Transporter tipped for top
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MI Volkswagen is predicting that its new Transporter van, which went on sale in the UK last month, will transform the company's fortunes in the light commercial market.
MAN VW's commercial vehicle director Robin Woolcock says that the Transporter gives Volkswagen the chance to become "a second major player" (behind Ford) in the LCV sector, adding that "10% of the market could be achievable by the mid-nineties — equating to some 30,000 units a year."
The start will be a comparatively slow one, however, for VW will not have a complete range of Transporters on offer until later this year. Although 1991 production for the UK was originally estimated to be 7,000, VW now anticipates about 4,000 sales during 1991 with 7,000 predicted for next year (the old version averaged annual sales of 4,500).
With the heavier LT range getting rather long in the tooth, Volkswagen is clearly pinning all its hopes on the new Transporter: unlike rivals such as Ford and Vauxhall it lacks convincing products in the car-derived-van sector.
The facelifted Polo van will go on sale in June and a new MkIII Golf van is expected about a year later, but neither will offer the kind of purpose-built body used by the competition.
The Polo is also handicapped by the lack of a diesel engine option.
The Yugoslavian-built Caddy pickup (based on the MkI Golf) is also unlikely to be replaced for at least the next two or three years, with a successor based on either the MkII Golf or the Passat being the probable route.
Volkswagen is already producing a heavier pickup in Hanover in the form of the Toyota-designed Taro 4x2, but whether this leads to a long-term collaboration is open to doubt. The UK importers are not entirely happy with the arrangement, being quota limited on the desirable 4x4 Taro imported from Japan, and lacking the option of a diesel 4x2; despite being predicted at the launch, VW-engined Taros are also said to be some way off.
One option open to the company to broaden its car-derived product range would be to sell vans produced by VW's Spanish subsidiary Seat, such as the high-cube entry-level Terra, but MAN VW's sales manager Jeff Greenhalgh says that this will "never, ever" happen.