if you build a lightweight rwd coupe, it wont be competing with anything. it would simply have no competition. the rear engine is just icing on the cake

I agree. A rear-engine, rwd, light weight car will outperform all in its class, however VW try to get speed out along with MPG, so it wont be that swift. Slap a turbo on it and u could get a pretty fun and fast car.

Sounds like what the Beetle should have been from the start? Don’t get me wrong…I think the New Beetle is one of the best Volkswagen designs of the late 90’s, but come on…is a 911 layout really practical in a small car anymore?

There is a difference between ‘planning’ and researching an idea. Sometimes I think LLN gets the two confused.
The car might be fun to drive but I will believe it when I see it…
Rear engine these days = fairly high service costs, cheap car or not.

The smart fortwo coupe/cabriolet and the smart roadster are all rear-engine/rear-drive configs.

I wonder if VW is maybe considering a microcar along the lines of the new smart, the Mitsubishi i or the Toyota Aygo. Not exactly Mini competitors.

VW should just bring the Polo over to North America. In fact, they should have just left the Golf alone and brought the Polo over and christened THAT as the Rabbit for the North American market.

Cool. Can’t wait to see it.

Seems pretty easy to do. Just take the Beetle powertain and put in in the rear. Lots of other issues like cooling but it can be done. Hey, it will be able to do wheelies just like Herbie!!

Good idea.

could this be a hint towards the new Beetle?!i woudl so ride in that!

I’m all for this. Try something different, shake things up. If anybody could pull off a layout like that its VW.

Sounds like the rumored Carmen Ghia project mentioned a few years ago. Was said that VW would build a new version of the Carmen G along the same lines as the new beetle but would keep the layout the same and aim it at the likes of the Audi TT but a fraction of the cost. Sounded pretty cool.

put the 1.5l tiwn hargers in there, keep it under 2600lbs and im in.

Gee…seems a tad like a Lotus Elise.

This would be sweet, finally VW would have an interesting car other than the current GTI.

Spaceman3: Maybe it looks that way on paper, but in reality, hardly.

Bah…I don’t know about you, but anything rear-engined rubs me the wrong way. Sorry, but I don’t see the potential in creating such a vehicle. Their money is better spent elsewhere, IMO.

Man… The Carmen Gia is one of my favorite designs of all time. The car is just perfect.

I bet porsche will ****can it because theyll say it competes with the 911!

sounds like an awesome idea to me for a niche market, if you dont like it, buy a GTI instead.

Didn’t LLN just report that Volkswagen is planning to redesign the New Beetle to compete with the Mini Cooper? So perhaps this is the same vehicle, meaning the next New Beetle will be a rear-engine design like the Old Beetle? Wouldn’t that make it the New Old Beetle then?

“put the 1.5l tiwn hargers in there, keep it under 2600lbs and im in”

i have heard some bad things about that twin charger, ill take the 2.0t even if it means a weight penalty. would be nice if the car was light enough to make use of a NA 4 cylider. if the car weighs 2600 lbs, the 2.0t is almost overkill.

naggs, in a high sport trim version I would gladly take a 2.0T engine in a 2600lb car. 200HP and 2600lbs in a sport hatch is just enough– far from overkill.

This car can be built if VW really wants to. It would make me pay attention to them again, since I cannot afford their $100k+ sportscar offerings and I don’t think much of their current front-driver lineup. It also looks like a practical car for the city in the artist rendition. Giving a practical commuter a real drivetrain layout in the rear would make me feel very good about putting it on my list.

The New Old Beetle. Aka, The NOB.

I like it.

2.0t overkill? umm what? have you seen the articles about the X-bow? it waighs under 2000 and has an uptuned 2.0t. The 2.0t would be perfect. Im sure they will call it the next beetle. The only way VW will ever sell a next generation of beetles is if they do something radical, and this is the only thing left for it to be nostalgic and succesful.

“naggs, in a high sport trim version I would gladly take a 2.0T engine in a 2600lb car. 200HP and 2600lbs in a sport hatch is just enough– far from overkill.”

the mini gets away with a 1.6

if this vehicle is supposed to go up against the mini (price, performance, features) then 200 hp 200 tq is overkill. if its going to be an all out performance machine like the ktm crossbow or lotus elise then by all means go nuts! what ever happened to that tt5 audi had in the works?

A rear engine design is probably more space efficient than you think. Like someone else mentioned the Smarts are rear engined. Now, if they develop some nice boxer motors for it, then that would be amazing in both packaging and performance. (See Subaru and Porsche). I think with today’s technology and great electronics, they could pull it off. As far as maintenance goes, there is very little of that anymore, with 100k spark plugs and 15k oil changes, and no other adjustments to do…

Another vote for the VW Polo to compete against the Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, Mazda2, etc. in the US.
In the states, Rear engine = sports car, and if a car doesn’t live up to that image, then it will fail.

Rear engine doesn’t necessarily have to be a sports car.. For really compact cars, a rear engine would be the most space-efficient way to package such a car.. Kinda like the Mitsubishi i or the Smart, which both aren’t exactly supercars..

VW really has no direction or purpose. That’s why they build everything from 3-wheelers to Beetles to Phaetons to this new rear engine Mini competitor.

Naggs, I am more than confident VW could offer a 1.0L gas miser version if they wanted to and still offer a “GTI” version with a 200HP/200lb-ft torque 2.0T engine.

“The Mini gets away with a 1.6″

Great. It still doesn’t change the fact that I am only interested in the Cooper S John Cooper Works version that has (you guessed it!) over 200 horsepower! I don’t like Chrysler 300C’s but I do like powerful small cars that do 0-60 in 6.5 or less.

You’re crazy if you think VW isn’t aware of the demand for a real performance version of said prototype. I agree that there needs to be a fuel miser standard model. In fact, I wholeheartedly expect VW to build *that* version too. VW Beetles have historically filled both niches very well.

If they made it I think that might have to be my next car. My old MR2 might get a rest for once.

I just want them to bring Seat and the Polo over.

A rear-engine, rear drive Beetle does sound interesting though. I am firm in belief though that a 2.0T would be the top end of the heap and likely be a niche of a niche product in terms of sales. That isn’t to say I don’t hope VW has the brass taxes to do such a thing… I just think a practical efficient performance motor must be realized as well. The 1.5 Twin Charger would likely be a hit in this car and probably be sold for significantly less than the 2.0T. After all… it commands a huge premium in the GTI and GLI over the 2.5 5-banger.

If there’s reliability concerns of the 1.5 Twin Charger… I think you only need to look to the last Golf/Jetta “1.8T” fiasco to notice that there was pretty widespread problems with the precursor to the 2.0T in the states. In fact, it earned VW a pretty bad reputation here on the last generation models despite some strong sales.

Now the new models are too ambiguous in styling (still think they look 100x’s better than the Corolla but the similarities in some ways are equally as scary) and overpriced to really recuperate from the losses of the popular yet unreliable last generation.

Bring me a gussied up Polo GTI equivelant at $17K and I’d likely be all over it though despite the fact it looks like a shrunken Golf/Rabbit. Then again… Seat’s seem to sticker for less than their VW counterparts and offer similar performance and wilder (almost Italian) styling. It seems such a no-brainer to bring them here… but apparently VW/Audi has no brain, or they fear getting beat on by one of their own. LoL