End of the Road for Maruti Dzire-rivalling VW Ameo

With the BS-6 emission norms coming into effect, a lot of cars from the Indian market are reaching a dead-end of their life. VW Ameo is also one of those cars that are getting discontinued as they fail to comply with the cleaner emission norms. The Ameo was a sub-4m version of the Polo. It was offered in 4 variants, namely Trendline, Comfortline, Highline Plus, and diesel only GT Line trim. The prices for the Ameo started at Rs. 5.95 lakh for the base-spec petrol variant and topped-out at Rs. 9.99 lakh for the top-spec diesel trim. However, the Ameo was never a good performer on the sales chart, which means it pretty much failed to eat into the sales pie of the Maruti Dzire. A big reason for that was its puny petrol engine and odd-ball styling.

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VW has finally pulled the plug on the Ameo, which never sold in good numbers in comparison to its competition.

The Ameo was offered with 2 engine options – 1.0L MPI petrol and 1.5L Diesel. The puny 1.0L 3-pot naturally-aspirated motor is the same unit that does duties on the Polo. It whipped out a peak power output of 75 BHP and a peak torque of, well, just 95 Nm, which is not enough by any means. The competition, on the other hand, have more powerful motors on offer. The petrol motor was offered with a 5-speed manual box only. The bigger 1.5L 4-cylinder turbocharged diesel was the exciting one here. It produced 109 BHP and 250 Nm as its peak power and torque outputs. It was offered with 2 gearbox options – 5-speed MT and a 7-speed DSG. The latter was a standard fitment on the GT Line trim.

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VW has no introduced a smaller 1.0L TSI petrol motor on the Polo and the Vento.

VW has recently updated the Vento and Polo twins with a new 1.0L TSI engine. The TSI motor replaces the bigger petrol and diesel mills on these cars. The smaller 1.0L TSI motor comes from the EA 211 family of powertrains. It boasts a healthy 108 BHP and 175 Nm of peak outputs. Also, with the introduction of this smaller turbo-petrol motor, VW has replaced the 7-speed DSG automatic with a 6-speed torque convertor to keep the costs in check. The 1.0L TSI motor will be standard across the Vento, but it would only be available in the Highline and GT variants on the Polo.