All NEW Volkswagen Routan

Volkswagen's new Windsor-built Routan minivan will start for less than $25,000 in the United States, the company said Wednesday as it launched the vehicle its has chosen to spearhead its latest assault on middle America. The Canadian Routan minivan be built in Windsor Ontario.

At that price, Volkswagen says, it expects to win between three and four per cent of the North American minivan market - mostly at the expense of Honda and Toyota, said Stefan Jacoby, president and CEO of the Volkswagen Group of America.

A success of that magnitude would translate to annual production of between 30,000 and 40,000 units for members of CAW's Local 444 in Windsor. That will be nice bonus work to their main job of building Chryslers and Dodges, but not enough to make up for the loss of the Pacifica last fall.

Volkswagen says its version of the RT minivan platform developed by Chrysler is central to its aggressive - some say impossible - plan to quadruple its North American sales in the next five years, from 200,000 to 800,000 cars and trucks. And why would consumers buy a Volkswagen version of a vehicle they can buyer cheaper as a Dodge or a Chrysler? "Because it's a Volkswagen," Jacoby said after the Routan was unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show. "

Once you drive it, you will know." The German said VW decided to hire Chrysler as an assembly partner to access its new RT minivan platform, which it considers a high-quality, extremely safe design. Buying from another assembler will "greatly increase our speed to market," Jacoby said. And the company chose the minivan segment as the first to attack because despite recent declines it is still one of the largest segments in the North American market, with 900,000 units or more expected to sell this year. Selling minivans, Jacoby told a press conference in Chicago's massive McCormick centre, is simply the fastest way to "access a high volume segment."

Final pricing for the three trim levels VW plans to offer in the Routan won't be released for another six weeks, during the New York auto show. All of the Routans will be equipped with six-speed transmissions. But while the Routan minivan is VW's first volley in its renewed attack on the middle of the American market, don't expect Volkswagen to go mainstream. "Volkswagen is never mainstream," Jacoby said sternly in answer to a question about VW's direction.