Volkswagen looks to hot year ahead

A roaring result in 2011 saw the VW brand leapfrog Subaru and Honda to hit number eight spot, while the group, incorporating Skoda, sold more than 48,000 cars.

Just weeks into the new year they’ve opened a flash new headquarters at Chullora in Sydney - announced a battalion of product on the way. 

February will kick off with a new five-door Polo base model, while March brings a new a 112TSI petrol addition to the Skoda Yeti line-up.

May will see the arrival of a dual-clutch Skoda Fabia Monte Carlo to join the manual model – with a sport-spec Fabia RS 132TSI following it later in both hatch and wagon bodies. The wagon train will continue with a petrol 77TSI engine in both a Fabia wagon and a Roomster wagon.

The early months will see the entry-level Amarok ute load up a cab-chassis body and two new turbo 2.0-litre engines: a 118kW/300Nm TSI300 – the first petrol unit in the Amarok – and a 90kW/340Nm TDI diesel.

Both engines are mated only to a six-speed manual transmission. But there’s also good news for auto fans further up the range. The dual-cab is about to match an eight-speed automatic with the new 132kW/420Nm turbodiesel with 4Motion permanent all-wheel drive system.

The Volkswagen CC – formerly known as the Passat CC – arrives mid-year, with the Passat Alltrack softroader hot on its heels.

The final months will bring the tiny Up in three and five-door bodies (the latter unveiled last week) to slot in underneath the Polo. Bringing up the rear will be the new Beetle, redesigned and repositioned to appeal to a supposedly ‘butch’ buyer.