Locally-assembled cars usually have a decent market life, but not every model lucks out. Sometimes, things end as fast as they come, although not because of any shortcomings of the part of the product.
Case in point, the Volkswagen Golf TSI R-Line Mk8. Announced in October 2021 as a CKD model and previewed a month later, the car took some time to make its debut – expected to be launched in February 2022, it wasn’t until July last year that official pricing was finally revealed. At that point, its RM170,560 price was notably higher than the estimated RM155k to RM165k ventured by Volkswagen Passenger Cars Malaysia (VPCM) back in February.
Now, well under a year since the final pricing was revealed (or a year and a half since it was first announced), the R-Line is no longer available for sale in Malaysia, confirmed by the absence of the model in the current product list on the Volkswagen Malaysia website.
So, what gives? It surely can’t be due to a lack of kit – the sporty R-Line, which was powered by the familiar 1.4 litre TSI engine with 150 PS and 250 Nm from 1,500 to 4,000 rpm, was well specified. Reportedly, sales of the car were decent, although decent might not have met expectations set out for it in terms of its expected volume from the CKD route.
Pricing could have also played it out of the game – with its price already somewhat disadvantaged at point of entry, we hear that increased production costs were anticipated, and that could probably have stopped it dead in its tracks.
In any case, we’ve reached out to VPCM to find out why the plug has been pulled on the variant. For now, if it’s a new Mk8 Golf you’re looking at, then it has to be either one of the two choices left available for the type, in this case the GTI or R.
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