Volkswagen teased us with possible plans of a small, compact sports car a la a Mazda Miata competitor with the 2009 BlueSport Concept. But that was six years ago and Volkswagen has yet to follow up with the concept with a production model, and that’s because Volkswagen shelved the idea entirely.
In a recent interview with CarAdvice in Australia, Volkswagen’s development chief, Heinz-Jakob Neusser said the idea of a small sports car for the People’s Car maker wasn’t approved for production due to low demand in the roadster segment. Except the Mazda Miata would strongly argue against that.
The BlueSport Concept was actually an interesting take to a compact sports car because it would have taken form as a small mid-engined model, versus the classic front-engined rear-wheel drive setup. Volkswagen even had a production-ready prototype, though again, due to spotty demand, the car’s business case wasn’t substantiated.
Neusser did say however that the project isn’t exactly terminated, just put to the side for the time being and there’s a chance it could be rebooted when Volkswagen’s new MQB platform comes around. Though given the recent setbacks with Volkswagen’s TDI models seriously affecting their financial situation, it could be a long while until the BlueSport Concept has a chance to become a reality again.
– By: Chris Chin
Source: CarAdvice
Source: egmCarTech http://bit.ly/1gUnkvc
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