New Golf will start new deal for Volkswagen
MQB stands for Volkswagen's modular transverse-engined front-wheel drive matrix which will eventually form the basis of models from VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat amounting to four million cars a year. The first MQB car is the Audi A3 but the most significant is the new VW Golf. This is the seventh generation Golf â€" a series that started 38 years ago. The car that it replaces, the Golf VI, has been on sale for less than four years but the VW Group's new production system is so important that it was decided to break the normal model cycle and introduce the MQB flagship at the same time as the related models from the other brands.
The new Golf is 100kg lighter than its predecessor and actually back to the weight of the smaller Golf IV introduced in 1998. The new base engine is a 1.2-litre TSI petrol and the Golf Blue Motion, with the most frugal TDI diesel, has a claimed fuel economy of 31.25kmpl. Analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate that MQB will save Volkswagen up to Rs 99,621 crores a year by 2019 and that two-thirds of that will be re-invested in content or pricing. In other words, the new Golf and those that follow, could be cheaper as well and better equipped than their predecessors.