Tired of paying out all their SUV profits in Royalties to the Touareg people of Northern Africa, VW has astutely chosen and trademarked an alternate spelling for their new smaller, Golf or [depending on who you read] Jetta-based mini-SUV: it'll be called the Beduin.
Of course, whether it's big enough to actually bed someone in is not clear. And it may not be relevant, since, according to Autocar's report, it's meant to compete with Toyota's RAV4. In other words, it's a chick car.
But wait, it's also meant to go head to head with BMW's X3 SAV, so maybe it's for guys, too. Alls I know is, getting any bedding done when there's a car seat in back will require some serious acrobatics. Since it won't go on sale before 2007, you've got time to limber up. And work on smoothing your rap.
Volkswagen's mini SUV [jalopnik, which has links to spy shots and pubslished reports, including Autocar]
Greg,
No one considers the RAV4 to be much competition when it comes to the mini-SUV. The motor sucks and the AWD is not so good. The BMW X3 is good, but it costs and arm and a leg.
Any new mini-SUV has to be able to beat the Subaru Forester XT in price (about $25 grand), performance (250 HP), and safety (5-stars on every NHTSA test). It's the true standard bearer.