VW to Discontinue Santana in 2012

The Chinese division of Volkswagen announced it will kill the highly-popular Santana in 2012, despite the fact that the company still has high expectations in the last years of production. According to a report by chinacartimes.com, Volkswagen projects sales of 86,572 Santanas in 2009, 62,640 in 2010, 48,438 in 2011 and 30,437 in 2012. And to give you an idea about this successful model, the manufacturer sold no less than 3,213,710 since it first rolled out Santana in 1983.

The reason for this decision is still unknown but, just for the record, the Chinese side of VW was still producing an older model of Santana - pretty much known as Passat on many other markets. And even so, the car was extremely popular in this particular market, with lots of taxi services using Santana as their cabs.

Nevertheless, there are a lot of rumors surrounding Santana, the aforementioned source noted, which might give us a hint into how the German manufacturer sees the future of the car. For example, Santana has always been regarded as a less safe vehicle, with consumers across China criticizing it for the safety features - and especially for their efficiency - it provides.

Since its official debut in China, Volkswagen has periodically upgraded Santana with new features to better match the market demand. For example, during its lifetime, the car received Bosch injection system, hydraulic clutch, ABS and EBD and MP3 players.

There are several trims available in China, with the 2008 Santa Vista, developed by Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive, powered by a 2.0-liter engine developing 107 horsepower at 5,000 rpm and 168 Nm of torque at 3,800 rpm.