It’s about a week or so since Nasser Al-Attiyah and Timo Gottschalk claimed victory in the 2011 Dakar Rally. If you missed the action, or would simply like to see what the lads got up to, then here’s a photo gallery sourced from Volkswagen Motorsport showing the mighty Race Touareg 3 in action. There’s over 100 pics, so you might want to put the kettle on first!
Volkswagen has claimed back-to-back Wheels Car of the Year awards, Australia’s most prestigious COTY honour. Last year it was the Golf, this year the award goes to the new Polo.
The Polo has followed in the path of its bigger sibling abroad, too, by winning the European and World COTY titles. No surprise it’s very hard to get your hands on a pocket rocket GTI version, then!
Wheels editor Bill Thomas said, “It’s the depth of engineering skill applied to the Polo and the very obvious quality of the car that impresses most – if you were to pay it the right compliment, you’d say it feels like a scaled-down Golf. That means it brings new standards of refinement and comfort to the super-mini class.
“Two Car of the Year victories in a row for Volkswagen reflect the skill of the engineers involved and the ambition of the company as a whole.â€
This is the fourth Wheels COTY award for Volkswagen, following earlier wins for the Mk1 Passat (1974) and the Mk1 Golf (1976).
The official press release from Volkswagen Australia is available after the break.
Despite winning the 2009 International Engine of the Year award speculation is rife that Volkswagen will be discontinuing its twincharged 1.4 litre engine. While the clever use of supercharging and turbocharging offers excellent access to power right through the rev range it’s believed Volkswagen considers the engine to be too complex and expensive.
Until Volkswagen makes a public comment we won’t know for sure if that is their official stance. However, reliability seems to be a real concern for this otherwise charming and efficient engine, too.
At least, that’s the case based on anecdotal evidence posted to our user-based Golf VI 1.4 TSI Tried & Tested review. Of the 16 comments posted to date, half relate to engine complaints. A quick google search of “VW 1.4 TSI engine problems” will also yield many more results than Volkswagen would care for.
So, it’s probably a case of watching this space to see how Volkswagen responds. What effect this news may have on the new Polo GTI or A1 1.4 TFSI is also unclear.
[Source: Autocar via Car Advice]
Has Prodrive Chairman Dave Richards spoiled Volkswagen’s party by announcing the German marque’s forthcoming entry to the WRC? In a recent interview at Autosport International Richards claimed, “It’s very clear that Volkswagen are about to announce their return to the World Rally Championship, as well; under the Volkswagen brand rather than Skoda.”
Serious rumours about VW joining the new WRC party emerged last August when Rally Germany was used as the launch event for the Race Touareg 3, which just filled the podium at Dakar 2011. At the same event the course car was biogas powered Scirocco (pictured above). A Scirocco WRC would be a welcome sight in world rallying, let’s hope that’s the model they choose.
If we assume Volkswagen do sign up to the WRC, possibly from the 2012 season, they will join fellow newcomers MINI, along with established players in Citroën and Ford. Richards says it might be hard to attract more factory support, “Quite frankly, it’s difficult to attract many more. There’s not enough prizes to go around.”
A quick shout out to the Volkswagen Race Touareg 3 team of Nasser Al-Attiyah (Qatar) and Timo Gottschalk (Germany) who wrapped up their first Dakar Rally success earlier today.
Indeed it was a great day for Volkswagen as its cars filled the top three positions in the race. Giniel de Villiers, the 2009 winner, came home second and defending champion Carlos Sainz completed the race in third, after heading the field for much of the rally.
This is the second year running that Volkswagen has made a clean-sweep of the podium at Dakar and follows a one-two result in 2009. It seems Volkswagen is just racking up Dakar wins for fun now and they’re yet to be defeated since the rally moved to South America.
Volkswagen’s press release can be read in full after the break.
Bigger is better. At least that’s what Volkswagen is telling its North American audience after creating a unique Passat just for them. To clear any confusion the European Passat is our Passat and should be in Australian showrooms sometime after March. Meanwhile, the ‘mericans will have to wait until August to get their hands on their Passat.
The Euro Passat, revealed last September, is too slim for the Yanks. This New Midsize Sedan, then, gets 91mm added to its wheelbase, an extra 13mm to its girth and a whole lot more bland added to its styling. And that’s saying something; the Passat is hardly the most exciting model Volkswagen has ever produced.
If anything their Passat looks like an upsized Jetta. And, let’s face it, if it has been upsized, it must be better. That said, their Passat has also been produced to a price. Starting from US$20,000 their Passat is several thousand bucks cheaper than the old model. Partly helped by the fact their Passat will be made in the US at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant.
Actually, when you consider the current market rates, maybe the joke is on us. We can’t imagine getting our Passat on the roads here for anything less than about AU$45K.
