Tag Archives: Volkswagen

Dec 18 2009
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Car of the Year, Cars

Car of the Year Nominees: Part 4

This is the most important part of the nominees list. This where the the Car of the Year nominees are listed. It’s not the longest list of nominees, but choosing should be hard, as all the contenders are quite good ones.

Car of the Year

Yes, this is the big one. The best car of the year. This must excel in everything. It should be able to satisfy the little child in you, while taking you shopping and your children to school safely and comfortably. Price shouldn’t be too high either.

Volkswagen Golf: Great looks, plenty of practicality, comfortable and it’s good fun, especially in GTI form.

Mazda3: The new small Mazda is based on the Ford Focus so it drives brilliantly. It’s also cheaper than the Ford, it’s built with the same quality and it looks good.

Vauxhall/Opel Astra: As they did with the Insignia, Opel/Vauxhall broke tradition (one more time) with the new Astra, giving it a modern design.

Mercedes-Benz E-Class: Alex isn’t a fan of the styling but the new E-Class offers a very complete package combined with classic Mercedes quality.

There you are then. All the nominees are now out there. We’ll be working on picking out the best of the best to bring you the winners. We’re already running into arguments, so it won’t be easy and we can’t predict when the winners will be released.

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Dec 15 2009
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Awards, Car of the Year, Cars

Car of the Year Nominees: Part 2

Continuing with Car of the Year nominees, here’s the second part. Family Car of the Year and Cheap Car of the Year are here.

Family Car of the Year

This is where we choose the ideal car for people with big families. Lots of space is an absolute must.

Fiat Doblo: Looks great, seats plenty of people, and it’s quite economical as well.

Toyota Sienna: The looks are a bit iffy in some places, but it promises sporty handling with a comfortable ride, great interior, and plenty of room.

Volvo XC60: A good looking car with a great, spacious interior. Very safe as well.

Vauxhall/Opel Insignia Sports Tourer: New Vauxhalls/Opels have said good bye to their old, conservative, ugly ancestors and buried them in the middle of nowhere. As a result they now make good cars and this good looking estate Insignia is one of them

Dacia Duster: A funky looking car with plenty of space, promising a low price tag.

Citroen C3 Picasso: Funky Citroen looks, with plenty of practicality and a reasonable price.

Cheap Car of the Year

These are cars for those of us who don’t want to, or simply can’t, spend too much money. Price range we set is $25,000 CAD and under.

Renault Twingo: A nice looking car with good handling and interior. Comes in a fantastic Renaultsport trim too.

Ford Fiesta: Ford has launched the new Fiesta hatch in 2008 in Europe but not in North America so we actually found an excuse to nominate it as it is a very, very good supermini.

Volkswagen Polo: This small, German hatchback has actually won the European Car of the Year Award, but that’s not important, as now it faces the most important test ever: Will it be our Cheap Car of the Year?

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Dec 10 2009
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Car Launches, Cars

Volkswagen Reveals Special Edition Tiguan

Volkswagen has revealed a special edition of the Tiguan called the Track and Avenue. The car is designed for customers demanding more luxury.

Changes on the inside (The most important ones since this car is designed to be luxurious) include sports seats lined in an ultra-soft leather, which is also used on the door inserts. Then there’s Volkswagen’s RCD 150 audio system with a six-inch screen, hooked up to Dynaudio speakers. Lastly, they’ve added climate control and a leather wrapped multifunction steering wheel.

On the exterior, you get a 25-degree off-road front end with off-road styling. It’s not all show and no go though, as this front end doesn’t just look like it’s meant to go off-road, it is indeed designed to be good when attacking the rough stuff. I have a sneaking suspicion the rest of the car isn’t though. It also gets Bi-Xenon headlights and fog lamps, a silver diffuser and 19-inch alloy wheels. Two colours are offered: Oryx White Pearl Effect or Island Grey Pearl Effect (Which is the colour used in the pictures, even though it looks more green than grey on the pictures).

VW will offer a few drivetrain options with the car: A 135-hp 2.0L diesel hooked up to an automatic transmission, a 165hp 2.0L diesel with a six-speed manual, or a 190hp 2.0L gasoline engine with either an automatic or manual transmission.

Pricing begins at about 56000 USD for the gasoline engined car with a manual transmission. Sounds like quite a lot if you ask me.

Source: WorldCarFans

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Dec 10 2009
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Car Companies

VW buys 19.9% of Suzuki, announces new partnership

Volkswagen, now the biggest car producer in the world, is set to start a new partnership with the guys from Suzuki.

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Dec 09 2009
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Car of the Week, Cars, Videos

Car of the Week – Volkswagen Golf GTI

The first and the last Golf GTI's - probably 2 of the best from the bloodline.

This week, although a bit late, we have one of those great originals in the Car of the Week section – the VW Golf GTI. This is a car that revolutionised the world of hatchbacks, the very first hot-hatch. The GTI badge has been taken since then by a million companies and all the other tried to emulate the brilliance of the Golf GTI but none of them succeeded.

