The SUV boom is currently an unstoppable market force. But as the ubiquitous vehicles become the norm on our roads, buyer tastes will naturally evolve and Volkswagen Australia is banking on it.
The importer is plotting new variants for its high-riding adventure wagon models, dubbed Alltrack, which will kick off with the Volkswagen Passat Alltrack Wolfsburg Edition.
Unlike the previous Wolfsburg Edition vehicles sold in Australia – the Scirocco R and Golf R – the Passat Alltrack model that wears the name won't be a high-performance traffic-light scorcher.
"Wolfsburg doesn't have to be about power per se," a VW Australia source revealed.
As such, it's likely to continue with its fuel-efficient 2.0-litre turbo-diesel (140kW/400Nm) powerplant.
However, the Passat Alltrack Wolfsburg Edition will add value over the current ($50,790) model and, although specifics won't be revealed until later in January, an uptick in tech, cosmetics and luxury are likely.
It's not clear what's in store for the Volkswagen Golf Alltrack ($38,340) but both it and the Passat Alltrack vehicle lines will be "majorly upgraded" this year with plenty of gear above and beyond the regular vehicles according to our source.
"People do like our special editions. If people keep liking them we'll keep doing them."
And the Wolfsburg theme can be expected to continue into the future, although our source wouldn’t reveal whether these would be performance or mainstream models like the Passat Alltrack.
Meantime, as Volkswagen continues to offer more high-spec vehicles in 2017, it will also launch a go-fast, top-shelf version of its new Tiguan SUV in February.
We'll be testing the Tiguan 162TSI – which will be powered by the same 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine as the Golf GTI, this time with 162kW – on home soil later in January.