Bullz-Eye.com checked out Volkswagen to explore ways the company is trying to be fuel efficient.

Car enthusiasm boils down to the enjoyment of the drive. All you need is a car you enjoy, a twisty road and some exciting scenery. But the scenery aspect always seems to be left out – the natural backdrop that turns an average drive into a memory. A drive through California will remind you just how important nature is to enjoying a car, and how to make cars not adversely affect the world we live in. No, this article will not be an environmental screed if you were wondering, but it will highlight how VW and other car manufacturers are keeping the joys of motoring while taking into account the preservation of the planet.

The GTI and Golf R are pretty good examples of how far automakers have pushed the envelope, balancing performance with green friendliness. Don’t be mistaken, neither of these cars are hybrids. The GTI and Golf R both share turbocharged 4 cylinder engines, but the R dials up the power and is equipped with 4Motion AWD. But it was the GTI that I took the keys to start the day.

Read the full article.

After three years of being bested by Toyota, General Motors is once again the world’s best selling automaker. General Motors sold 9,025,942 in 2011, a 7.6 percent increase over last year’s figures. General Motors even bested Volkswagen, who have made it a public goal to become the biggest automaker on the block. Toyota trailed both GM and VW though, whose sales dropped 6 percent in 2011.

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Although the economy continues to lurch toward recovery at a snail’s pace, some automakers are defying expectations, and posting big gains on the sale charts. For the month of October, the big winners were Chrysler and Volkswagen. Chrysler sold 21,244 cars last month, a 28% increase when compared to October of 2010. High demand for the recently revised 200 and 300 sedans and high incentives helped bring traffic to the showrooms.

Volkswagen was another winner. They sold 28,028 cars last month, a 40% increase from October of last year. Volkswagen points to strong sales of their recently redesigned Passat sedan as the reason for drawing more sales. The good news is not expected to stop as November starts either.

Many automakers and analysts expected strong October sales, and are claiming high sales to continue through November. Although the economy is still a blight on auto sales, analysts expect outside variables to drive sales forward. First, they claim there is a lot of pent up demand for new vehicles since the age of the average car in this country is 11 years old. Secondly, inventory levels are returning to pre-quake levels for the Japanese manufacturers. Finally, a combination of high used car prices and incentives on new car purchases may sway consumers to purchase new cars instead of used ones. The fourth quarter of this year for automakers is shaping up to be much better than expected.

Source: Automotive News

Think tanks are a wonderful thing. Where else can you publish pages of biased research, get paid tons of money for it, and then have no accountability if your results are used? Car enthusiasts need their own think tank. Dashboard News is filling this void with lukewarm, soft facts with our new feature: “There I Fixed It.” In this column, we make somewhat logical solutions to an automaker’s problems. No rants about manual, diesel hatchbacks for under $25k here, our rants have data and evidence, sort of. So read on, and make sure to put your own thoughts on the subject, or new problems, in the comments below.

The first automaker to need our help is VW. On a quest to become the world’s largest automaker, VW has both decreased prices and content on some cars (Jetta), and has strengthened their niche offerings (New New Beetle) to attract more sales. However, they want the New Beetle to be bought by both girls and boys this time, instead of mostly girls like last time. AP details some of the efforts VW made to make the Beetle “manly”, such as boost gauges, bolder lines, and a stereo from Fender. But here’s the problem, the Beetle will never be manly.

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If you don’t remember the VW Phaeton, then you are lucky. For those that do, they will remember it as was one of the most boneheaded product decisions known to man. The Phaeton was a joint product between VW and Bentley. Bentley’s version was the wildly successful Continental GT (as seen in any rap video that involves champagne and girls dancing). The Phaeton did not fare so well. Reason being, it offered the cost and complexity of a Bentley, with the image of a VW. So, the nearly 100k car sat on dealersihp lots until it left the U.S. market in 2006. However, it has survived overseas and is set for a return.

Car magazine reports that we almost saw a new Phaeton during the Frankfurt Auto Show a couple weeks ago. However, VW is full steam ahead on creating a brand new Phaeton for 2015. They don’t seem to know why though:

Even after the third facelift, the Phaeton can still only field one truly strong point, and that is the beautifully finished cabin which matches any Bentley even though the layout is about as contemporary as a Biedermeier sideboard, and the electronics tend to lag at least one generation behind the leaders.

