The term ‘crossover’ or ‘SUV’ is the most abused word in India. Indians love anything which is rugged, even slightly, and this shows in sales of Utility Vehicles gaining precedence over the regular run-of-the-mills! And the easiest way to milk demand, manufacturers think is to, well…do nothing and launch cross-hatchbacks! Skoda’s Fabia Scout was possibly the first crossover hatch we saw but it was a dismal failure.
In 2013, Volkswagen launched their Cross Polo which was nothing but the same Polo hatchback with some puff added to lure customers; heck it did not even have a raised ground clearance the basic pre-requisite for any vehicle which could be remotely called as a ‘crossover’. The intended message was – Hey look Mr customer, your hatchback is now a crossover, overnight! The biggest bit that we disliked was that Volkswagen already has an international version of Cross Polo which is a more meaningful car but they just did not consider it for our market.
Meanwhile, Fiat launched a more sensible Avventura which is a good trade-off between a hatchback and a mini crossover. Hyundai recently followed it up with the i20 Active. As a result, Cross Polo, the dummy cross hatchback has been limited to very dismal sales and we are happy about that!
Now, in a report published at Autocar, it appears that Volkswagen may have got some sense and they may finally refresh their Cross Polo for a launch sometime by the end of this year. They say that Cross Polo may get bigger 16 inch wheels and more features apart from design sharing with the international model. Let us wait and see what do they have in store for us…
