An official announcement from Volkswagen was made regarding an upgrade in the features of the Diesel Vento’s high-end variant. The steering wheel is now equipped with audio controls, an USB port has also been provided for the newer audio system (RCD 310) having 4 speakers and control for parking distance has been added to.
The Diesel Vento’s Highline is being offered at a price of Rs.9.77 lakhs (as per ex-showroom, New Delhi). The vehicle gets its power from a turbocharged 1598cc diesel unit. It produces 105PS of peak power at 4400RPM. A torque of 250Nm is achieved between 1500-2500RPM. The Vento has been made available in two versions – Highline and Trendline. The vehicle has been mated to a manual 5-speed gearbox.
Skoda, which is another company owned by Volkswagen, is expected to launch its Rapid Sedan tentatively on 16th November, 2011. Experts feel that the Rapid is just a copy of the Vento, in the guise of Skoda. The vehicle will be adopting most of the components in the Vento. The Rapid will not contain any of the latest offered features in the Vento. This looks like a clear market strategy of Volkswagen to create a differentiation between the two vehicles on the basis of the availability of features. Auto experts expect that the Rapid will be priced Rs.30,000 less than the Vento, at least. However, it seems that the Rapid is going to prove to be a much better car in overall aspects, particularly because of its driving dynamics being city friendly to a greater extent and also because it has been styled better than the Vento.
