VW at Geneva Motor Show: 2010 VW Sharan

Volkaswagen has revealed the 2010 VW Sharan at the Geneva Motor Show

VW has revealed the new 2010 Volkswagen Sharan, featuring sliding doors, new engines, more room and a substantially bigger footprint.

Last week we reported on VW’s little German tease of the 2010 Sharan on the VW web site in Germany, coyly showing just a partial front end and one wheel. But a week on there’s no such reticence with a full reveal of VW’s big people carrier at Geneva.

The last generation of the Sharan shared a platform with Ford’s Galaxy, but the 2010 Volkswagen Sharan is a purely VW venture -based as it is on VW’s flexible MQB platform – and comes complete with the standard fashion accessory for a people carrier of sliding rear doors, and a more flexible seven-seat layout. It’s grown too, by a not insubstantial 220mm (about 8.5″) in length and 92mm in width (3.5″), although it sits a tad lower.

Those new sliding rear doors (which can be electrically operated if you want. But don’t bother; it’s a novelty for the first day and then it just becomes frustrating as they’re always too slow) offer better access to the more flexible interior. The three centre seats can be moved fore and aft and folded flat when not in use. The third row of seats is now big enough for full sized people (although perhaps not rugby team size) and also fold flat.

There’s a choice of four engines for the 2010 Sharan – 2 diesel and two petrol. Diesel options are both 2.0-litre common rail with 140 or 170 PS. The 2.0-litre TDI 140 gets 52.3 mpg with143 g/km of CO2. The 170 Sharan emits 152 g/km CO2 and does 49.5 mpg. Both diesel models get Stop-Start and regenerative braking.

Petrol options are a 1.4-litre TSI petrol with150 PS and 38.1 mpg with 172 g/km of CO2 , and a 2.0-litre with a DSG ‘box and 200 PS, 201 g/km of CO2 and 32.8 mpg. The Sharan 2.0 litre petrol – the ‘Hot’ Sharan – has to make do without the eco toys, but the 1.4 petrol does get the same top-Start and regenerative braking as the diesels.

VW hasn’t come up with pricing or model info for the 2010 Sharan yet. We do know it will go on sale in the UK later in 2010 and we’ll get the info as soon as possible.

But from what we see the 2010 VW Sharan is a country mile ahead of the old model. Mind you, it should be. The old Sharan is little changed in almost 15 years.