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| Skoda and Seat Produce City Cars |
Congratulations to the proud patents. There was volkswagen celebrating the birth of its Up city car, and it turns out it was triplets. Which must have been a surprise. Or not, given that the extras were immediately adopted by other parents.
That's right, the Volkswagen Up also comes in Skoda and Seat flavours, brand re-purposed and complete with very carefully worded press releases relating to their absolute originality. So we have the Skoda Citigo, due to be launched in the Czech domestic market in late 2011, and the UK and rest of Europe in summer of 2012. And the Seat Mii seeing sales in Spain in... late 2012, with the rest of Europe and the UK in summer 2012.
Unsurprisingly, both the Citigo and the Mii offer exactly the same hardware as the Up, meaning either three or five doors and a three-cylinder engine (available in 59 or 74bhp formats) mounted up front and driving the the front wheels. And similar clever use of space. And remarkably similar features, such as a low-speed, laser-based, anti-collision system, though Skoda refers to it as "City Safe Drive" and Seat as "City Safety Assist", so very different in reality.
What's more baffling is that even though the cars feature little more than a light smattering of search-and-replace badge-engineering and a light massage of lights and bumpers, both makers seem hell bent on embracing their pridigies. Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos, Head of Seat Design even goes so far to say that Mii, "Breathes the very spirit of its remarkable hometown, Barcelona". Which is a bit like saying that you can claim Spanish residency if you pop to Torremolinos for a week. Expect both to be cheaper than the Volkswagen.(Latest Car News)
