With saic and Volkswagen's "judgment", the Volkswagen Santana model, which has been produced and sold in China for 38 years, finally ended its "mission" and became another discontinued Volkswagen classic model after the Jetta. However, SAIC Volkswagen said that the suspension of Santana is only "temporary", and its purpose is only to upgrade the existing model, and will launch a new car named after Santana in the future.
But no matter what, in the Chinese market, Santana is also over. Today we will briefly review the life of Volkswagen Santana in China.
It was born in 1983
Time back to the 80s of the last century, when the domestic private car market is almost a blank, the most on the street is still a variety of vans, the general family to buy a car is still stuck in the "bicycle" stage, ten thousand yuan households are already a very powerful existence at that time.
However, in the context of this era when everyone is still relatively poor, SAIC Motor boldly contacted Volkswagen of Germany and introduced the second generation of Volkswagen Passat, which had just been launched, into China, named "Santana", that is to say, Santana at that time was actually Passat.
Due to the weak domestic industrial base at that time, many of the parts required for automobiles could not be produced independently, so the Santana in 1983 was almost an "original imported" model - dismantled in Germany and shipped to the country for assembly, the so-called CKD model, and the cost of this model must be very huge compared to the current full localization.
According to well-documented data, the price of a Volkswagen Santana in 1986 was about 60,000 yuan, and by 1987 it had risen to 105,000 yuan and 140,000 in 1988. Until the end of Santana's life in 1993, its price was as high as 200,000. In 1984, the wage system had not yet been reformed, workers were paid according to grades and uniform standards, and the average monthly income of a worker was about 60 yuan that year.
A new transformation in 1995
In 1995, on the basis of the original German third-generation Passat, Shanghai Volkswagen and Brazilian Volkswagen developed a new model, that is, Shanghai Volkswagen Santana 2000. Compared with the previous generation, this generation of Volkswagen Santana has lengthened the wheelbase by 108 mm, which further improves the interior space of the vehicle, and at the same time replaces the advanced 1.8-liter naturally aspirated engine, matching the 5-speed manual transmission that can not be said to be backward even now.
This generation of Volkswagen Santana has a long life cycle, and Shanghai Volkswagen has also invested great efforts in it, first launching Santana 2000, and then upgrading Santana 3000 and Santana Zhijun on this basis, and its life cycle lasted from 1995 to 2012.
As a post-90s generation, this generation of Volkswagen Santana can be said to be a childhood memory. I remember that in 1998, my father's friend bought a Volkswagen Santana 2000, and for me, who could sit on the "Alto" at the most, the window glass that could be lifted and lowered electrically, the air conditioner with cooling effect and the manually adjusted rear curtains directly explained the word "luxury". If there is any model that can compare with the Volkswagen Santana at that time, it may only be Audi with the "red flag" logo and Toyota with a "crown".
In my eyes, this generation of Santana's life expectancy is exceptionally "strong", until I learned to drive a license around 2012, this generation of Santana is still serving in the training ground of major driving schools. And the reason why its life cycle is so "strong", I personally think it has little to do with quality, but the accessories of Volkswagen Santana 2000 are very easy to find, and any roadside stall can be repaired, so everyone loves it.
To this day, I can still occasionally see the shadow of this generation of Volkswagen Santana on the street, and the "elaborately" dressed Santana 2000 has completed its historical mission and become a "love car", transforming from a means of transportation to a "collectible". This may be the best home for the Volkswagen Santana 2000.
The third-generation model that "withered" in 2012
What needs to be known is that before 2012, Santana was actually Volkswagen's Passat, but since 2012, Volkswagen Santana models have completely "degraded their identity", from a B-class car to an A-class. I don't know why volkswagen gave up on such a golden sign, but since that day, Santana has begun to sink, and the glory of the past is gone.
There is really not much to say about this generation of models, because it looks so ordinary from the appearance to the interior, even if the price has dropped a lot, from 200,000 directly to the waist, but it still has not been recognized by consumers.
To be honest, Santana's opponents since 2012 have been completely different from 10 years ago, and countless competing brands have joined the Chinese market in the past 10 years. 10 years ago, Volkswagen was the only one, and 10 years later, various brands blossomed. Consumers no longer need "letters of introduction" to buy Volkswagen cars, the consumer market has been fully liberalized, and people can buy whatever they like.
Maybe the third-generation model does not have the glory of the past, but for it, it is only inheriting the name of "Santana", and the fault may not be on it.
In any case, the curtain has fallen, and the Volkswagen Santana is far away from us after all. If China has an automobile culture, then Santana must have its own place in this culture, and history and the people will remember the traces left by its coming and going.
Thank you, Santana.
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