's not a shooting brake; it's an adventure vehicle.
The Chinese prototype we saw had been fitted with black extensions to the wheel arches, raised suspension and a new bumper with silver trim. They didn't change the gold paint that the Arteon already had because this type of color is usually seen on adventurous editions of cars.
Anyway, the Chinese prototype had been shot only from a couple of angles and was missing some trim bits. But you can always leave it to the efficient, swift folks at Kolesa.ru to figure things like that out.
The strange thing is that this may stay a China-only model for a while. Volkswagen likes to make dozens of powertrains for each car it sells in Europe, which is how they stay on top of the market. But it's so difficult to get them approved by regulators that it's not worth making another version of the Arteon, especially not one with AWD. For this reason, the Arteon is currently only available with a frugal 150 hp diesel there.
So what about America? Well, in a recent article, we discussed how the only wagon that's doing well is the Subaru Outback, which isn't really a wagon. Sure, the Arteon Shooting Brake has a rugged look, but Volkswagen tried that before and it didn't work. Due to factors like price, cabin space and equipment, the Golf Alltrack never got its foot in the door.
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