Hope for local Scirocco

The bad news is the Scirocco won't be heading our way in its current form. The good news is we may get it if VW HQ pushes the button on an R Line variant.

It is understood that the current Scirocco line-up that is topped by the same 2.0-litre turbo four-cylinder in the Golf GTI would mean the two models would be too close for VW Australia's liking. 

Jutta Dierks, managing director of Volkswagen Group Australia, has previously said that she would like to bring the car in but cannot agree with VW bosses in Germany to price and position the car against the Golf range.

"We are still at the same stage," Dierks says. "We haven't closed the door yet. Every time I go overseas it's on the table we haven't been able to have an agreement yet.

"I never say never," she says. "I know that there are some customers out there that would love it but, first of all, we don't think it would be high volume [and] it would generate a lot of customers out of our own range so that's not what we really want. We just can't get an agreement and if that doesn't happen we don't bring the car in.

"It's difficult because no country worldwide has a 25 per cent share of GTI out of the Golf range; no other country has that. They don't understand that. We have a really unique position with Golf GTI and we have to be really careful.

"It already makes a small space for the Scirocco. If we can't fit it in there it would be odd in the market and people would be torn between cars. Instead of just saying 'that's GTI and I'm a Scirocco buyer' we just can't convince them to give us that small spot which we think is perfect," says Dierks.

And that small, perfect spot would be an R Line version of the Scirocco. VW is yet to officially announce any plans for such a model but produced a Studie R concept car last year which suggested it is part of the company's thinking.

"Not yet, but that would be perfect," Dierks says when asked if an R-Line version was on the cards.

"They talk about that but that's not even been confirmed for right-hand drive. It has not been confirmed for hot countries but we are keen. That could be something where we take it out of the normal range and put it in the market where all the R Line models are and all of a sudden that makes sense.

"Then maybe we only bring in an R Line Scirocco and then we don't have that discussion with the GTI driver because that is a different market. We are keen. We have said to them 'Guys, if you do that we are with you' because we can sell the R Line models."

Watch this space...