What is the reason for the bulge in the rear seat of Volkswagen cars?
1 Answers
Volkswagen cars have a bulge in the rear seat for the sake of chassis flatness. Since the chassis underneath the car is equipped with an exhaust pipe or drive shaft, rear-wheel-drive vehicles typically require a drive shaft to transmit the engine's power to the rear wheels. Therefore, structurally, such a bulge is necessary. Below are detailed explanations of the related content: 1. The vehicle adopts a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, requiring space in the middle to accommodate the drive shaft. The front-mounted engine transmits power to the rear wheels via the drive shaft. If the drive shaft is too low, it may easily scrape the ground, affecting the vehicle's ground clearance. Increasing the vehicle height would raise the center of gravity, so a localized bulge in the floor is designed to protect the drive shaft and enhance the vehicle's stability, ground clearance, and handling. 2. The car has a low chassis design and may be a front-wheel-drive vehicle, but it still needs space for the exhaust pipe, hence the bulge in the middle is designed to accommodate the exhaust system. 3. The car is a front-wheel-drive vehicle, but its chassis is based on a rear-wheel-drive platform or shares a platform with higher-end models (rear-wheel-drive platform), resulting in the bulge in the middle of the rear seat.
