If you live in Europe or North America, chances are high you’ve never heard about the Volkswagen Lamando L. It is a sedan-liftback mashup that was recently unveiled by the German company and its SAIC-VW joint venture. It is a compact and quite stylish vehicle based on proven bones that is currently available only in China. We don’t expect to see it on sale outside the People’s Republic, though that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve our attention.
Our friends at Wheelsboy recently filmed the Lamando L and their 7:30-minute video shows some of the vehicle’s highlights. It is certainly one of the best-looking Volkswagens in recent years and the first part of the video talks more about the design of the new Lamando L.
Several things are worth mentioning here but we’ll focus on the side profile. It strongly reminds us of the bigger Arteon and one touch we especially like is the pillarless doors. The front fascia is home to very sleek-looking headlights, while at the back, there’s a pair of LED taillights sending strong Peugeot vibes. LED strips connect the light cluster at the back and up front.
The exterior may be different from anything VW has made in recent years, but that’s not the case with the interior. If you’ve ever been in a new Golf, you’ll instantly feel at home with the dual-screen layout of the dashboard and the capacitive buttons on the steering wheel. Wheelsboy explains the material quality is not very high but the build quality is better than expected.
The Lamando L sits on Volkswagen’s MQB Evo architecture, which is shared with the VW Golf 9, Skoda Octavia, Audi A3, and SEAT Leon. The vehicle is longer than its predecessor and this can be seen in the rear seats where there’s impressive legroom for the passengers. Two air vents and two USB ports also make the second row a very nice place to be.
There are no surprises under the hood, though. Power comes from a 1.4-liter TSI turbo gas engine with 150 horsepower (110 kilowatts) and 183 pound-feet (250 Newton-meters) of torque. The power reaches the front wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. The spring to 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) takes 8.9 seconds.