More after the break. Including a really weird video—that fireball is straight from the Jeremy Clarkson school of daft marketing.
Last week Volkswagen released a new teaser to let us know they would be unveiling a New Midsize Sedan at Detroit. Word has come through today that this car will be badged as the, wait for it, Passat. Yeah, that’s right, the same name it’s called everywhere else in the world.
So, we went and found a profile pic of the European Passat and placed it over Volkswagen’s teaser image and guess what—it’s a perfect fit!
Until official details are known (possibly later today) let’s give VW the benefit of the doubt and let them think we’re expecting some new details. But, at this stage, it’s looking like any differences between the US Passat and the real Passat are likely to be cosmetic only.
[Source: Autoblog]
UPDATE: Check out Motor Authority for a gallery of leaked images. It’s a super-sized Passat in Jetta clothing.
Congratulations Australia, for just the third time ever we have managed to send over 1 million new vehicles out the door. To be exact, 1,035,574 passenger cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles found new homes in 2010 and that represents an increase of almost 100,000 sales on 2009 figures.
“This is an exceptional outcome and is the second highest result on record and only the third time ever that the market exceeded more than one million sales,” FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar said.
“With continuing strong levels of vehicle affordability there is no reason why the new vehicle market won’t continue to perform better than other areas of the economy.”
Toyota was the highest selling marque in 2010, with 214,718 sales registered. Holden and Ford followed with 132,923 and 95,824 sales respectively.
Holden can claim still bragging rights, though, with the Commodore proving to be Australia’s most popular car for the fifteenth year in a row. Its 45,956 sales placed it ahead of the Toyota Corolla, on 41,632, and the Toyota Hilux, with an impressive 39,896 sales.
Meanwhile, a number of other marques are shouting from the rooftops about their new records set in 2010, including BMW, Hyundai, Mazda, Subaru, Suzuki and Volkswagen.
UPDATE 7 January: Audi, Kia and Mitsubishi have released their brag sheets today, too.
In the last six months Volkswagen has revealed a new Jetta and an all-new Passat. Both are Only the new Jetta is available for sale in the United States. But, that’s not enough for Volkswagen US who have announced, via their website, they’ll be showing off a “New Midsize Sedan” at the NAIAS in Detroit next week. It will replace the outgoing European-sourced Passat, which is considered expensive and hasn’t exactly lit up the sales charts.
This new toy has been designed with the US market in mind. So expect comfy seats and lots of supersized cupholders, then. It will be built at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga facility, although it will be destined for overseas markets as well, and is expected to be sold for several thousand dollars less than the old Passat.
Dakar 2011 is underway and after Stage 1 it looks like business as usual with defending champion Carlos Sainz and his Volkswagen Race Touareg 3 in the lead, holding a 90 second advantage over the X-Raid BMW X5 of Stéphane Peterhansel.
Of course, X-Raid are the guys responsible for the MINI Countryman which is making its Dakar debut. So far things don’t appear to be going as smooth as their promo piece, with the big little MINI almost one hour behind Sainz.
You can watch the X-Raid MINI promo via Facebook. But, more importantly, you can keep up to date with Dakar 2011 via live timing on the official website and also with regular updates on twitter.
A recent UK report has revealed that 54% of British motorists admit to having sex in a car. And it seems the older you are the more likely you are to find paradise by the dashboard light. Almost 40% of over 55s interviewed claimed sex in a car was fantastic, compared to just 13% of those aged between 18 and 24.
The raunchy research was carried out by the appropriately named Autoquake.com, an online retailer, and CEO Dermot Halpin says, “We’re surprised that so many of drivers have used their cars as mobile bedrooms, and impressed that the older generation are leading the way.”
A top 10 list of sexy cars was compiled as part of the study. The wide open spaces of the Mercedes E-Class Estate proved a worthy, if surprising, leader in the poll. Shaggin’ wagons have gone a bit upmarket since the 70s it seems. The full list is available after the break.
We’re sure readers won’t be surprised to learn no Toyota made the top 10. Which begs the question, just what is that feeling they keep going on about; loneliness, perhaps?
If you’ve enjoyed a few extra “services” between scheduled intervals, leave us a comment and tell us all about it!
It’s barely been a month since the Volkswagen Chairman supposedly put a stop to rumours linking Volkswagen to Formula One in the role of engine supplier. But with new engine regulations for 2013 recently confirmed Hans Stuck, at least, reckons VW might be keen to build on its Formula 3 commitments.
Speaking to Welt am Sonntag Herr Stuck said, “The conditions for a possible entrance of the Volkswagen group have been created.”
The former F1 driver is also on record at rp-online.de, saying, “We have not decided anything, but we very much welcome the FIA’s decision.”
[Source: ESPN]