2008 Volkswagon Scirocco
January 4th, 2007
It’s not the shape or the size of the latest Volkswagen show car that makes the memory chip inside your head go from standby to high alert. It is the color that does the trick, an unusual shade of metallic color called, past and present, viper green. If you’re old enough, this hue triggers an instant flashback to the rocking 1970s. In 1974, when the first-generation Scirocco debuted, the world witnessed the end of the Nixon era and the ending of the hippie movement.
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VW Tiguan Concept
December 19th, 2006
Volkswagen was able to show off a close-to-production concept vehicle of its Tiguan SUV, due in showrooms a year from now, at the L.A. Auto Show. The Tiguan is powered by a diesel engine that will use Bluetec technology, the result of a joint effort among VW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz to promote clean-burning diesels.
An SUV at the low-end, priced in the mid $20K-$30K bracket is way way overdue for Volkswagen. As soon-to-be former Bernd Pischetsrieder told me once…it wasn’t his idea not to build a platform for the current generation Golf that could more easily accomodate a small SUV. That bit of business, he said, was on former chairman and current antagonizer Ferdinand Piech’s plate.
2007 Volkswagen Rabbit
December 10th, 2006
The 2007 Volkswagen Rabbit is an all-new vehicle that will replace the Golf. The Rabbit comes with the intention of providing a German designed, German engineered and German built alternative to the Asian-nameplate vehicles that have taken over the entry level of the American automotive marketplace, namely the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Nissan Sentra, and Hyundai Elantra.
Unlike many of its competitors, whether Asian or domestic, the Rabbit is a hatchback and therefore offers the advantage of cargo-carrying utility not provided by the typical two- or four-door sedan design. Hatchbacks are becoming popular again. Dodge, for example, has abandoned its traditional Neon sedan in favor of a new entry-level five-door hatchback called the Caliber.