Volkswagen China clearly enjoys confusing its customers in China, the range of models spans several generations, some models are similar to other models, and just swapping the old Golf name and making it a Bora hatchback just confuses everyone.
Correct us if we’re wrong, but China Car Times understood the Bora to be a replacement for the Jetta, which was then replaced by the much newer Sagitar (also known as the Jetta in the USA), thus we can say Jetta -> Bora -> Sagitar. Volkswagen China has gone a step further and wishes to make an offshoot of this line with ‘the new Jetta’ The New Jetta seem to have a range of engines from 1.6, to 1.8t to 2.0.
VW China also make the Passat and the new Magotan side by side in China, although Magotan sales dont seem to have reached a critical point yet, in fact, we’ve hardly seen them around China. As well as the Passat/Magotan, VW make the ‘Gol’ for developing markets, including China. It seems the Gol wasn’t a huge success in China, especially the three door model.
China Car Times thinks the below car is possibly a new skin for the Bora.
Jetta and Bora are the same car. Jetta for the US and Bora for Europe. The Jetta name has recently replaced Bora in Europe.
The same with the Golf. Pre 1985, the Golf was known as the Rabbit in the US. It has since changed back to the Rabbit in the US, but is still Golf in Europe.
Same for the Santana, it is also known as Passat and in the past has been known as Quantum and Dasher in the US (going all the way back to the 70’s.)
Another sign of the immaturity of the Chinese auto industry. It needs to settle back and consolidate, and this should be led by the likes of VW, but with a compulsory Chinese partner in charge this is sadly unlikely