Old hand with younger rivals
In the market for a Volkswagen with an open loading platform? In the Netherlands you can only go for the Volkswagen Amarok, but far outside Europe the brand also sells a much more compact model. And that relatively compact pick-up is also extremely successful. This is the renewed Volkswagen Saveiro, a practical workhorse that, despite its age of fourteen, can still be used for a while.
For the Volkswagen that plays the leading role in this article, we go down to South America and in particular to Brazil. That’s where Volkswagen put the Saveiro, facelifted for the umpteenth time, in the spotlight. The Volkswagen Saveiro is a relatively compact pick-up based on the Gol, also a model that you cannot buy in Europe. The Gol itself has recently been discontinued, pick-up Saveiro still is. It also does not seem that the Saveiro will disappear from the market in the short term. The current generation dating from 2009 is being refreshed again.
The Saveiro as it was sold after its facelift from 2016.
The current Saveiro, which was presented fourteen years ago, was already facelifted in 2013 and 2016 and is now being modernized again. Relatively compact pick-ups like the Saveiro are extremely popular, at least in Brazil. The Saveiro has competitors in South America such as the Chevrolet Montana, the Renault (Dacia) Duster Oroch and the Fiat Strada. The Saveiro has a tough job with the latter in particular. The Strada is regularly the most popular new car in Brazil, including in 2022. Fiat sold no less than 112,000 units in Brazil alone last year. The Saveiro doesn’t do that well, but it certainly operates in an important segment.
The Fiat Strada, which cannot be towed in Brazil at the moment.
Volkswagen seems to make the family relationship between the Saveiro and the Gol less clear and gives the new pick-up a front that is more similar to that of cars like the T-Cross. The grille drops deeper into the nose and visually extends below the new headlights. Volkswagen gives the Saveiro – which, unlike the current Fiat Strada, Chevrolet Montana and Duster Oroch, is always a two-door – new bumpers and rear lights with a new layout. Again, the Saveiro is available with one or two rows of seats. Incidentally, the bonnet is also completely new. Just like before, under that valve is an atmospheric 1.6 that generates 106 hp on petrol and produces 116 hp while burning ethanol. The Fiat Strada and Montana are more than ten years younger than the Saveiro. Nothing is known about the arrival of a completely new Saveiro.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl