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Volkswagen

Volkswagen Golf GTD – Australian specs & pricing

VW Golf GTD

Volkswagen Australian have just announced official details for the Golf GTD. These confirm the car’s status as a “diesel GTI” with its body kit, interior and suspension all heavily influenced by the highly regarded GTI. For the GTD, this also includes 15mm lower suspension and the Extended Electronic Differential Lock (XDL).

The GTD will only be available in a five door layout in Australia and list pricing starts at $39,290 for the manual and $41,790 for DSG. Both transmissions are six speed.

With 125kW and 350Nm on offer from the common-rail 2.0 litre turbo diesel engine the GTD can accelerate to 100km/h in 8.1 seconds. Fuel consumption for the manual is rated at 5.5l/100km, while the DSG consumes 5.8l/100km.

In line with the Australian GTI range the GTD is available in the following colours: Candy White, Tornado Red, Reflex Silver metallic, Carbon Steel metallic and Deep Black pearl effect.

More info is available below, including options pricing. Full specifications for the GTD are available for download in this PDF (74kb). For a closer look at the GTD, check out the image gallery posted earlier in the week.

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Motor Shows Volkswagen

Golf GTI adidas coming to Wörthersee

Golf GTI adidas

Volkswagen will be showing two new special Golf GTI models at the annual Wörthersee Tour in Austria. The first will be known as the Golf GTI adidas and will feature a number of cosmetic tweaks, including unique alloy wheels and adidas styled interior trim.

Also included in its list of standard equipment will be bi-xenon headlights and LED rear tail lights. It’s unlikely that any right hand drive models will be made and a limited run of 4410 will go on sale in Europe later this year. At this stage that’s pretty much all we can tell you. There’s only the one image you see above. Expect more from Wörthersee soon, then.

The next model, the Golf GTI Excessive, has even less info available. There’s no pictures at all. And apart from telling you the car is likely to have a number of modifications, including an extreme body kit I can’t really say much else, except keep an eye out for details. Also expected on the Excessive is uprated suspension, brakes and exhaust.

[via World Car Fans]

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Volkswagen

Golf GTD spotted in Sydney

VW Golf GTD spotted in Sydney

Thanks to AUSmotive reader Ben for sending in these pics of a Tornado Red Golf GTD he first sighted on Sydney’s M4 last night.

Ben’s handiwork confirms first and foremost that eager buyers, and there will be a few, don’t have too long to wait until they can get their hands on what is effectively a diesel powered Golf GTI. Latest speculation from November last year suggested the GTD would be on sale in Australia before the end of 2009. That didn’t ever sound quite right to me. A mid 2010 launch always seemed more likely. It now appears that this will be the case.

The Golf GTD is powered by a 125kW 2.0 TDI engine and its chassis components are pretty much taken straight from Volkswagen’s hot selling all-rounder, the Golf GTI. The GTD’s body kit is also sourced from the GTI, with the only major difference being chrome detail on the front grille, replacing the red of the GTI.

Volkswagen’s diesel hot hatch can reach 100km/h in 8.1 seconds, but its real party trick is its in gear acceleration. Thanks to the 350nM of torque on offer the GTD will have masses of pick up once moving. The torque rating is actually 20Nm more than the soon to be released VW hot hatch hero, the Golf R.

Speaking of the Golf R, AUSmotive understands the Australian launch will take place well before the end of June. Will the GTD be launched around the same time?

UPDATE 9 May: More pics can be seen at the VWwatercooled forum.

Categories
Volkswagen

Volkswagen Golf Plus gets accidental release

Volkswagen Golf Plus

The Golf Plus is a kind of cool part Tiguan-part Golf thing that isn’t available in Australia. The facelifted version, based on the revised MkVI, is due for release in a few days at the Bologna Motor Show. But, as is often the case, there has been a bit of a leak. Brochures for the new Golf Plus were put on the Volkswagen stand at the Essen Motor Show. Oops! And, with the magic of the internet now everyone has a copy. Follow the autoblog link below for more.

Along with the Scirocco, put this down as another model Volkswagen Australia should bring down under.

