Automotive Blog

Customs conflict between Argentina and Brazil, which in recent days held at the border for thousands of cars produced in our country, accelerated the decision Volkswagen to start assembling the Suran in the neighboring country.

The family of Fox is called SpaceFox in Brazil and, according to the newspaper revealed Folha de Sao Paulo Will be armed formats CKD with most of its parts from Argentina.

According to informed Autoblog from Pacheco, it is a decision that VW had already taken at the regional level, but now was accelerated because of two reasons: the customs conflict with Brazil and the need to create more space for the production of pick-up Amarok.

VW sources in Brazil, always cited by Folha, Added two more reasons: to add the Suran / SpaceFox to the production line would serve as a negotiating factor for a strike on the ground that it takes 17 days. And besides, serve to resolve the alleged quality problems with that model would be arriving from Argentina.

In Paraná plant produced models Fox, CrossFox and Golf

In a difficult year for imported car brands, the news of the return of Opel Argentina deserves to be celebrated. This was confirmed two weeks ago Nick Reilly President General Motors Europe and head of the famous German brand.

And although in recent days some media tried to disprove the news outlet’s own mouth Reilly, the fact is that GM Argentina decided to keep the most absolute silence on the move.

But as a spy photo is worth a thousand silences, here are the first pictures of the Opel proving ground in Argentina.

The photos were taken in Rosario Paul G., Brand paparazzo of Auto blog.

The site chosen for the tests is not accidental. The GM test engineers are now commonplace on the streets of Rosario, logically close to the plant of General Alvear. Our paparazzi and photographed in the area of ​​influence to Agile, Cruze, Classic and Spark when they were still camouflaged.

“These Opel Zafira Insignia and were seen circulating here in the city of Rosario, on Thursday 19 May 1330 at the corner of Mendoza and Entre Ríos”, Said Paul G., with the precision of data from a seasoned reporter.

Added: “They were black and full of black tape covering the logos and some of the lights”.

And until he remembered the forum: “Greetings to all the people Autoblog!”

The Logo is the Opel mid-size sedan, voted Car of the Year 2009 by the European press. It measures 4.83 meters long and in our market to directly compete against Ford Mondeo (About to get a restyling), the Volkswagen Passat (Ditto), the new Renault Latitude and Peugeot 508, Which is scheduled for release later this year.

The Zafira Rosario view deserves a separate explanation. Is a second-generation seven-seat MPV Opel. Ie: it is more modern than Chevrolet Zafira which was sold until last month in Argentina (read obituary) And older than Zafira Tourer which goes on sale in Europe in September.

However, the second-generation Zafira, which is seen in these photos, will continue in production and will coexist with the Zafira Tourer in Europe indefinitely. It measures 4.47 meters long and in our market would compete against Citroën C4 PicassoThe Ford S-Max and new Volkswagen Sharan.

The Opel was a memorable presence in our country during the ’70s, when GM produced locally Argentina Opel K-180. In the ’90s, some private importers brought models Corsa and Vectra Europe.

In Mercosur, GM produced in the last decade much of the European range of Chevrolet branded Opel (Corsa, Meriva, Zafira, Astra), But in recent years began to develop their own models (Agile) And away from the products of its European division.

Traveling in a convoy of three vehicles and good speed on the highway Carlos Paz Cordoba. But their swift gait could not beat the quick reflexes of Cordoba M. Saddam , one of the paparazzi more sharp bzhsz.com (in his service record has novelties like the Renault Fluence and the Chevrolet Spark ).

Our spy was to photograph just one of three Volkswagen Suran camouflaged with white plastic, but the image is enough to notice a lot of differences from the conventional Suran, running boards, slightly flared fenders, a higher ground clearance and new rear bumper design.

Although the picture can not tell it, Saddam added that the three test vehicles alloy wheels wearing color -graphite gray .

For some time, Volkswagen Argentina working on a draft version of the Suran adventurous, you might call SuranCross or CrossSuran ( read more and see projections of their design ).

The idea is to compete directly against the Fiat Palio Adventure and other crossovers like.

The start of production of this version is scheduled for June and no surprise that his debut takes place in the Hall of Buenos Aires , scheduled for the same date.