Volkswagen has taken its Volkswagen seven-seat Sharan MPV off sale in the UK, 10 years since it was introduced to the market.
The move comes as part of a regional model year range update, though the Sharan will remain on sale in other global markets for "some time to come", a spokesperson told Autocar.
No direct replacement has been lined up for the long-serving people carrier, though the smaller Volkswagen Touran and recently revised Tiguan Allspace cater to the seven-seat market.
The confirmation comes more than a year after its closely related Seat Alhambra sibling left UK showrooms. The Ford Galaxy rival had been produced at the Volkswagen Group's AutoEuropa plant in Portugal since the first generation was launched in 1995.
As with the Touran, the Alhambra remains in production for non-UK markets, although it's likely this is only for the short term.
Seat issued a statement on the Alhambra's end of UK sale, saying it was "reviewing the suitability of older models to ensure we’re fit and sustainable for the future."
'As part of this strategy we’re focusing on new and electric models such as the Seat Leon plug-in hybrid and Cupra Formentor plug-in hybrid crossover coupé and will be removing older vehicles from sale with newer, cleaner models to replace them in the future.”
The large MPV market has long suffered at the hands of SUVs, with a growing number of seven-seat options available. However, the space and versatility the Sharan and Alhambra offered meant there were enough sales from large families, fleets and private hire companies to sustain it until now.
Nearly half a million examples have found homes over the years.
A replacement for the Alhambra and Sharan isn't currently on the cards, with the Volkswagen Group looking to novel designs such as the electric Volkswagen ID Buzz to carry the torch for MPVs.
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Some weird comments. No top 10 European selling cars are SUVs? Not sure what stats folk are looking at but I can see several SUV's. Of course there are no luxury cars, or executive cars, no convertibles, no estates. Actually thinking on that a T-Roc will be labelled an SUV or is it? So what is a Golf - stats say Golf is best selling car but is it a hatch? an estate? is it a 1L basic model or a 4wd R model? ( that's estate or hatch ). Of course there's few SUV's in top 10 because the variety of versions isn't there. How many varieties of Puma are there compared to varieties of Focus? Can't believe how anyone can try to justify SUV's aren't popular using those stats. Best stat of all is to open your eyes and look at all the new registrations over say the past two years.
Back to these MPV's. An MPV is basically a van with windows. It was a 1990's solution to more space and I'm amazed it's taken so long to drop them. When's the last time you saw a new MPV on the road? I couldn't say when I last saw one, can't even remember seeing them on display in showrooms. I thought this SEAT had been dropped years ago.
Cold. You'd think Seat would at least nod towards the basic utility and dependability of the Alhambra over the years, but no. Just 'we're reviewing our line up, the new cars are cleaner.'
The Sharan has been on sale for considerably more than 10 years, Autocar. Since the mid 1990s in fact, firstly as a joint venture with Ford.