Source: autoblog

Categories
Volkswagen

2009 Volkswagen Golf GTI at the Paris Motor Show



The Paris Motor Show was the official reveal for the MkVI Golf GTI Concept. Here’s a couple of short YouTube clips from CARandDRIVER.com (above) and Edmunds InsideLine (after the jump) filmed in Paris. There’s nothing really new in these clips, but it’s still good to get a closer look at what is shaping to be another great GTI from Volkswagen.

Categories
Volkswagen

2009 MkVI Golf GTI image gallery

2009 Volkswagen MkVI Golf GTI

Fourteen photographs of the 2009 Volkswagen Golf GTI—click on each pic to load wallpaper sized 2000x1320px super images.

Categories
Volkswagen

Details of next Golf GTI emerge

MkVI Golf GTI

Details of Volkswagen’s MkVI Golf GTI have been revealed on the autocar.co.uk website.

Like the regular Golf VI range the new GTI has taken an evolutionary approach with a minor reworking of the front grille treatment being the largest immediate difference compared to the previous MkV iteration. The all new body kit is entirely different, with a more appropriate use of color coding all round. “The effect is to visually widen the GTI to make it look much more aggressive and sporty,” said exterior design chief Mark Lichte.

There is a single exhaust tip at each edge on the rear and the interior keeps the flat bottomed steering wheel treatment.

Official details of the MkVI GTI will be released at next week’s Paris Motor Show, but it is believed the base GTI will be powered by the same engine used in the Edition 30 models (approx 160kW). An all wheel drive GTI-R model with around 200kW is also expected to be revealed at some stage in the future, this will replace the hole left by the demise of the VR6 powered R32.

More images can be seen after the jump and stay tuned to AUSmotive for higher resolution pics as they become available.

*update* More pics can be seen at evo.co.uk, of note is the interior image where it looks like the speedometer now only indicates up to 260km/h (MkV GTI was 300km/h) and the dash illumination is more Audi like with white dials and red needles, so it appears the familiar Volkswagen blue-lit dials have been scrapped.

Categories
News Volkswagen

Volkswagen Australia confirms MkVI Golf plans

Volkswagen logoNewly appointed General Manager of Press and PR for Volkswagen Group Australia, Karl Gehling, has denied claims that the MkVI Golf will not be coming to Australia. A recent report suggested that the MkVI Golf would not be sold in Australia due to currency and return on investment concerns. In 2007, the MkV Golf was Australia’s best selling European car. That trend continues, with sales to the end of May 2008 up 25% from the same point last year.

Golfs delivered to Australia are built at Volkswagen’s Uitenhage plant in South Africa, with the exception of all R32 models and three door GTIs, which are built at Wolfsburg in Germany. Volkswagen plans to shift all MkVI Golf production to the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg. The MkVI will debut at this year’s Paris Motor Show in October and should be at your local Volkswagen dealer in the second half of 2009. Keep reading AUSmotive.com for more.

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News Volkswagen

Have Australia’s Golf prospects been sunk?

Will the MkVI Golf make it to Australia?Reports have emerged suggesting that the upcoming Volkswagen Golf MkVI will NOT be sold in Australia. You can read the original report, in German, HERE, or alternatively see autoblog and germancarblog for reports in English. To highlight the gravity of these suggestions, it has been said that the United States and Brazil will also miss out on the MkVI Golf.

AUSmotive.com contacted Volkswagen Australia earlier today, but at this stage no comment has been made to confirm or deny the Australian future of the MkVI. However, the suggestion of the next generation Golf not being sold in Australia is one that warrants close attention. The reports suggest it is the profitability of the MkVI that concerns Volkswagen chief Martin Winterkorn. On a global scale it would be hard to argue that Australia is a vital market for Volkswagen. But in a local context the current MkV Golf is sinking plenty of long range putts for Volkswagen Australia.

In 2007 the Golf was the highest selling car in Australia for a German manufacturer. VFACTS figures show 10,982 Golfs were sold in 2007. Well above the next best—the BMW 3 Series with 8716. In fact, even if you add 1 Series sales to the 3, the combined sales tally for the two BMW models—10,497—they still fail to overtake the Golf.

Peugeot’s entire model range couldn’t match Golf sales either, with a total of 8807 sales last year. A similar tale is told for stablemate Audi, with 7225 sales across the range in 2007. Subaru’s Impreza was another unable to match it with the Golf last year, although they were about par, with 10,853 Impreza sales.