As it is a bit special this week, we won’t designate a specific Golf generations as the winner but 3: The GTI Mark I, V and VI – all of them brilliant, all of them worthy of the mighty GTI badge. You might wonder why? Why not all of them? Why just these random numbers: 1,5 and 6. Well, let me explain why. First of all, the Golf Mk. I was the original, the very first hot hatchback, one of the fastest cars at its time. It’s just brilliant: practical, good-looking in a subtle kind of way and fast like stink. However the next generations, the 2,3 and 4, all become more civilised and slower, eventually ending no longer as a hot hatchback but just as a normal one with a bit more power. VW got their act together though and the last 2 GTI’s, the 5 and the 6 were absolutely brilliant. Not the fastest anymore, but the best overall. Being the fastest today with cars like the Renault Megane R26.R is very hard while trying to keep practicality, so bear in mind the Renault is a hot-hatch, but transformed into a track day car.

Clean is the word I would use to describe the style of the very first GTI.

The Golf GTI offers you quite literally everything: from tedious practicality to insane speed, all in this decent, quite cheap package. The most amazing thing however is that the Mk. I Golf is one of the longest lasting cars in history having being produced from 1984 to 2009. Yup, until this year they were still making them in South Africa. It’s that good. And the fast, hot version is the best. It handles like a dream as it is quite a small car so weight isn’t a problem. Even though it’s front-wheel drive it’s responsive and accurate and corners neat and flat. Just brilliant. The first one may have been cheap at its time and sold like hot cakes, but it’s already a classic today, and a good one will set you back quite a lot more than you’d think for such a small car. Anyway, this is one of the best cars ever made so it’s definitely worth a shout in our Car of the Week section.

You don’t believe me? Then watch Jeremy Clarkson being seduced by the Golf in this classic video:

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Dec 07 2009
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Car Companies, Cars, Motorsports

Subaru to Make Rally Comeback

The Japanese manufacturer Subaru has entered next year’s IRC – International Rally Championship. However, they will not register any factory teams but instead will allow privateers running Subaru’s in the championship to score manufacturer points. Alongside Fiat, Honda, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Proton, Skoda and Volkswagen from next year we will be finding Subaru there as well, making them the 8th team in the championship. After their WRC withdrawal, Subaru hasn’t had a factory team in any other rally championship but they now claim that the IRC is the way to go:  “The IRC provides an ideal arena to develop our customer competition activities. With approximately 1000 Subaru cars rallying around the world, this is a great opportunity for our customers.” said Subaru’s motor sport director.

There isn’t much else to say really, maybe this “entry” in the IRC is the first step in preparing a factory team for the championship, maybe they want to acquire precious data to set up their street cars better, with the chaotic motor sport climate lately, anything is possible. Anyway, we wish them good luck and a speedy return to the WRC as Subaru is was one good rally team.

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Dec 06 2009
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Cars

VW Jetta Name Confirmed for Small Sedan

It seems like VW will be using the Jetta name for a new compact sedan built in Mexico. Unlike the last Jetta, this one apparently won’t be a Golf with a trunk glued to its bottom but a bespoke car. Given the fact that the Golf Mk 6, the new Polo, and the new Fox look exactly the same, differing only in size, we can surely believe them that the new car will be bespoke indeed. In size. Apparently the new Jetta will arrive in June 2010 but it could get another name in Europe. The car will be first launched in the US and only then prepared for its European debut.

Another possibility for VW is to bring the Polo in the US. As Ford did it with the Fiesta and Mazda with the 2, so bringing the Polo to America sounds like the sensible thing to do as it is a good little car which can easily rival the other two. Whatever the plans of VW, now the biggest car maker in the world, for the US it will be interesting to see what they’ll come up with.

Source: Car and Driver via Autoblog

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Dec 03 2009
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Auto Shows, Car Launches, Cars

VW New Beetle Final Edition

Apparently the Dodge Viper isn’t the only car we’ll have to say good-bye to soon. The Volkswagen New Beetle will be replaced by a new one soon, and Volkswagen have decided that the Beetle needs a good bye, just like the Viper. So they’ve released a special edition called the Final Edition at the LA Auto Show.

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Dec 03 2009
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Auto Shows, Awards, Cars

2010 Green Car of the Year finalists

The five finalists for the 2010 Green Car of the Year award have been announced at the LA Auto Show.

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Dec 02 2009
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Car Launches, Cars

Alfa Launches 147 Successor

Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Alfa Romeo has unveiled its successor to the 147. As I posted earlier, the name was under dispute, but they’ve settled on calling it the Giulietta.

It will released in 2010 as part of Alfa’s celebrations of their 100th anniversary. Company bosses believe it come become Alfa’s best-selling car ever.

The car will be made as a five-door only. The rear door handles have been cleverly disguised (See if you can spot them).

The suspension is MacPherson struts up front and a new multi-link design at the rear.

There will be three different designs of 16, 17 and 18-inch wheels: Thick-spoke, multi-spoke and Alfa’s “telephone dial” design.

Engines on offer include a 120hp 1.4L gasoline and a 170hp 2.0L diesel. All engines will be turbocharged and have four-cylinder. There will later be a 230hp Cloverleaf model, which I’m definitely looking forward to. All cars will be front wheel drive, and will come with either a five or six-speed manual gearbox. Autocar mentions nothing about an automatic, but I presume one will be available. Not that I’d want one. Fiat is working on a semi-auto twin-clutch alternative to add to the Giulietta.

All Giuliettas will come with automatic start-stop as standard.

Alfa Romeo aims to make over 100,000 units a year. They say it is too early to predict pricing, but they claim it will be very competitive compared to its main rival, the VW Golf.

Very few pictures have been released, but so far it looks quite nice. I’d still prefer that they use the 159/Brera front styling instead, but this isn’t too bad.

Source: Autocar

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