A Seat in Audi Clothing

It's not uncommon for Volkswagen's outlying brands - notably Seat and Skoda - to receive share underpinnings with their Audi or VW siblings.  But Seat's upcoming Bolero may go one step further by actually using both chassis and sheetmetal from Audi's last A4.

In official sketches released to Autocar, the Bolero project wears Seat's trapezoidal grille and beveled taillamps, but the rest of the car - proportions, roofline, and all - seem to be a carbon-copy of the Audi.  Bolero, set to enter production by the end of the year, will make use of VW's newest engine offerings, but the mechanicals are cloned from the A4.  

We'd agree with company executives claiming the A4 is a solid base to build a new car from, but we call shenanigans with Seat's design director, Luc Donderwolke, claiming the Bolero's design process is an "[un]conventional approach."  The man needs only to reflect on American vehicle offerings of the '80s and '90s to see the implementation - and horrific results - of badge engineering.

Source: Autocar