VW Introduces 2013 Amarok with More Powerful 2.0L BiTDI and Available BlueMotion Tech in the UK

The 2013 model year Amarok that was first announced in August is now available for order in Britain with on-the-road prices starting at £23,536 for the base 2.0 TDI 120hp (122PS) 4Motion and topping out at £31,098 for the new 2.0 BiTDI 178hp (180PS) 4Motion Permanent with BlueMotion Technology and an 8-speed auto.
Before we get into more details about the changes and upgrades on the 2013 Amarok, it should be noted that from now on, all models for the UK and the rest of Europe are produced at VW's Hanover factory in Germany, instead of being imported from the brand's Argentina plant.
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Volkswagen Goes Beetles for 2012 SEMA Aftermarket Show

On the eve of the 2012 SEMA Show, Volkswagen presented its range of customized cars that include six Beetles and one Golf Mk6 tune.
The lineup kicks off with the "Ultimate Super Beetle" show car built in collaboration with performance specialist APR and the VWvortex team. The concept is based on the 2013 Beetle Turbo with the 2.0-liter TFSI, which in factory trim, produces 200-horses.
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Herbie Goes to Spain with a Special Edition Version of New Volkswagen Beetle

Special or limited editions are a speedy and cost efficient way for automakers to create some marketing buzz around one of their models and increase sales. More often than not, all it takes is a few cosmetic touches and added equipment features, and presto; your special edition is served.
One such example is the new Volkswagen Beetle Edition 53, a special edition model made exclusively for Spain that pays tribute to Walt Disney Pictures' "Herbie" character, which first appeared on film in 1968 with "The Love Bug" that spawned several sequels over the years.
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BMW Group and Toyota to Each Donate $1 Million for Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts

With a simple press statement, the North American division of the BMW Group announced that it will donate the amount of $1 million to million to the American Red Cross for disaster relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
"This donation will help the Red Cross give aid to the many who are in need in the affected areas," said Ludwig Willisch, CEO and President, BMW of North America.
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Buyers Disagree with Consumer Reports Recommendations, Civic, