Archive for Volkswagen

Volkswagen Malaysia announced yesterday that VW Cars Sdn Bhd was no longer an authorised dealer of Volkswagen cars in Malaysia. This is some interesting news as VW Cars is one of the more prominent Volkswagen dealers in Malaysia, with showrooms in PJ and The Curve. A sister company of VW Cars is also the official dealer for Abt in Malaysia. They are part of the Cartrade group who used to be BMW dealers. I wonder what will happen to the bookings for the new Volkswagens (Scirocco, Passat CC, Golf GTI) made through their showrooms as they are sure to have a decent amount in hand. Hopefully if there is any kind of transition etc it will be smooth for customers.

Two new Volkswagen cars have been added to the Volkswagen Malaysia range – the Passat CC and the Scirocco. The Passat CC is available at the showroom today, while the Scirocco is said to be at all showrooms next week onwards.

The following are the launch prices:

• Volkswagen Scirocco 2.0 TSI – RM243,888
• Volkswagen Passat CC – RM239,888

The Passat CC’s price is a bump up from the Passat’s RM228,888.00 pricetag. The Passat CC has a 200 PS 2.0 liter TSI engine with turbocharging and direct injection but it does not use a DSG gearbox. Instead like the Tiguan it is mated to a 6-speed Tiptronic slushbox automatic. It is based on the Passat platform but with a sportier roofline (think of MB E-Class versus CLS-Class), and is 50mm lower to the ground and 30mm longer. If you need a little more in terms of looks, you can get an Abt kit.

Features are generous – 6 airbags, ABS, traction control, stability control, ISOFIX seat points, and adaptive chassis control which adjusts the suspension damping and power steering assistance characteristics to suit the driving pattern.

Look after the jump for e-brochures for both cars.

Click here to read the rest of Prices for Volkswagen Passat CC and Scirocco officially unveiled; both cars in showrooms

Volkswagen announced that a new 1.2 TSI powerplant is now available for the Polo, Golf and Golf Plus models. The engine is able to output 105 PS and 175Nm of torque that is achieved from as low as 1,500 rpm. As the term TSI suggests, the engine is fitted with a turbocharger and features direct injection.

The 1.2 TSI motivator is treated to an aluminium crankcase and a completely re-tuned direct injection system to help make the engine lighter and more fuel efficient. It also enables to the engine to achieve smooth power development and output lower emissions. The above mentioned features are also used in the 1.4 TSI, an engine that has been awarded the prestigious “Engine of the Year” award three years in a row since 2006.

Volkswagen has announced that it will take a 49.9% stake in sports car maker Porsche in a first step towards merging with the company. Volkswagen’s initial plan was to acquire 42% of Porsche and with the increase in stake, Volkswagen’s position in the equation will be stronger sooner than expected. The German auto giant also assured that the merger between both companies is still scheduled to take place in 2011.

Currently both companies are working together in certain areas such as manufacturing the Porsche Cayenne and the Volkswagen Touareg in the same plant as well as the utilization of Volkswagen’s 3.6 liter V6 by Porsche. The above mentioned 49.9% stake will cost $5.8 billion and the company also assured that it is committed in “preserving the independence and the interests of Porsche” – which is a good move.

Porsche will join other brands like Bugatti, Audi, Lamborghini as well as Bentley to become the company’s 10th brand. Volkswagen also announced that it plans to increase its preferred share capital by the first half of 2010 in order to refinance the participation and maintain Volkswagen’s good credit rating.

Rumors are circulating that German auto giant Volkswagen will replace the Passat with the company’s New Mid-Sized Sedan (NMS) in the US. The new sedan is expected to hit the market in 2011 and will be manufactured at the auto maker’s Tennessee plant.

It will most probably be longer than the Passat and should be priced with a cheaper price tag (by about $8,000). According to the source, the new sedan will be built in the US so that the automaker can take advantage of the weaker US dollar when compared to the Euro. Thanks to exchange rates, German-built cars will carry a significantly higher price tag when sold in the US hence it would cost lower if the cars were built in the US. It is unclear if the new mid-sized sedan will be offered in other markets.

Generally Americans and Europeans have different expectations of their D-segment sedans. Euro D-segment cars tend to be smaller and sleeker like the Accord Euro while American market cars are just plain large – the bigger the better, refinement is not as important. An unnamed Volkswagen executive has said in the past that the NMS project was born because the company felt American customers don’t really appreciate the refinement of the Passat, hence dismal sales in comparison to competitors like the Camry and the Accord. The Passat is also more expensive because of the extra costs that go into its refinement.

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Volkswagen E-Up! Concept – an EV based on the Up! NSF platform

A small storm is brewing within the Volkswagen group, not something we can see on the outside, but enough that a very important car has its launch delayed by a few months. Volkswagen group production head Joachem Heizmann told German publication Automobilwoche that the Volkswagen Up will only start production after March 2011, which is later than his boss Martin Winterkorn had hoped.

