Europe's Largest Manufacturer - Noise, Vibration, and Harshness

Success, Winston Churchill once observed, is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. By that measure, Volkswagen is as successful as they come.For one thing, the automaker has the enthusiasm angle nailed down tight. And not without reason: VW really is successful. Already Europe's largest manufacturer, the pride of Wolfsburg recently overtook Ford to become the world's third-biggest carmaker. That's quite an achievement for a family-run firm that once led the field in building air-cooled, rear-engine curiosities.Of course, present-day market position is not always the best predictor of future success. You could ask General Motors. Or you could simply recall England's BMC. At one time the world's third-largest car seller, its remains are scattered today in Germany, India, China, on the side of the road, and in heaven.Most felicitously for its shareholders (dominated by the self-directed PiГ«ch and Porsche clans), the market currently values Volkswagen more highly than any other car company. Proclaiming that it will sell ten million cars worldwide each year and an incredibly ambitious one million cars annually in the United States by 2018 (2007 sales: 328,068), the Volkswagen Group is nothing if not enthusiastic. It is also supremely and, to my mind, inexplicably confident for an outfit that just foisted the Routan minivan upon us Americans.Actually, while it continues to show all the promise in the world, VW seems to have a host of problems here in the U.S. that ought to give it pause. Although the new Golf looks all right and the Up! concept cars are trГЁs magnifique, style has been downgraded. The lines of the current Passat and Jetta have lost the characterful distinctiveness of their immediate predecessors and look eerily like late-model Toyotas, vehicles hardly deserving of tribute, which has hurt sales. The Eos is less handsome than a Renault Alliance.Similarly, it's difficult to see how the Mercedes-Benz CLS-style CC four-door coupe is going to change the game. Yet VW has predicted it will sell some 160,000 CCs a year in the United States. This is, I fear, dangerously insane, more so since the economy hit the dumpster. And the strong hint from VW executives that they'll start engineering dumbed-down, cheaper-to-build cars for America is also ominous. That's not change we need. But for now, it's the Routan that most colorfully marks VW's wrong-way run into its own end zone.
[ Via: Automobilemag ]
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2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI

Well, this is certainly a diesel car that most Americans could love. It has lots of torque, of course, but also more revs than you'd expect. My biggest impression of the powertrain is the linearity of the power delivery and the elasticity of the throttle - the accelerator pedal has a lot of tension in it, which is good.I'm also reminded of how much better the Jetta is now than the last-generation car that became America's sweetheart, before its lack of quality bit everyone in the ass. This car has much better body control, steering, and brakes than before.
[ Via: Automobilemag ]
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2009 Volkswagen CC, 2009 Nissan Maxima, 2009 Mazda 6 - Midsize Sedan Comparison

Many are the mid-size sedan offerings, and most are sold in large numbers. Naturally, whenever a product is produced in great quantities, its very popularity will cause a subset of its audience to seek an alternative. Something a bit sportier, or more luxurious, or more stylish. The Volkswagen CC, the Nissan Maxima, and the Mazda 6 all hail from mainstream automakers, yet all three address this desire for something more in a mid-size car.Volkswagen's CC - the letters stand for Comfort Coupe - is the newest of the three. This low-slung four-door is essentially a rebodied Passat. VW has wrapped its mid-size sedan mechanicals in a sheetmetal form that is obviously inspired by the Mercedes-Benz CLS (itself a rebodied E-class).The Nissan Maxima has been a premium mid-size offering forever - or so it seems - but the 2009 version has been restyled inside and out to put more psychic distance between it and Nissan's volume-selling Altima, which uses the same platform.The 6 is Mazda's volume-selling mid-sizer, except that it's never sold in quantities anywhere near those of its big-name competitors, the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord. That alone makes it a bit of an alternative choice, and we've long felt that the Mazda provides a greater degree of driver involvement than the typical mid-size sedan. For 2009, the 6 is brand-new, with a particularly shapely new design. West Coast editor Jason Cammisa came back from his initial drive raving about the new version, so we thought a top-spec 6 could hold its own in this company.Styling is the first element you encounter, and although appearance is ultimately subjective, a few comments can be made. The Mazda's look is a major departure from that of its mundane predecessor, but the design is still perhaps not as dramatic as the other two cars here. The new Maxima is a vast improvement over the previous model and looks nothing like the Altima. The VW is a faithful copy of the CLS, from its banana-shaped profile to its slitlike side windows, but if you're going to copy, the highly successful CLS is a good template.In all three of these cars, the emphasis on style means a rakish roofline that threatens to seriously clip rear-seat headroom. True enough, medium-height and taller adults risk a painful thwack if they forget to duck their heads getting into the back of any of these cars.

[ Via: Automobilemag ]
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VW Golf Plus officially debuts in Bologna

The second generation of Volkswagen's Golf Plus has made its official debut (after an earlier blooper-style unveil) today at the Bologna Motor Show in Italy. Like the first edition that debuted back in 2004 and was based on the MK V Golf architecture, the new Plus is a raised-roof MPV version of the new sixth-gen Golf. We think it's quite fetching in a mini-minivanish sort of way, especially when equipped with the optional 18-inch alloys as seen above. Although the official powerplant options have yet to be revealed, the European market, which is where this new model will be sold, is sure to dictate that a range of diesel and petrol engines are on the menu.
VeeDub's cool ParkAssist system will also be optional on the new Golf Plus. The technology displays a real-time image of what's directly behind the car and can take control of the steering wheel to guide the car into a parking spot. Expect the official launch to take place next Spring in the UK.

[ Via: Autoblog (Volkswagen) ]
[ Tag: bologna motor show, BolognaMotorShow, golf plus, GolfPlus, volkswagen golf plus, VolkswagenGolfPlus, vw golf plus, VwGolfPlus ]

VW shows off Scirocco Study R in Bologna

Volkswagen's new Scirocco is rapidly becoming a popular canvas for customizing, and Wolfsburg itself is getting into the act. The Bologna Motor Show has been graced with the Scirocco Study R, which could be a preview of a production version called the Scirocco R20T. The Study R is a derivation of the ideas laid down by the GT24 race concept, with a sneery front end and a wing out back. The Study R is more understated in white with subdued striping, red mirrors and a nostriled hood. Power is provided by a 2.0 liter TFSI engine that twirls the cogs in a six-speed DSG gearbox. Suspension and braking systems have also been tweaked to deliver on the image's sporty promise, and a less restrictive exhaust offers some bark to underscore the bite. With the death of the R32, Volkswagen might bring the R20T to the North American market, and if it's anything like the Study R, we'll be saying R-thirty-who?

[ Via: Motor Authority ]
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MTM pumps up the VW Scirocco

It was only a matter of time before the Audi and VW specialists over at MTM got their hands on a Scirocco. The results are what we would expect from the German tuner: up to 272 horsepower, a sporty suspension, better brakes, and handsome 19- or 20-inch wheels wrapped in Michelin tires. The boost in power comes from a re-mapped ECU combined with a new exhaust system that runs out of a modified rear fascia. The upgraded suspension system includes lowering springs and sport-tuned shocks, and the brakes come with eight-piston calipers with up to 15-inch discs.
[ Via: www.MTM–online.de ]
[ Tag: MTM, MTM Scirocco, MTM VW Scirocco, MtmScirocco, MtmVwScirocco, Volkswagen, Volkswagen Scirocco, VolkswagenScirocco, VW ]