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Volkswagen Beetle Black Turbo edition for the USA

June 15, 2011 at 12:18 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Volkswagen

The Volkswagen Beetle Turbo will be equipped with the same 2.0 litre TFSI engine as the Volkswagen Scirocco/Golf GTI – that means 200 horsepower and 280Nm of torque, paired to a ultra quick shifting DSG gearbox.

Volkswagen of America will even celebrate the marque’s new fast Beetle with a Volkswagen Beetle Black Turbo edition, limited to 600 units and equipped with plenty of look fast bits to go with the go fast engine – red calipers, special 18 inch wheels, a rear spoiler, etc.

Volkswagen wants the new Beetle to be more unisex rather than just appealing to female drivers. Since the majority of the readers here are guys – what do you think, would you drive a Beetle that had the performance of a Golf GTI?

Look after the jump for photo galleries of the new Beetle.
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Wörthersee 2011: Volkswagen Golf R Cabriolet Concept

June 3, 2011 at 2:04 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Volkswagen


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The annual Wörthersee meet is a playground for the VW Group fan, and there’s bound to be something weird and wonderful coming out from Austria this time of the year. Yesterday, we showed you the mad Audi A1 Clubsport Quattro with 503 PS, today there’s a less unlikely (but still not very logical) Golf R Cabriolet Concept by Volkswagen.

It’s not much of a mystery, as the name says it all. This concept is a high performance Golf R in the Mk6 Cabriolet body that was unveiled back in February. The real world Golf Cabriolet maxes out at 210 PS from a 2.0 TSI engine, which is as fast as buyers looking at this variant would want to go, but this concept comes with the Golf R’s 270 PS/350 Nm EA113 engine.


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With that under the hood, this rag top R sprints from rest to 100 km/h in “less than six seconds”. The AWD Golf R does it in 5.7 seconds, but a cabrio is always heavier, and slower. Top speed is as usual, limited to 250 km/h.

Like the closed-top Golf R, this car is lowered by 25 mm via a sport chassis. A 17-inch brake system with internally ventilated discs at all wheels and blue painted high-performance brake calipers match the pace. The wheels are 19-inch “Talladega” alloys with 235 section tyres.


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Inside, this “Power Cabrio” concept features motorsport shell seats in dark blue carbon leather, combined with high-end Nappa leather in grey. Carbon accents and sand-blasted aluminium door sill plates with black piano paint inlays are highlights in the otherwise familiar Golf cabin.

Besides this, VW also gave the Golf GTI Edition 35 (a car that one can actually buy) its public debut at Wörthersee. Click here for more on that car.

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Volkswagen Passat CC – VGM says delays in deliveries due to re-evaluation exercise, possible increase in pricing

May 28, 2011 at 12:44 am By Anthony Lim Filed Under Cars, Local News, Volkswagen

Volkswagen Group Malaysia has issued an announcement regarding a potential increase in the pricing of its Passat CC. The company says that with the Royal Malaysian Customs currently re-evaluating cars that are imported into the country, there has been a delay in deliveries to customers.

At the moment, the latest shipment of Passat CCs are at the port awaiting clearance and will be released once the re-evaluation is completed, and there could well possibly be a change in pricing after the completion of the exercise.

The VGM statement adds that for customers who have signed a sales contract with its authorised dealers for the car before April 7, 2011, the company will undertake to sell the Passat CC to these customers at the current retail price. As for customers who placed their bookings from April 8, 2011 onwards, the Passat CC will be sold at the new retail price, when that is eventually announced.

“We are currently working with all parties to reach a swift and amicable resolution to this matter,” said VGM’s MD Ricky Tay, who added that the company “hopes to resolve the matter as soon as possible.”

Currently, the two variants of the 200 hp vehicle available locally, the Comfortline and Sport, are priced at RM230,060 and RM245,060 respectively, both on-the-road with insurance. The grapevine speculates that an increase of around RM30k could be likely for the Comfortline, and an additional RM5k on top of the Comfortline’s revised price for the Sport, but that’s what it is, just speculation, so everyone will just have to wait for the revision announcement when it comes.

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VW Polo R in the works, to ride on WRC rally car fame

May 16, 2011 at 11:50 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Motorsports, Volkswagen

Earlier this month, Volkswagen confirmed that it will join the World Rally Championship (WRC) in 2013 and gave a preview of its rally machine. Called the Polo R WRC, the three-door supermini’s body has prominent ‘R’ branding, which is also in the car’s name as well.

While VW has previously shot off the possibility of a hot ‘Polo R’ by its performance division, this latest development hints otherwise. Autocar UK followed up on that and have got some positive response from a VW bigwig.

