Volkswagen Lamando: Golf’s slick liftback brother

First and foremost: the Volkswagen Lamando L that plays the leading role in this article has nothing to do with the Peugeot 508 from a technical point of view. However, the two cars follow a similar concept. Like the Peugeot 508, the new Lamando is a five-door liftback with a steeply sloping roofline and frameless side windows.

Volkswagen Lamando L

The Volkswagen Lamando L is the bolder, lower brother of the sedan that is called ‘Sagitar’ in China. The first generation of the Lamando was presented in 2014 and is now succeeded by the new model. The Lamando is on the further developed variant of the well-known MQB platform, a basis that is called MQBevo and which Volkswagen also applies under the current Golf and Caddy. The frameless side windows are an eye-catcher, but the Lamando’s broad-billed frog-like front is just as much. The car has relatively convex ID-like headlight units that are connected to each other by an LED strip, which in turn is interrupted by an illuminated VW logo. The lower half of the front consists of an only partially open grille. So a huge mouth for the Lamando. At the back we are IQ Light LED lighting that consists partly of horizontal stripes. Here too, the units are connected to each other by an LED strip with an illuminated VW logo in between.

Volkswagen Lamando L

The interior of the Lamando is at least as striking. That first of all looks very recognizable as that of a Volkswagen, although the displays are fused together just a little differently than you are used to from a Volkswagen. In models such as the ID3 and ID4, the infotainment system and instrumentation are separated from each other. In the Golf they are more or less connected, although the instruments are under a conventional shelter. With the Lamando, the two displays together form one rectangular panel without bells and whistles.

For the time being, Volkswagen has only presented the new Lamando as Lamando L, the version with an extended wheelbase. This Lamando L is 4.78 meters long and surpasses the previous Lamando – which was not available as an L – by more than 18 centimeters. At 2.73 meters, the wheelbase is also larger than that of the outgoing Lamando (2.66 meters). Whether there will also be a ‘short’ version of the new Lamando remains to be seen. Under the hood of the Lamando L is at least a 162 hp 1.4 TSI

This 508-like from Volkswagen is not coming to Europe. It is a model produced by SAIC Volkswagen jointly and may be sold in a handful of Asian markets, except in China. For example, Volkswagen has the outgoing Lamando also in the philippines are on the price list.