AIMS: VW to show new Touareg, Jetta and Scirocco R

VOLKSWAGEN will headline its stand at this week’s Australian International Motor Show opening with the long-awaited Scirocco coupe, which will go on display before hitting local showrooms in early 2012.

The low-slung three-door, which will only be available in flagship R guise here, will share the Golf R’s 2.0-litre turbocharged engine that produces 188kW at 6000rpm and 330Nm of torque between 2500 and 5000rpm.

Show-goers will also see the local launch of VW’s lighter, safer and higher-tech Touareg luxury SUV – pricing for which will be announced at the show, to co-incide with its official July 1 on-sale date – and redesigned Jetta medium sedan ahead of its release in September.

As previously reported, Volkswagen has received Australian Design Rule certification for one V6 petrol and three V6 diesel versions of the successor to the original Touareg.

These engines – including a 150kW six-cylinder diesel, two 176kW diesel V6s (one with the optional ‘Terrain Tech’ off-road package) and a 3.6-litre ‘V6 FSI’ – are not all confirmed for Australia, but those that do make it should have fuel-saving ‘BlueMotion’ technologies.

Left: New Volkswagen Jetta. Below: Facelifted Volkswagen Tiguan.

Meanwhile, the longer and roomier next-generation Jetta – which will be sourced from Mexico – is also likely to more affordable than the model it replaces when the expanded model range is launched here.

VW will also announce the first 4Motion all-wheel drive variant of its popular Caddy van to be available in Australia.

The all-new Golf cabriolet, the Golf GTI ‘Edition 35’ anniversary model and the facelifted Tiguan compact SUV – all of which are slated to arrive in Australia this year – will not appear at the 2011 AIMS.

The ambitious German car-maker has released a host of new models in Australia so far this year, including the all-new Amarok dual-cab ute, Golf BlueMotion, new Passat and facelifted versions of the Eos coupe-cabriolet and Passat CC range.

This has been a continuation of the trend from the final two months of 2010, which saw the Polo GTI hot hatch and facelifted Caddy van join the VW model line-up that will be expanded at the rate of more than a model a month this year.