VW has a habit of making all sorts of interesting vehicles, and then selling them pretty much everywhere except the US. The Saviero Cross is a perfect example of that. Basically a cut down version of the 2 door "Gol" (which itself is a reworked Polo), it has proved to be an incredibly popular vehicle in Brazil. It is priced right around the $20k mark, which I find to be quite reasonable. Who knows, with the popularity of small pickups taking off again here in the States, VW might be able to shift a fair few of these here!
The Matchbox version made its debut in the 2011 mainline, part of the "modern golden age" that Matchbox collectors like to talk about these days. It hasn't been used a lot really, just a handful of times in the mainline and in a few multipacks. This is one of those castings that is quite nice and realistic, but always seems to come to the pegs completely overdone with crazy graphics and colors that cover up the nice model underneath.
So as usual, I decided to take one of those "loud" models, and quiet it down a bit. I think it pulls off the maroon with white wheels well! Drop a line in the comments and let me know what you think.