Classic Beetle vs Alto, Picanto and QQ

[donbuggy]

If a local company were to purhase the rights and the tooling to manufacture the classic rear-engined VW Beetle in the Philippines, will the Beetle be a reasonable alternative to the Suzuki Alto, Kia Picanto and Chery QQ?

[mbclubph]

picanto or alto will not think twice

[niky]

Depends... can you get the flat-four beetle engine to pass emissions?

Emissions regulations are different for vehicles 2003-and-up. While you can get an old Beetle to pass the older emissions standards, you need to do some modifications to get it to meet the new ones.

If we can buy the dies from Brazil, I think we could produce and sell it for the not-unreasonable price of about 400k-500k pesos, as long as we build for volume and for export.

Crash safety would be a sore point, though... unless we reinforce the passenger cell.

But the engines would still be a big problem. Maybe a motorcycle engine would do?

[mazdamazda]

Well... until 2003 the "Classic" Beetle was being produced in Mexico.

The last Beetle produced is now in a museum in Germany. I don't think that they have any plans of selling the rights of this historic car.

[monmendoza]

I think there will always be a market for quality brand new vehicles at a low price. The classic beetle is indeed a very attractive proposition if it is positioned versus the alto and the Picanto.

Another possible product would be to buy the dies of the orginal toyota tamaraw Fx and manufacture it as a low cost AUV.