Volkswagen Vento Facelift arriving on 24th September, 2014

Volkswagen India will launch the Vento Facelift on the 24th September, 2014. The car will borrow styling elements from the facelifted Polo hatchback, which was launched here a few weeks ago. Apart from the minor refresh on the outside and the inside, the real story around the Vento Facelift will be the changes in terms of the car’s mechanicals.

While the 1.6 liter MPI naturally aspirated petrol (103 Bhp-153 Nm) and the 1.2 liter TSI turbo petrol (103 Bhp-175 Nm) four cylinder engines will be retained, the 1.6 liter TDI turbo diesel unit will be replaced with the new 1.5 liter-4 cylinder TDI motor, which also produces 103 Bhp-250 Nm.

Soon, the 1.5 liter TDI turbo diesel engine will be put together at Volkswagen India’s Chakan factory in Maharashtra, and local production of this engine is expected to translate into lower maintenance costs. The other big change on the Vento Facelift involves the 6 speed DSG dual clutch automatic gearbox, which will be paired to the 1.5 liter TDI turbo diesel motor.

This engine-gearbox combination will be a segment first, in that a diesel motor and a dual clutch automatic gearbox has never been offered on a C-Segment sedan in India. The Vento Diesel Automatic will be aimed squarely at the enthusiast brigade. The Vento Diesel Automatic will be positioned as a high performance diesel automatic sedan, in a segment whose other automatic offerings – barring the Vento TSI – are staid performers at best.

With the Vento Diesel Automatic jointing the Vento TSI, Volkswagen India will have bragging rights the most mechanically advanced sedan in the C-Segment space. The Vento Diesel Automatic is expected to be made available in two variants, Comfortline and Highline, in order to ensure that a wider set of buyers have access to the tech-packed car. The Vento Diesel Automatic will be priced about a lakh rupees higher than equivalent manual geared variants.