According to Automotive News, Volkswagen was unable to secure a plan to produce the GTD’s 2.0-liter turbo-diesel at its plant in Silao, Mexico, forcing the automaker to depend on a cost-prohibitive option of importing the engine from Germany. The plant in Mexico opened last year with an annual output capcity of 330,000 engines and has been building a number of Volkswagen’s mills including the turbodiesel powering the Golf TDI.
“The GTD would be a great car,” Horn said. “The price point is not really attractive. So the probability is sort of diminishing.”
Volkswagen had hoped to sell the Golf GTD for around $27,000, making it about $2000 more than the 2015 GTI. Pricing the GTD higher would likely deter most of what would likely be a small group of buyers, and possibly place it within the same price point as the upcoming 2016 Audi A3 TDI hatchback.