Volkswagen Saveiro Surf: Ready To Ride Sao Paulo’s Waves

There are lots of vehicle we can’t have in North America. One of them is the ute, a category of cars with a pickup truck bed in the back (think El Camino). These small trucks are very popular on the rest of the planet, where they are used as delivery vehicles by day and personal car in the evening. While they are almost mythical in Australia, they are also well known in South America.

Volkswagen will take advantage of the Sao Paulo Motor Show to unveil a Surf version of their Saveiro ute (it is based on the Gol, not to be confused with the Golf). It is basically a shrunk-down, sub-compact pickup truck powered by a 1.6 litre engine with a 5-speed manual transmission that sends 104 horsepower to the front wheels. To differentiate it from the more mundane version, the Surf model gets a honeycomb grille, 15-inch wheels and a roof rack to secure your surf boards.

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This type of vehicle is not known here, but we think it deserves a chance in the North-American market.