German biggie Volkswagen has quickly become popular in India with the launch of cars like the Polo hatchback and the Vento. Passat too has been successfully battling it out against Honda Accord. One car that has not been able to really fight well with the Japs is the Passat. In fact, Jetta has not at all been as popular as the Czech offering from its own sister concern- the Skoda Laura. Now, the news is that VW will soon launch a petrol variant of Jetta in our market. The new gen Jetta was launched with a diesel engine only and VW felt the need of having a petrol engine option. So, the German car will now come with an option of a 120 hp-200Nm TSi motor. And this motor displaces a mere 1400cc. It is interesting to see that the car won’t come with the 1.8 TSi seen in the Laura. It is for sure that VW had Fuel Economy in mind while choosing the engine for its sedan. The smaller engine also means that VW is going to price this car very aggressively.
While the petrol engine option might not really work wonders for the sales of this car, what we really look forward to is to see how VW manages to position this vehicle. It may be noted that the parent company is trying to position itself as being more premium than Skoda and hence, price its cars a tad above the Czech auto manufacturer. However, we wonder what VW feels about the positioning of Jetta 1.4 TSi and Laura 1.8 TSi.
This variant of the car will come in April and we also expect to soon see a new petrol engine option for the Passat.