Volkswagen Santana 2022.

Volkswagen Santana 2022.

Volkswagen Santana 2022.

Over 6 million Volkswagens have been sold: the Santana model is coming to an end.

Reuters has learned that Volkswagen plans to cancel one of its most popular models, the Santana sedan.

The German brand has owned the Santana for nearly 40 years — since 1981.

In its time the VW Santana not only was the first model of the company to enter the Chinese market, but also the first mass-produced foreign car of local manufacture: its production was launched in 1983 in the Shanghai-Volkswagen joint venture, and since then more than 6 million of these four-door cars were produced in the Middle Kingdom.

Volkswagen Santana 2022.

At the peak of its popularity the model was also produced in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Japan.

Now the sedan is collected and sold only in China, and it is still in good demand — in the twentieth century in China 176,000 such cars were sold.

Nevertheless, the company wants to take the Santana off the assembly line completely, to free up production capacity for crossovers and electric cars, which are much more popular in today’s realities than the classic sedan.

Volkswagen Santana 2022.

Thus, the Volkswagen Santana will soon leave the market without getting a successor.

It is not excluded that the name of the model will be saved and it will go to some new crossover.

Note that the model has its twin brother in the form of the Jetta VA3 in the Chinese market.

It is much less popular (42 thousand sold in 2020), but it is not going to withdraw from production yet.

Volkswagen Santana 2022.

The Volkswagen Santana is a global version of the European Volkswagen Passat second generation (B2), which in addition to China was assembled in Africa, Latin America, and even in Japan.

The pilot batch of Chinese Santana was assembled by the large-knot method in 1983.

Full-scale mass production at a joint venture with Chinese corporation STAC (now known as SAIC) in Shanghai began in 1985, since then over 6 million copies of this model have been produced!

Volkswagen Santana 2022.

The first-generation Santana was offered in China as a sedan and station wagon, and underwent three major upgrades, which were presented as a generational change.

Though, in fact it was a restyling, the body did not change essentially and kept typical angular forms of the «second» Passat.

In the first half of 90’s Chinese Santana under the control of VW and its Brazilian division increased the wheelbase (from 2548 to 2656 mm) and redesigned in the spirit of the European Passat B4 — this version was called Santana 2000.

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