Check Out this Fascinating Video Review of the India-Only VW Ameo

There’s nothing more tantalizing and frustrating than a foreign market car. Cars that can only be bought overseas are often weird, usually interesting, and always inspire curiosity because they reflect a different car culture with different needs. Even economy cars that should be painfully dull can be interesting when they’re unique to, say, India.

It’s in that spirit that we present to you this video review of the Volkswagen Ameo from India’s Car Dekho. The review is a pretty standard, though charming, road test of a regular car. The reviewer, Cyrus Dhabhar, goes through the usual metrics of size, power, and handling, but they’re all in reference to a segment that just doesn’t exist here, the sub-4-meter-(13-foot)-sedan, and that’s what makes this review so watchable.

Dhabhar does a good job of tracking the history of the sub-4-meter-sedan, which has to do with Indian car culture where everybody has a small hatchback (think Polo here, not Golf), but wants a sedan. The sub-4-meter sedan splits the difference between the two and the Ameo is Volkswagen’s first foray into the segment.

The review is also interesting, because, while India isn’t nearly as big a market as China, it is a market that Volkswagen has been intent on working with. After seven years of manufacturing in the country, VW has become one of the few automakers to wipe out its accumulated losses there, something Ford, GM, and Honda have all failed to do despite having been in the market much longer.

Best of all, though, despite its tiny power output of 74hp—blame it on the local requirements—the Ameo turns out to be a good little car that Dhabhar whole heartedly recommends.

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