Volkswagen graduates from art class. But is there any work out there?

[JacobOlivia]

Volkswagen New Zealand general manager Tom Ruddenklau reckons he got some illuminating advice about the future market for four-door cars from a German VW executive a few years back: "When it comes to sedans, you have to go premium or go home."

That explains the just-launched Arteon, then. It's ostensibly a replacement for the CC sedan and like that model, it's based on the Passat.

But Arteon aims to go a lot more upmarket than its predecessor, with VW eyeing up the likes of the BMW 3-series, Mercedes-Benz C-class and Jaguar XE as potential rivals for this $74,990 newcomer. They don't mention the sister Audi A4/5; so we will.

That premium thinking makes more sense than ever in 2017, says Ruddenklau: "There are 5000 sedans sold in this country every year. When you look at the profile, there's a large mainstream Japanese competitor [Camry] that dominates that sector. But ranked at two, three, four and five are Europeans. It's premium that does really well."



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