It is an open secret that the next Phaeton will be styled from the inside out, matching a top-notch but less olde worlde interior to a much more timely exterior. How do we define timely? This is a question VW will have to answer in the course of next year. Before the summer break, three options were being discussed: another three-box notchback, a rather stylish five-door hatchback, and an elegant and luxurious Super-Variant.

Sounds like they are headed for the same mistake as last time; they should call it the Titanic II instead.

Source: Car Magazine

When the VW Beetle debuted, it was meant as a cheap car for mass consumption. Now, it is merely a large, retro, fashion accessory that makes some murky link to its origins. However, a true Beetle successor does exist, but it is only available in Europe.

It is called the Up!, and it is meant to offer cheap, stylish, dependable transportation for lots of people. Sound familar? It may not have an air-cooled engine in the back, but it does have many cool engineering tricks to keep size and price small. European car amgazine Evo points out a few of them:

So the production Up has the usual front engine, front-wheel drive and torsion beam rear axle, but the engine is a new, all-aluminium, three-cylinder unit of 1.0 litre and either 60 or 95bhp. There will also be a 68bhp CNG version with just 79g/km CO2 when mated to the robotised manual transmission option. The Up is just over 3.5m long, weighs under a tonne (as you would hope) and has very short overhangs. At the front this is achived by mounting the radiator to the left side of the engine instead of in front of it.

As for how it drives:

Not remotely rapid. The 1.0-litre, 75bhp, 108g/km, five-speed manual takes 13.2sec to hit 62mph and runs out of steam at 106mph, and you need to stoke the engine mercilessly to stay with torquey, turbodiesel-powered traffic. But, as with many three-pots, it’s a very likeable engine with a deep, smooth note and a response keener than than the figurtes suggest. Unusually for a triple, it has no balancer shaft. This small engine’s reciprocating masses are too low to need balancing.

This is a light, airy car, beautifully made and detailed, and designed in the kind of industrial way that suits the painted-metal door edges and the lack of any padding. The dashboard is glossy, and body-coloured in most versions, and on it sits, optionally, a Navigon sat-nav/economy meter/control screen which you can take out and use, Tom-Tom-like, for on-foot navigation. It will talk to your phone, too.

The Up! will not be coming stateside, but it is nice to know that there are useful, attractive, and cheap cars out there.

For the full review, check out the article here.

Richard Hammond has been running a series on Top Gear’s website about his favorite cars from the past. This week was on the original Golf GTI, the first hot hatch. What makes the original GTI legendary is its simplicity: low power, low weight, Guigario design, and all fun. It was supposed to be a brief fling for VW, but turned into something much more.

Hammond sums up the GTI as:

It was pioneered by a young engineer: Alfons Löwenberg. In 1974, he got his workmates together in their spare time at Wolfsburg to work on what they called the ‘Sport Golf’. They had no idea that their creation would go on to become one of the stone-cold, rock-solid, gold-standard, class-A motoring icons. It was just a sporty version of a small car.

But it went on to have a following of a breadth and level of intensity that eclipses pop stars. Proof that they had no idea about the future comes when you learn that they planned to make 5,000 cars, and it wasn’t going to be available in right-hand drive. Just a bit of fun then, a little special. Several million later, and it’s a legend.

What the GTI proves ahead of all else is that you don’t need much to make a great car. Its modern progeny may have exponentially more power, features, and sophistication, but no one has gotten the original recipe of the GTI right. A bit of simplicity would go a long way in bringing back the feeling of the original GTI in any car trying to make an impression.

It is with this in mind that it is exciting to see hot hatch variants come out from the B segment cars, such as the Ford Fiesta and Fiat 500 Abarth since traditional C-segment hatchbacks are too big and expensive. These smaller, lighter descendants are sure to bring the fun back to a segment that takes itself too seriously.

The full article of Richard Hammond’s thoughts on the MK1 GTI can be read here.

