While we all know that Volkswagen and Toyota have always been competing against one another for who has the biggest stake in the motor vehicle industry, there was once a time when they worked together. A short-lived deal between the two manufacturers spawned a pick-up, the Taro. It seems now, that VW plans to revive this vehicle (and various reports suggest that our local VW Uitenhage plant apparently gets the deal to produce it for the right-hand-drive market) although this cannot be confirmed by VWSA.
By Kelly Lodewyks
According to Banoyolo Hlalukana of VWSA, “There is no confirmation as yet at all for South Africa. Our product planning guys are still in a process of doing market researches which take place before any car arrives in SA.”
For now, the new VW pick-up has been dubbed the Robust, but it is rumoured that it will be sold badged as the Taro. The Robust will possibly be made available in a double-cab and a club-cab body shape, combined with either front-wheel- or four-wheel-drive options. Rumoured engines to sit under the bonnet of the Robust are common rail diesel engines, a four-cylinder petrol engine and a V6 petrol option.
According to , the new truck will also spawn a new SUV, slated to slot between the Tiguan and Touareg.
Pictured is a rendering of the upcoming VW pick-up, as well as a spy shot of the winter testing that took place recently. Judging by the looks, it seems as if the Robust is not aimed at the workhorse pick-up market that the Hilux has dominated for some time now, but instead at a more upmarket audience who may be after something along the lines of the Nissan Navara.
The first Taro emerged in 1989, when VW Commercial Vehicles introduced it as a one tonne pick-up. This vehicle was re-badged as the Toyota Hilux – fully engineered and designed by Toyota. This deal between the two marques helped VW put a pick-up into a market they previously had no hand in, while Toyota was able to get a share of the European one tonne utility market. As a result, in the 1980’s VW and Toyota signed an agreement that VW would manufacture the Toyota Hilux in the VW factory in Hanover, Germany and – undergoing another re-badging – it would be sold under the Volkswagen Taro moniker. The deal ended in 1996 when the vehicle didn’t live up to both car marques expectations.
A concept of this pick-up is expected to make an appearance at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2008 and a production version is expected to hit the international market in 2009.
