5 (Relatively) Affordable Cars With More Premium Underpinnings!

Car makers have mastered the craft of maximising their bottom line without hurting a car’s build quality or design. It is a win-win situation for the big corporates and the consumers, and in more ways than one as well. The craft stems from platform sharing, when key engineering principles and components, which can include the floorpan, axles, and various mechanical parts are shared in a range of seemingly distinct vehicles. This practice is extremely pervasive in the present day, as a different marques for differing target markets can be owned by a single company. This also means that you will be able to buy cars from more affordable brands that share quite a lot of components with more expensive models. Here are 5!

The Mercedes Citan, Renault Scenic and Nissan Qashqai all share the same backbone as the current generation Renault Kangoo. All are built on the now-defunct Renault-Nissan C platform, and all 4 cars share some variant of engine as well. Whilst the Scenic and Qashqai share just some mechanical components and the engineering principles, the Citan is a badge-engineered variant of the Kangoo, though Mercedes Benz thoroughly gave it a makeover inside and out, making it truly worthy of the 3 pointed star.

If you’re in the market for an Audi A1 or a Volkswagen Golf, do consider adding the Seat Ibiza into the mix as well. All the aforementioned cars are built on Volkswagen Group’s MQB platform, which, according to the automaker, technically isn’t a platform at all, but a concept to rationalise their engineering and production departments. They all share the same front axle, pedal box, engine positioning and you can option the several of the same engines in all variants of the trio as well!

The MINI One presents itself as the lowest barrier of entry into the world of MINI ownership. It offers a taste of the MINI ownership experience without breaking the bank, especially in comparison to the full fat MINI Cooper models. All MINI One and Cooper Hatchback models are built on BMW’s UKL platform, which is also used by a whole host of smaller BMWs, such as the BMW X1. In fact, the engine you’d find in the MINI One, is a variant of the BMW X1’s B38A15M0!

The Audi Q7 occupies a whole different spot in the luxury SUV market than its Lamborghini and Bentley stablemates. These 3 cars share the Volkswagen Group’s MLBevo platform but target very different groups of buyers. The platform means that all 3 cars have their engines and gearboxes mounted in exactly the same location, cutting R&D expenses when applying the platform to a variety of cars. This realigns the firm with the original concept of mass production, reducing production time by up to 30%. Mechanically though, the Q7 doesn’t share an engine with the other cars, though you can option the same 4.0L Audi-devired V8 in both the Urus and the Bentayga.

The 370Z is built on Nissan’s FM platform, which has also been used in other premium Nissan/Infiniti models, such as the Nissan Skyline/Infiniti Q50, and the Nissan Stagea. The platform got its name (Front Midship) from the placement of the engine, which has its centre of mass behind the centreline of the front axle. This allows the cars to have a close to 50:50 weight distribution and enables the engineers and designers to place the wheels in far corners of the car for better handling. So effective is this versatile platform, that they used it to underpin not only the 370Z and a whole host of luxury saloons, but they further developed it to the R35 GTR!

Credits: Jek Ray Low