Volkswagen could launch the CrossPolo very soon, so says Autocar India. The CrossPolo has been spied a couple of times in New Delhi. One of the spottings was done by an avid reader of MotorBash, in which the mule had a slightly deformed rear, probably due to some accident. You can take a look at it here.
The CrossPolo is a more rugged version of the Volkswagen Polo. It carries bigger dimensions and boasts of better off-roading capability. It is essentially a hatchback with some amount of off-roading DNA ingrained into it. The larger wheelbase would also help it to tackle our ubiquitous potholes with ease.
To project that image, the CrossPolo gets larger proportions and some additional body cladding. The noticeable one is the thick, dark plastic band visible below the chin. It extends all around the car to the rear, even taking a curve as the puffed-up wheel arches rise above the visibly larger wheels. There is a silver touch to this under-cladding at the rear.
More silver is on the top of the roof in the form of anodised roof rails, which AutoCar says, could carry upto 75 kg of luggage.
To keep prices low in the murky waters of our market, Volkswagen should approach the tried-and-tested policy of sharing parts. The alloys on the spotted cars also seemed to agree with this.
It was earlier speculated that the CrossPolo will get the 1.6 Litre TDI powerplant of the Vento. However, AutoCar now says that it will be the same 1.2 Litre, three-cylinder, diesel mill that does duty on the Polo. We know this is a damp squib! There will only be one variant, with specifications and equipments similar to those found on the Polo Highline. There may be a soft launch of Cross Polo on 21st August.
However, the good news is that there is a fair bit of possibility that Volkswagen may bring in another upmarket variant of CrossPolo with a new 1.5 Litre Diesel engine but that will happen sometime next year.
The CrossPolo might be 70,000-80,000 INR dearer than the Polo TDI Highline. This is an alien segment to us Indians, and hence Volkswagen should price the CrossPolo aggressively to make some decent cash out of it else we all know what happened with the Fabia Scout!
