The Volkswagen Lamando L is a stylish liftback sedan only sold in China. It rides on VW Group’s MBQ Evo architecture, but the platform has undergone significant changes to accommodate a much wider stance. A new Wheels Boy YouTube video gives a tour of the widened family car, which measures nearly three meters (9.8 feet) wide if you include the side mirrors.

The project, nicknamed the Lamando 5XL, began by cutting the car down the middle and adding more sheet metal between the wheels. The widened car required new front and rear fascias, with the engineers doing their best to retain the model’s prominent styling features, like the lower grille opening. The side profile was left unchanged, but the rear is just as wide as the front, with plastic trim bridging the two taillights pieces together. 

The car features acrylic for the front and rear windows and the panoramic roof. Custom glass for the car would have been very expensive. The trunk is functional, but it’s also heavy, requiring four people to open, revealing a massive trunk capable of swallowing a crossover’s worth of cargo. Under the hood, the engine sits to one side of the bay, with a large brace extending across it. There’s enough room for Ethan, the host, to stand next to the car’s original turbocharged 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine.

Inside, the Lamando L got more seats and more screens. Everything on the driver’s side is stock, including the center console. There are two additional screens on the passenger side in front of a two-seat bench from a minivan. In the rear, the seating situation is more cohesive, with the new seats receiving the same red accent stitching as the original outboard ones.

The overview ends with a disconcerting test drive, and he’s told to keep the Volkswagen under 18 miles per hour (30 kilometers per hour). The car’s NVH did not improve, with the modified model making lots of noise as it cautiously navigated the race track. Automakers like to increase cabin space, but they often lengthen the vehicle, and we doubt widening it like this Lamando will catch on anytime soon.

Get upfront price offers on local inventory.