“You can see how the World Rally Championship programme would increase the probability of an R version of the base model (Polo),” Ulrich Hackenberg, VW Member of the Management Board, Development Division told the mag. Timeframe? “It is with the rally programme, not before it. I can’t give a precise date, but it’s along those lines,” he revealed.

At the reveal, Dr Ulrich also said that “the new Technical Regulations of the WRC are an ideal fit for Volkswagen’s philosophy with respect to the development of production vehicles.” The Polo R WRC will have “near 300 hp” from a 1.6-litre TSI engine that’s turbocharged and direct injected.

So what we know now is that a hot Polo tuned by R GmbH is in the works, but won’t surface till at least 2013. The current hottest Polo is the GTI, which puts out 180 PS and 250 Nm from just 1.4-litres of twincharged TSI engine. To top that, the ‘Polo R’ will need at least Golf GTI levels of power, which should make it one hell of a pocket rocket.

While the R may be a long way from production, we hear that the Polo GTI may be coming to our shores in the near future, not a surprise since VGM did bring in the previous-gen car. No stick shift though; the new Polo GTI is mated exclusively to a 7-speed DSG.

Click here to see a video of the Polo R WRC.

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Volkswagen to debut Golf GTI Edition 35 at Worthersee

May 11, 2011 at 4:00 pm By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Volkswagen

The Golf GTI is 35 years old, and there will be a special edition to commemorate it. This is the VW Golf GTI Edition 35 that will be revealed at VW Group’s tuning festival at Worthersee, Austria next month. If you remember, they released an Edition 30 five years ago based on the Mk5 GTI.

The GTI 35′s tweaked 2.0 TSI engine makes 25 horses more than the standard car, taking max power to 235 hp. No torque or acceleration figures were given, but the added power should shave a few tenths of the standard 0-100 km/h time of 6.9 seconds.

The Edition 35 sports a revised front bumper, a new alloy wheel design plus 35 badges on the door sills. Inside, the special edition gets part-leather bucket seats with 35 badging and a golf ball gearstick.

More pictures after the jump
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Volkswagen’s Chinese JV brand with FAW to be called Kaili

May 11, 2011 at 2:09 pm By Anthony Lim Filed Under Cars, FAW, International News, Volkswagen

The name has been chosen, and Kaili is the name of FAW-Volkswagen Automotive’s JV brand for the Chinese market. According to reports, the first Kaili vehicle on the cards is an electric vehicle, this being based on the production plan submitted to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. No details have yet been disclosed about the EV.

Kaili is the latest sub-brand to emerge for the Chinese market, which has seen a number of new names coming about of late – SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile recently launched its Baojun brand’s first offering, the 630 sedan, while Honda’s JV concern, Guangqi Honda Automobile, has Li Nian, of which the Everus concept compact car – riding on a Fit platform – was shown recently.

Elsewhere, there’s the Venucia, which belongs to Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle. It’s all in line with Beijing’s call to encourage global automakers to allow their JVs to create new brands.

Hopefully, along the way, Kaili won’t be looking to name one of its models the Minok. Now that would be a really, really bad one!

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Shanghai VW to roll out new compact premium sedan

May 10, 2011 at 11:19 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, China, Volkswagen

There will be a new premium compact sedan for the Chinese market rolled out by Shanghai VW, a joint venture between SAIC and Volkswagen. The new model will have the “most advanced platform and engine technology,” SAIC said. Apparently, Shanghai VW has long hoped to build a premium model.

Reports speculate that this will boost the profits of Shanghai VW nearer to the level of VW’s other JV in China, FAW-Volkswagen. Shanghai VW currently builds the Polo, Touran, Santana, Lavida, Passat and Tiguan, but FAW-Volkswagen builds Audi sedans, and premium marques carry a bigger margin. The FAW side also makes the Golf, Jetta, Sagitar, New Bora, Magotan and (Passat) CC models.

In the first quarter of 2011, Shanghai Volkswagen sold 227,835 vehicles, while FAW Volkswagen shifted 225,256 units including 42,667 Audi models. Big numbers.

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Amcorp Auto opens 3S Volkswagen centre in Jalan Ipoh

May 6, 2011 at 7:35 pm By Anthony Lim Filed Under Cars, Local News, Volkswagen

Another Volkswagen dealership has been launched – Amcorp Auto opened its first 3S Volkswagen centre in Jalan Ipoh today; the opening marks the first venture of the Amcorp Group into the automotive retailing market.

The centre, which features 5,000 sq ft of showroom space and includes a specially-designated air-conditioned delivery room, meets all current Volkswagen corporate image standards and is located on a spacious stand-alone plot in the heart of KL.

With a further 8,000 sq ft of service area as well as a fully covered 7,500 sq ft of storage space for new vehicles, the centre certainly isn’t lacking in acreage.

The opening of the centre paves the way for greater involvement for the group in the automotive arena. “The investment by Amcorp into the automotive retail market does not end with this 3S centre in Jalan Ipoh, as there could be greater participation or larger investments in the industry by the company in the future,” said Tan Sri Azman Hashim, chairman of Amcorp Group. Volkswagen Jalan Ipoh can be contacted at 03–6259 6669.

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Volkswagen confirms WRC entry, Polo to race in 2013

May 6, 2011 at 3:15 am By Danny Tan Filed Under International News, Motorsports, Volkswagen

As speculated earlier, Volkswagen has confirmed that it will join the World Rally Championship (WRC) with an announcement on the eve of the Rally d’Italia in Sardinia. Wolfsburg’s entry won’t be for this year, or the next, but in 2013, when they will race the Polo R WRC previewed here.

The Rally Polo will have “near 300 hp” from a 1.6-litre TSI engine and four-wheel drive. As with the TSI motor in the road going Polo, the rally car’s four-cylinder unit will be direct injected and turbocharged.

“The new Technical Regulations of the WRC are an ideal fit for Volkswagen’s philosophy with respect to the development of production vehicles,” said Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, Member of the Management Board, Development Division. “The timing of the WRC debut is optimal for VW. The big task of engineering a vehicle that is competitive and capable of winning at a large number of challenges holds great appeal for us,” he added.

After winning three consecutive Dakar titles, VW will be hoping to put up a strong challenge in WRC, which has been dominated lately by mass market rivals Citroen and Ford.
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Volkswagen opens new telematics R&D center in California

May 3, 2011 at 12:20 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Volkswagen

With increasing consumer adoption of technology and gadgets in general, a solid in-car telematics/infotainment system that integrates well into an owner’s lifestyle is going to play some weight in car purchasing decisions in the future.

We don’t see many of these systems here in Malaysia but in-vehicle systems are getting more and more advanced with carmakers offering systems like GM OnStar, Ford SYNC, MyFord Touch, Kia UVO, Lexus Remote Touch, BMW iDrive and Mercedes-Benz COMAND. In Malaysia, we usually start to see such systems included only in higher end vehicles, so we are familiar with COMAND and iDrive.

Volkswagen has the RCD510 here in Malaysia (some owners are retrofitting RNS510 too), but it doesn’t stop there. They’ve just opened a new Electronics Research Laboratory in Belmont, California, a 40,000 square feet R&D facility for advanced automotive telematics with a US$20 million annual budget. The R&D center will have 100 designers, engineers and psychologists, and will focus on the areas of driver assistance, human-machine interface, multimedia and connected vehicles. The new Belmont facility is the largest Volkswagen research center outside of Germany.

Technology developed at the US center will be used in VW Group cars worldwide – this includes the more expensive marques like Audi and Lamborghini. Volkswagen will be collaborating with technology partners like Oracle, Nvidia and Google and there are a few projects on the cards:

  • A car that can navigate itself through a parking lot to find a spot, and return to the structure’s entrance when summoned by the driver’s smart phone. Car jockey would be rendered redundant!

  • Driving awareness systems that detect traffic-signal and speed limit changes and can accelerate or decelerate the car as conditions warrant.
  • A car monitor that tracks driving patterns that can be uploaded to a smart phone or computer, allowing a driver to make more efficient driving decisions in his commute.
  • Improving the readability of the instrument panel, using fiberoptics to stack multiple readouts within the same cluster without becoming confusing.
  • Making the human-machine interface more elegant, using haptic clicks and an intelligent mouse so navigating telematic menus is more predictable.
  • Using Google Earth as a navigation aid, including using “street view” so that a driver knows what the destination looks like, not just its address. This can be used proactively show nearby electric vehicle charging stations if the vehicle knows it is running low on a charge. The latest Audi MMI already uses a lot of Google technologies.
  • A center console that can wirelessly charge smart phones, similar to “power mats” now on the market for home use. The project, in development with Qualcomm, could use magnetic near-field resonance to power rear-seat entertainment or ambient lighting systems as well.
  • Floormats where the car’s logo is illuminated. Engineers need to make sure the electronics don’t short out when stomped on wet shoes.
  • An interactive version of “Fast” that can communicate with the driver, as well as with other nearby VW drivers as a social network beacon.
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