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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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Volkswagen of America, Inc. has created a series of humorous and informative webisodes starring Saturday Night Live comedian, Bill Hader. Hader paired with trained Volkswagen product specialist, Danielle Gumro, and SNL writer John Mulaney to create the series. “Inside the VW Academy,” shows the duo weaving together useful and hard-hitting product features in a compelling and entertaining way. The videos will be featured on the official Volkswagen YouTube channel and on its completely redesigned website. The series is made up of eighteen videos in total, the first nine branded entertainment clips debuting January 5th.

“There was a real collaboration between Volkswagen and Bill Hader on the set of ‘Inside the VW Academy’ and the unscripted comedy resulted in a unique and interesting format to engage consumers,” said Tim Ellis, Vice President of Marketing, Volkswagen of America, Inc. “This high quality online entertainment highlights our superior German engineering in a new way and underscores all the value you get when buying a Volkswagen.”

“I was excited to get to work with the elusive Danielle Gumro. But I was bummed I couldn’t keep my wardrobe from the shoot,” added actor Bill Hader.

The first nine videos feature the all-new 2011 Jetta, 2011 Tiguan and the 2011 Touareg. Each model will be featured in three videos that highlight key features, safety, performance and technology, and each video shows a competitive comparison. The content will provide factual details interspersed with humorous dialog and comedic improv. Consumers will also be able to post the videos via YouTube and Facebook. Additional videos will launch in March.

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.

Katy Perry and chef Mario Batali made a surprise appearance at the premiere of the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta in Times Square.

Katy Perry performed her hit singles “I Kissed A Girl”, “Hot and Cold” and her new single “California Gurlz,” even jumping on the hood of the new Jetta mid-performance. “I was dancing on the hood of this all-new Volkswagen Jetta 2011 and it was fantastic! Everyone should get one and dance on it! You’ll have some incredible dance moves coming your way,” said Perry.

Chef Mario Batali was on site to put together simple and sophisticate Italian summer fare. “I’ll be happy to buy the new 2011 Volkswagen Jetta in Mario Batali orange, but I’d have to have some kind of sexy purple on the inside!” he said.

At a starting price point of around $16,000, the all-new 2011 Jetta offers best in class rear legroom, a premium interior and Volkswagen essentials. Unveiled for the first time today at an unexpected urban oasis in Times Square, New York, the all-new 2011 Jetta features clean lines, refined side architecture and premium style combined with Volkswagen’s trademark precision German engineering. The all-new 2011 Jetta sets a new standard in its class and will be available in the U.S. this October.

“Today marks the beginning of a new era for Volkswagen and for Jetta,” said Stefan Jacoby, CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. “The all-new 2011 Jetta is a class-up driving experience with the kind of styling, design and power under the hood normally found in more expensive luxury cars. At an extremely attractive price, this car is sophisticated, fun to drive and practical.”

<> at Blue Fin in W New York - Time Square on June 15, 2010 in New York City.

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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.

Give Car and Driver credit for driving and testing a slew of cars to come up with the winners. It would suck not to have a car on the list if you’re Toyota! At this point in time they seem to be falling back in the pack when others like Ford, Mazda and VW keep climbing.

This year, for the 28th running of our annual 10Best competition, the rules were simple. First, we raised the price cap from $71,000 to $80,000 (roughly three times the average transaction price of a new car) in the belief that 80 grand is the current point of automotive excellence’s diminishing returns. Cars get more expensive than that, but they don’t get much better. More important, raising the cap makes eligible nominees in two other vital categories: luxo-sport GTs and luxury sedans. Never mind that only two new cars qualified (and one was about to be replaced in a few months, so we left it out).

Read the entire article here.