Volkswagen Talk

The Volkswagen Scirocco R was unveiled in Europe recently and is set to hit the showrooms when it goes on sale this summer. Although the potent performance car from VW will not hit the US market, the new generation of VW Golf will be getting the powertrain of the Scirocco R.

The downsizing of engine is all over the auto industry giving cars like the Scirocco R more power without sacrificing fuel efficiency. The lighter engine that also has lower carbon emission provides a better driving experience for car owners.

The next VW Golf following the R32 due for release in the United States early 2010 will be sporting a turbocharged 265 hp 2.0L engine. The four cylinder powerplant is also the heart of the Scirocco R. The previous generation of the R32 runs on a 250 horsepower naturally aspirated powerplant.

The engine of the new gen of Golf R32 is part of the EA113 Volkswagen engine lineup. The Golf GTi, on the other hand, uses the 2.0L engine similar to the basic Scirocco release which uses an engine from the EA888 line.

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Volkswagen AG had released a sketch of their new line of the famous mid-size sedans that will be designed and engineered at Volkswagen’s car manufacturing unit that is currently being constructed at Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Volkswagen maintains the anonymity of the upcoming sedan model. But as a teaser, the sketch revealed that it will be slightly bigger than the Passat, a Volkswagen family car that was built through the six design generations since 1973. It had been titled variously as Quantum, Santana, Magotan, Corsar, Dasher and Carat. The most recent version of the mentioned Volkswagen is the Passat CC which is a four-door coupe of the Passat.

Volkswagen is planning to manufacture 150,000 car models yearly when the Chattanooga factory unit begins its operation in early 2011. Most of the products will be sold in the American and Canadian market.

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Volkswagen, like other car manufacturers, explores the possibilities of going green with its BlueMotion Technologies partners with Toshiba as it looks at greater possibilities for greener energy resources.

Toshiba is like the General Electric of Japan. The company has been producing simple gadgets to laptops, and exploring other energy resources like solar, hydro, and nuclear.

In line with their thrust, Toshiba has long been looking at the hybrid car market and the electric car potentials. The Japanese company has been developing SCIB or a supercharged ion battery that can power a laptop or can be used by cars.

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I’m a huge Touareg Fan and I feel kind of sad that we haven’t had a Touareg on the blog before. Today, that changes with this excellent news from the green-planet-loving-Touareg-fans that are people like… Me!

VW has announced a Hybrid version of the Touareg, and even though I obviously prefer the V8 Diesel, I’m sure the VW engineers will do great in turning this Hybrid into something agile and fun-to-drive.

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Most of the people are going small. They’re resorting to smaller cars since such units are more fuel-efficient. This trend is the reason why Volkswagen is planning to sell Polo small cars in the United States of America.

The oil prices will definitely rise again. If this continues, more and more people will prefer small cars to spend lesser costs on fuel. Although, VW has never tried the competition in the subcompact part of US, it is worth a try since they also offer the same feature: fuel efficiency.

VW is well aware of the fact that their cars are influenced by the European heritage. But they’re not sitting down on this matter as they’re on their way to upgrading their models to better suit the new market in the US.

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I’d like to apologize in advance for this very short post, mainly consisting of photos of this Volkswagen concept — the Volkswagen Blue Sport. The air vents might make it look like a mid-engine roadster, but I suspect that’s not the case… Looks great though, kind of like the Toyota MR or the Opel GT… Not bad at all!

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Volkswagen joins other car manufacturers in Europe in growing their range of natural gas and autogas powered vehicles. The car manufacturer introduces the Passat TSI EcoFuel and the Golf BiFuel.

The Passat TSI Ecofuel that first took center stage in the 2008 Geneva Car Show is powered by a 148 horsepower engine that runs on gasoline or natural gas. The car is designed to be monovalent and the car manufacturer does not have any plans to include an option of manual switchover from natural gas to gasoline. The gasoline tank is just there to serve as a fuel reserve.

The fuel consumption for the Passat TSI Ecofuel is an impressive 100 kilometers for every 4.38 kilograms of autogas. Carbon dioxide emissions are measured at 119 g/km making the car Euro-5 compliant.

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Following the trend of clamor for city cars in Europe, Volkswagen is charges its work on the production version of the Up Concept line set to compete with the Smart ForTwo of Japanese car maker Toyota.

The production of the Up strengthens the market presence of VW on the small car race together with the planned release of the new version of Polo early 2009.

The car manufacturer utilizes the platform of the New Small Family template for front engine small vehicles. This idea also saves the companies hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Chico brand of VW, used in the early 1990’s for their small concept car, may be revived for the new release. The new city car will have a lower roof line contrasted to the tall architecture of the Up.

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There are many people who look at awe at the Volkswagen Golf GT1 but ask them about the history of the car and they are dumbfounded. Most of them know about the Volkswagen organization and know about the quality of the cars they produce, but few of them have any idea about the individual models. They will be surprised to know that the Volkswagen Golf GT1 has been around for a long period of time, more than 3 decades to be specific. Manufactured by Volkswagen, this particular model is also known as the Rabbit or the Caribe. The Volkswagen Beetle preceded this famous model from Volkswagen.

Originally this car was designed as a small family subcompact car when production started in 1974 and this was the trend till 1984. From 1985 onwards the design of this was changed and it was made into a compact car. Even now one can find people purchasing this beauty that is famous for popularizing the use of hatchbacks in C segment cars. This is how the Golf class car of Volkswagen was started. Earlier versions of this car were famous for their swallowtail rear side and many people still seek those cars. The diesel version of the Golf GT1 was introduced in late 1976. A notchback version of this series was released in the fourth quarter of 1979 and was called Jetta. In January 1980 the Cabriolet was released along with the VW Caddy, a golf-based pickup.

A long time has passed since the Volkswagen Beetle was released way back in 1938 by the German carmaker Volkswagen. Though the car is referred to fondly as the Bug & Beetle, the public gave these names to the car; its original name was Volkswagen Type 1. It was sometimes in late 1967 the manufacturer of this car too started referring it as Beetle too. Till 1967, this car was marketed in Europe as Type 1, or 1500, 1200 and 1300. For the curious minded, these numbers referred to the vehicle’s engine size in cubic centimeters. There are many people who love this classis car and it is not tough to see why. There are some innovations that this vintage car had when it was initially released.

Later on, in the year 1967, the Beetle underwent some minor changes. Though the size of the car did not become bigger, quite a few of the components and mechanical systems of the car did and these included a bigger engine. Prior to the changes the output of the electrical generator was a paltry 180 watts. This was changed with the changeover and had been increased to output 360 watts. The older generator had also been enhanced from the original six volts one to twelve volts. There were changes in the flywheel, the braking system and the rear axles. The clutch disk too was made bigger. Regardless of the changes made, all car lovers remember this classic.