Practical With A Buzz
With the domestic automakers finally paying attention to their breadwinner family sedans, it is becoming increasingly necessary for the imports to keep their offerings fresh. Our first sample of the new batch, the Jetta, is setting the pace, with the Golf and Passat following any day now. Read more…
Who Needs A V6?
The Passat used to be Volkswagen’s entry in the affordable family sedan market, but the past few years have seen the once affordable German sedan drift upwards until the current V6, and especially the former W8, landed firmly in entry-level luxury sedan territory. Add in the luxo-liner Phaeton and the plusher-than-ever Jetta and it looks like VW has forsaken its history as a builder of affordable transportation. Read more…
This Isn’t Your Typical Vee-Dub
There might be a cute face on the front of this one, but there is no Bug hiding behind that smile. Underneath that gentle demeanor is more grunt than any Yank bargained for. At least according to the spec sheet. But numbers don’t contact the pavement, rubber does. So what happens when a homegrown Red, White, and Blue farm boy gets behind the reigns of a German steed on western soil? Read on and find out. Read more…
The (Rich) People’s Car
Who would have ever thought that in the same showroom as the iconic, smiling, affordable Beetle, would someday sit a behemoth luxury sedan casting a shadow of nearly 204 inches? And not only is this land yacht uncharacteristically big, it’s expensive too. Before the 2004 model year, a check in either of those two categories would disqualify a vehicle from wearing the Volkswagen badge flat out. But when the silk sheet dropped off the first Phaeton, all long-held stereotypes of what Volkswagens were, dropped with it. The Phaeton was charged with taking VW upscale, and way up scale, at that. To that end, it could be called a success. Volkswagen now offers a lineup that spans from $20k Golfs to $100k Phaetons. Unfortunately, for Volkswagen, it turns out nobody wants a six-figure car that shares a badge with Herbie. Actually, that’s not entirely true, they did sell 64 last month. But a report on subconscious buying habits, this is not. We’re all about the iron here. To that end, we loaned a Phaeton V8 for a week to see for ourselves where it ranks on the luxury sedan scale. Read more…
Peace
Everybody loves the Beetle; it’s just such a happy vehicle. I think it has something to do with the smiles. I mean, just look at the thing. It smiles coming at you and it smiles going away. I don’t know how anybody could be upset with a face like that looking back at you. Implied emotions aside, guess who wound up at the mercy of the little car quota again. At least the Beetle is well received by the female half of the species. This could turn out all right after all. Read more…
There have been plenty of strange cars in the past 100 years, but this must be one of the most ridiculous.
No, it can’t fly or drive underwater, and it doesn’t even look very weird. It’s fairly mundane at first glance — that is, until you see the badge on the hood.
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Well, the folks at Volkswagen have finally gone off the deep end.
Or maybe they’re just marketing geniuses, because the new Touareg — the largest, most expensive vehicle ever to wear the VW badge — represents one of the biggest strategy shifts in automotive history. It’s quite a gamble for this German company, which for decades made nothing but low-priced economy cars and faces an uphill battle to change its public image.
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Volkswagen executives must have looked at the Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi Evolution before coming to a conclusion: “We want one of those!” Read more…
It’s hard to imagine a luxury Volkswagen, but get used to it. VeeDub is getting a bigger ego.
The company has come a long way since its days of producing the old, super-simple Beetle, a car that was wildly popular but never had many amenities. You can forget about finding an old Bug with power windows, leather trim, air conditioning and cruise control.
Volkswagen’s Golf is a master of disguise.
It’s a hatchback, but it doesn’t feel like the little economy cars that dotted America’s roadways through the 1980s. Those were — I’ll try to say this nicely — noisy, ugly rust buckets that felt like driving wheeled cigar boxes. Read more…
