Some automotive media outlets can’t contain their enthusiasm, or opportunism, as may be the case, and decide to release photos on the web ahead of agreed-to embargo terms. Such has proven to be the case with these photos of the 2014 Volkswagen Golf Variant (wagon). Now that the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, we thought we’d share a little Fahrvergnügen love with you too.
Why does this matter for U.S. customers? Because the vehicle we’ve known and loved as the Jetta SportWagen is sold in Europe as the Golf Variant, so what you’re beholding here is for all intents and purposes the next-gen Jetta SportWagen. To nobody’s surprise, the Golf Variant shows the crisper lines of the recently-unveiled seventh-generation Golf and GTI, with a longer roofline and extended length for the wagon.
We are privy to some other information on the Golf Variant in regard to its dimensions, powertrains and equipment, but embargo has not broken on those specs yet, and we don’t want to be the miscreants blamed with that leak. The one tidbit we feel fairly confident in sharing is that the TDI engine option naturally will continue to be offered on the European model (duh) and will almost certainly continue to be offered on the U.S. Jetta SportWagen once it’s officially confirmed for the U.S. UPDATE: Volkswagen has confirmed that its new wagon will go on sale in the U.S. in late 2014.
The long-running joke at press dinners for various models of any make is that if auto journalists ran the car companies, they’d all be making and selling compact, turbodiesel wagons with manual transmissions. We’ve got to give Volkswagen kudos for actually making good on that promise.
Source: Volkswagen
