VW’s pursuit of becoming the king of sales is slowly taking shape with the upcoming relaunch of the Phaeton in the U.S. Most remember the failure of this vehicle the first time around but don’t use that as a measuring stick this time. Volkswagen has reworked this luxury sedan and sales appear to be strong in other markets. I’m pretty certain a fine tuned Marketing and PR campaign will put the Phaeton in a position to register some solid sales numbers. Maybe fine tuning the price might help too!

From AutoGuide.com:

BERLIN (Bloomberg) — Volkswagen AG plans to bring back the $85,000 Phaeton to the U.S., where the flagship sedan flopped and was withdrawn in 2006.

The Phaeton’s U.S. relaunch is part of the German carmaker’s aim of tripling its share of the world’s second-largest market by 2018.

“We have our eyes firmly set on the U.S. market,” Juergen Borrmann, director of Volkswagen’s plant in Dresden, Germany, where the Phaeton is built, said in an interview. The model for the U.S. will be completely redesigned and retooled, he said.

Read the full article here.

Can it be true that the bigs at Volkswagen are very interested in acquiring Korean automaker Hyundai? This would make a merger of the two companies a real powerhouse moving forward. What happens then to KIA? Time will tell but inquiring minds are all over this one.

From AutoGuide.com:

The Truth About Cars is reporting that Volkswagen executives are turning their attention towards Korean auto giant Hyundai, after comments made to the press by two Volkswagen managers came to their attention.

According to a translation by TTAC’s Bertel Schmitt, VW CEO Martin Winterkorn spoke admirably about Hyundai in a German magazine, stating “I have the most respect for Hyundai. The Korean currency is low (as opposed to the Japanese …) and quality is high. “Hyundai now knows how to build good cars.”

In a seperate interview given to the Korea Times, Volkswagen honorary chairman Carl Hahn admonished Korean automakers to stop selling their cars based on low prices, and instead focus on quality and value for money.

Read the full article here.

Today’s treat is a cool photo of a cute redhead posing next to an old Volkswagen Beetle. Usually you see how babes posing next to sports cars, but we found this photo in a cool gallery of sexy girls and old cars.

Volkswagen makes it official for the launch of the Polo GTI. This future star reportedly will get 40mpg with 170 horses. This is a great looking vehicle and I believe a huge seller wherever it hits the streets! Great looks, power, superior fuel efficiency and the reputation of VW.

From AutoGuide.com:

Volkswagen’s been on a roll with hot hatches lately; the Scirocco, Golf GTI MKVI and Golf R are all fine performance cars that the common man can buy, but as the cars baloon in size, equipment and power, they become further and further removed from their ancestor, the tossable, no-frills MKI GTI.

The car that will inevtiably draw comparisons to the MK1 is Volkswagens new Polo GTI, officially announced today, despite being shown at Geneva in March. The MK1 GTI weighed 1830 lbs, a little less than a Lotus Elise, hit 60 mph in just under 9 seconds and put out 110 horsepower from a 1.6L naturally aspirated four cylinder engine.

Read the full article here.

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen VW Scirocco hatchbacks on the streets of the good ole USA but like a power packed punch VW is bring the Scirocco back. This time it could be rollin’ down the pavement with 550hp and tuned to your liking. Very cool ride indeed…

From Motortrend.com:

It’s been a long 22 years since Volkswagen deemed North America worthy of its Scirocco hatchback. For those V-Dubbers who can’t live without VW’s newest iteration of the hot hatch, HPA Motorsports will not only import one into the new world, but tune it to your exact specifications.

The volks at HPA Motorsports have worked out a deal to have the Scirocco imported directly to its workshop in British Columbia, Canada, only 10 short miles over the U.S. border. Once the car arrives, the fun begins. While HPA can do just about whatever your heart desires, they strongly suggests the FT565 package, a special setup that adds a pair of Garrett H25 turbochargers to the 3.2-liter V-6. The mechanics at HPA beef up all the internals to handle the 550 hp and 500 lb ft of torque the new engine produces. Brakes are upgraded to 14-inch rotors and 8-piston calipers in front, along with 13-inch rotors in back. Stock wheels are replaced with 19-inch BBS aluminum rolling stock, wrapped in Dunlop SP Sport Maxx tires.

Read the entire article here.

What comes to my mind here is “VW looks at making a great car even better”. The CC R-Line needs to be brought over to North America!

From AutoGuide.com:

Volkswagen has just announced the release of a new R-Line package for the sporty CC sedan in Europe. Available with all engine types, the R-Line trim delivers an aggressive aero kit including a new front lip and side skirts with R-Line logos. Out back, the taillights also get smoked. A set of 17-inch R-Line wheels with 235/45/17 tires are included, with an option to upgrade to 18s.

Other parts of the package include R-Line kick plates, sport seats, climate control, fog lights and a leather steering wheel with redundant controls.

Read the full article here.

One-hundred seventy mpg? Now were talking. This concept from VW may look a little strange but it is rumored to be going into production sometime in 2013. What the final production version will look like is still years away but if it keeps the mpg’s around 170 bring it on!

From AutoGuide.com:

As amazing as the 71-mpg Polo BlueMotion model is that Volkswagen plans to show at the LA Auto Show next week, the German automaker will also show another fuel-efficient vehicle that gets more than double that car’s mpg rating.

Called the L1 Concept, this tiny two seater uses just 1.38 liters of diesel per 100 km – that’s 170 mpg! All that efficiency comes from an 800cc diesel motor mated to a hybrid drivetrain and a seven-speed DSG transmission. It makes 27hp in ECO mode and 39hp in a more powerful mode. Torque is rated at 74 ft-lbs.

The engine is then wrapped in a light-weight carbon fiber body, in a two seater arrangement with the passenger sitting behind the driver. The L1 weighs only 838 lbs and has a drag coefficient of just 0.195 cd.

Read the entire article here.