A fifth less to build. But not, I predict, a fifth less in the show room.  

I might take to driving my car around the Nurburgring covered in bin bags and gaffer tape, to see if I can get on Car.

As VW have not been very forthcoming about what MQB really means, the, the press are struggling to get across the impact of this development. VW did helpfully produce some schematics in recent financial publications.  These appeared to show that over 70% cars the cars substance will be shared not just within platforms and across them too. It’s rather like the car as desktop pc. The casing changes but the innards remain the same. You can get a tower or mini case as needed. It’s a big change too for VWs supplier whose products must fit inside the casing. It will certainly make the cars cheap to produce and we are promised more differentiation in the “casing” that is currently possible with simple shared or re-used platforms. The similarity of the Up! and its siblings however indicates that VW is taking a cautious approach as first. The possible danger of the “computer” model is that the cars will feel even more similar than they do today. Brand strategy is going be paramount. The other problem is “viruses”. It one component is faulty, all the cars get sick. Given VWs woes with DSGs and popping turbos they will need to use some of that saved production cash on improving reliability.  They need to get it right as this is the first substantially new architecture in 20 years and will probably underpin its vehicles for the next 20.