The reason? Time-consuming petty jealousies between various departments and brands. Right now, Volkswagen group brands that are confirmed to be selling a version of Volkswagen Up! are the Volkswagen brand and the more value-oriented Skoda brand. These two brands are represented in Malaysia respectively by the principal themselves (VW Malaysia), and a unit of the Berjaya Group (Skoda – Quasar Carriage).

While the Up! is expected to satisfy the market of consumers that are looking for smaller and more fuel efficient transportation, bear in mind that when such cars come to Malaysia, unless things change with the policies and taxation system here it may not necessarily gel with the whole affordable transportation anymore.

Countries that are designated as “developing countries” such as ours are usually offered special models low-cost models – just look at what is sold in South America and Eastern Europe and you will get an idea.

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A delicious trio of the Volkswagen Scirocco, the Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk6 and the Volkswagen Passat CC are now listed on Volkswagen Malaysia’s website with specifications though there are no prices yet. I understand a preview of the Scirocco and the Passat CC (not sure about the Mk6) was done at Volkswagen showrooms a few weeks ago. According to sales advisors at Cartrade-ABT when they showcased their Abt-kitted cars a few weeks ago as well, the Scirocco is expected to go for around RM250k while the Mk6 GTI will be cheaper. But these are just preliminary prices and things may change.

Can’t decide between a Scirocco R or a Mk6 Golf R? This promo video featuring both the cars won’t help you make that decision – both look equally good painted in the same blue colour scheme having a bit of fun on a race track.

Personally in terms of design I’m kinda leaning towards the Mk6 Golf R instead. How about you? That’s besides the fact of course that the Golf R actually has an all-wheel drive system while the Scirocco R still have to put everything through the front wheels.

With every generation there’s supposed to be improvements all-round but I think one definite part where the Mk5 R32 has an edge over the new Mk6 R is the fact that the R32 probably sounds so much better – there is just so far that a 4 pot can go. Wonder why they didn’t lump the 5-cylinder from the TT-RS into this baby instead.

Check out the video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Golf R and Scirocco R on a track

Even the humble little Polo cannot escape the tuners, but it’s really not surprising considering it’s a good looking little car in the first place, very tempting to spice it up a little.

Other than the Abt bodykit and suspension pack you see above, they’ve also worked some magic in the engine bay. The new 1.2 liter TSI engine has had its stock output upgraded from 105 horses up to 130 horses, yet Abt says fuel consumption and CO2 emission values remain stock standard.

The 1.6 liter TDI version also peaks out at 130 horses, and this upgrade is available with the highest 105 horsepower tune. The 90 horsepower version gets upgraded to 110 horses while the baseline 75 horsepower version gets a boost up to 90 horses.

The Golf R is something quite different in the new Mk6 range. While the Mk5’s R car was the R32 with a 3.2 liter V6 putting power through an all-wheel drive system, the new Mk6 Golf R will feature a 270 PS version of the EA113 2.0 liter TSI engine. The engine code of EA113 seems to indicate this is a high power tuned up version of the Mk5 GTI engine (which is also found in the Scirocco) and not the EA888 timing chain engine that you will find in the Mk6 GTI.

Volkswagen is really shouting about how the new turbo engine is so much more frugal than the V6 – 10.7 liters per 100km versus 8.5 liters per 100km on average. CO2 emissions have also dropped from 255g/km to 199g/km. Like the outgoing R32, the Golf R will use an all-wheel drive system.

This is the latest version of the 4Motion system which means now activation of the AWD differential no longer requires a difference in speed between the front and rear axles. This is because pressure is now activated by an electric pump. A computer controls the ideal drive torque for the rear axle, up to nearly 100% of drive torque.

The sprint to 100km/h takes only 5.7 seconds with the manual and 5.5 seconds with the optional DSG, down from 6.5 seconds on the R32. Torque numbers for the new car is also higher than the outgoing model – 350Nm versus 320Nm. Peak torque starts at 2,500rpm and this figure continues all the way up to 5,000rpm. This means a nice fat and meaty powerband.

Turbo boost pressure is set at 1.2 bar. To handle the higher power output, the engine has reinforced bolts which is not found on the regular TSI engines. The conrods and cylinder block are also stronger.

The ESP system now has a Sport mode which allows greater ‘allowances’ for you to fool around before the system kicks in to save you. The Golf R can be ordered with an optional DCC dynamic chassis control system, which varies various systems such as power steering assist maps for three different drive settings – Sport, Normal and Comfort.

Look after the jump for some nice original high resolution photos, for your wallpaper usage pleasure

Click here to read the rest of New Mk6 Volkswagen Golf R: 270 PS with AWD!