Transporter question
Page 19
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DESPITE a European launch in Austria last week, Volkswagen has still to decide whether to import the 4X4 version of the Transporter van in the UK.
The company has doubts about the size of potential UK market for a factory-built 4x4 one-tonne payload van or minibus.
Head of VW light commercial vehicle marketing David Abbott said that sufficient numbers would have to be sold to justify the cost of training the dealers, stocking spares and marketing the 4x4 version, called the Syncro.
He said that Volkswagen in West Germany "would like us to take several hundred this year". Right-hand drive models go into production this month.
Volkswagen also admitted that the price of the Syncro versions would be unattractively high; the 4x4 configuration would add about £3,000 to the price of the Transporter and the Caravelle minibus.
The Syncro uses a viscous coupling instead of a transfer box to transmit the power to the front axle.
In normal road conditions all the power is fed to the rear wheels, but once these begin to lose traction the viscous coupling on the front axle drive en gages and feeds power to the front wheels as well.
The front/rear power split is automatically varied according to which pair of wheels begins to slip. Therefore no switching by the driver is needed to engage all-wheel drive, although switchable front and rear differential locks are optional extras.