Reports from British car magazine Autocar state that Porsche is inspired by the 550 Spyder for their newest sports car. This will be the new entry level Porsche, and slot in under the Boxster. The 500 Spyder is one of Porsche’s most iconic models, and was incredibly important in putting Porsche on the map with gentleman racers and celebrities, including James Dean, who died in one. Its successor was non other than the 911. It is a strong claim then to affix such a lofty target for the entry level Porsche.

Porsche boss Matthias Mueller goes on further to explain the type of engine we will see when this car debuts:

The Porsche is expected to be based on a new mid-engined aluminium and steel platform being developed by Audi which will also be used for the proposed Audi R4 roadster.

The Porsche will probably from £35,000 slotting in underneath the next-generation Boxster, which will grow notably in size and cost. The car will get a new four-cylinder boxer engine that will also power the Boxster, the Cayman and potentially even the 911. Sources say the flat four motor is sized at 2.5-litres and has been producing around 360bhp in turbocharged form.

Let’s hope this project is a larger sales success than the last Audi engineered Porsche, the 944. However, if they are shooting for the 500 Spyder as a spiritual target, my bets are on Porsche getting this car right, even with a turbo-4.

For the full Autocar article, follow this link.

British car magazine EVO just finished reviewing the the VW Golf GTI Edition 35. The VW Golf GTI Edition 35 is a European only model that celebrates the 35th anniversary of the GTI’s introduction. The Edition 35 is subtly tweaked inside and out from the stock GTI with more power, some new body parts, and some traditional GTI interior cues (such as a golfball shift knob).

EVO had this to say about how these tweaks affect overall performance:

Technical highlights?
The in-line, turbocharged four cylinder is actually a detuned version of the Golf R’s engine rather than a tweaked version of the standard GTI’s motor. It puts out 232bhp (25bhp more than the standard car), which makes it the fastest production GTI ever. Happy Birthday indeed.

What’s it like to drive?
The most noticeable thing about the new engine is how it really likes to be revved – unusual for a turbocharged unit. It is, as you’d expect, also slightly quicker. In these days of RS500 Foci, the 35 doesn’t feel like a fireball, but where the standard car felt just a little lacklustre for a modern hot hatch, the 35 feels more on the current pace.

The 35 will be offered with either a manual or DSG twin-clutch gearbox and in both three- and five-door variants. The gearbox choice is really down to personal preference (I’d have the manual, but the DSG works fantastically and I can see the appeal), however things are a little more clear-cut when it comes to body styles. Get the three-door if you can because it feels noticeably stiffer and slightly sharper to drive.

There’s a lovely polish to the manners of the GTI with steering, pedal weight and ride all smooth and precise. Occasionally you feel it would benefit from a few more teeth in the way it handles but it’s still a great thing to dissect a good piece of road with.

As of right now, VW has no plans to introduce the Edition 35 here. Pity

For more details and pictures of the Edition 35 in action, check out the article here.

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Jonathan Browning, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group America greeted media and guests from around the world alongside celebrity music artist and DJ Pete Wentz to unveil the third generation, 21st Century Beetle yesterday. The morning kicked off with a personalized spin session from Wentz featuring songs from longtime friend and business partner Travis McCoy, and of course hip hop selections. Cheering Volkswagen fans sipped mimosas and noshed on mini bagels, breakfast sandwiches, and other morning favorites.

The sleek new 2012 Volkswagen Beetle, only the third generation of this beloved iconic car, showcases the company’s style, performance, and the latest advances in German engineering. The 21st Century Beetle debuted on three continents this morning starting in Shanghai, China followed by events in Berlin and Lower Manhattan.

“I’m stoked to be here celebrating the unveiling of the 21st century Beetle,” Wentz remarked, before heading over to the chic red model for a second mini-session. “I love that the new Beetle is so sleek—it’s totally a guy’s car and I could see myself driving this updated version of the classic.” When asked if he had any cherished Volkswagen memories, as so many Americans do, Wentz smirked and divulged, “My favorite Volkswagen memory is getting to second base in the back seat!”

The event featured an introduction from Jonathan Browning and remarks from Luca de Meo, head of Global Marketing, and Klaus Bischoff, Head of Design for the brand. For more information on the 21st Century Beetle, visit vw.com or media.vw.com.

Photo credited to: Johnny Nunez