The New Old VW
With gasoline prices headed back above $2 a gallon, a combination of planning and coincidence has some big car makers getting serious about smaller cars again.
Toyota is enjoying a surprise success with its Scion line of small cars, three models derived from Japanese market models once deemed too tiny and too odd to make it in America. Now, Toyota is on track to sell about 120,000 Scions this year and is expected to show a potential fourth Scion model later this month at the New York Auto Show.
Spurred by Scion's rapid growth, Nissan and Honda are gearing up plans to adapt some of their Japanese market (or possibly European market) B-class subcompacts for the American roads. At Mazda, sales of the Mazda 3 subcompact are up 29% during the first two months of the year. To the surprise of some rivals, the Mazda 3 five-door model is demonstrating there is life in the once-moribund hatchback segment (provided the car has sharp looks and decent power).
General Motors, best known for big sport-utility vehicles such as the Hummer H2 and Chevy Suburban, plans to launch a clutch of new, smaller cars including the Chevrolet Cobalt, which replaces the decade-old Chevy Cavalier, and the Pontiac Solstice compact roadster.
Volkswagen, which made its name in the American market, twice, with the subcompact, ultra-cute Beetle, veered away from its roots recently with the launch of ultra-luxury Phaeton sedan and the brawny Touareg SUV. Now, VW is refocusing on the formula that made it the "It" brand of the dot-com era
