The VW Santana is going to be put of production in 2012 according to VW. The Santana, which has made it to the current Santana 3000 guise has sold an impressive 3213710 models since the first CKD produced Santana rolled off the line in 1983.
China’s love for the Santana has not seen the Santana change radically in all of its years, SAIC-VW even made a their own MPV off the Santana, without VW Germanys knowledge. The MPV never made it to production, but it showed that SAIC did have the engineering know how to make a large MPV years before VW made their VW Sharon.
VW doesnt plan on letting the Santana go quietly, they have an agressive plan of selling 86572 Santanas in 2009 62640 in 2010ã€48438 in 2011ã€and 30437 in 2012.
The majority of Santana sales in recent years have arguably been to fleet sales, especially as taxi use. Its basic, yet fool proof interior and roomy rear leg room has made it a popular alternative to the cramped VW Jetta taxis, CCT has spent many an hour in Santana taxis, and plenty of romantic late night kisses on the back seat, and also in the important role of taking me home when I was too drunk to drive. I might just buy a Santana for old times sake.
Still, some people say if you take all the Santana’s off the road tomorrow, then China’s car accident rate will fall substantially.
why 2012? should kill it early.
two reasons to maintain production:
1. it is still selling very well
2. in this way it keeps the VW production figures high
one reason to stop production:
1. each sold car nearly doesn’t give any profit
The latest version is the Vista not the 3000.
This retirement of a popular model by VW is reminiscent of the retirement of the well-loved Beetle in the U.S.. If the Vietnamese are smart, they will do what Mexico did and feed a lucrative black market that is sure to rise up across their northern border.
“Still, some people say if you take all the Santana’s off the road tomorrow, then China’s car accident rate will fall substantially.”
OR not. Considering 90% of drivers in China each have the cumulative driving experience of 1 year and have been “taught” in unrealistic scenarios (with no traffic present) and are “me” generation, selfish road pigs with zero sense of common courtesy, I’d say the accident numbers will still be sky high.
Seems to be a BMW and not a Santana involved in this one
http://msn.ynet.com/view.jsp?oid=51596619&pageno=5
Where did this news come from? Shanghai VW are categorically denying it!
From the Chinese auto portals – I saw it too. I have heard that SAIC VW are still planning to dump Santana production, but are working on a new ‘cheap car’ for China and developing markets. The Passat is still too expensive for cab use, and VW dont want to keep the Santana in production for too long.
Keep watching the Brazilian market, a car will be seen soon enough.
The only reason is the profit.
25+ yrs after its first adoption into China, SVW has cumulated bunches of capitals.
Sale price topped 200,000 RMB initially, and went down to less 70,000 RMB last year.
Through its product cycle, investment and equipment depreciations were already gone 10+ yrs ago,
Which means 70,000 RMB – material and labor costs (20,000-30,000 RMB) equals gross profit that SVW earned.
That’s why SVW experienced a hard time on making such “phase-out†decision, as 60% profits of SVW comes from Model Santana exclusively.
Mark Wayne
marco.w07@gmail.com
The VW santana is an impressive car for the price. Shanghai VW is planning to replace the santana with the smaller lavida, hoping to recreate the success of the santana. however, the santana, as someone else has stated, make up a majority of sales, and shanghai volkswagen can seriously lose a large chunk of market shares if they end production of the santana.
These “foolish” drivers were mostly taught driving in VW Santana.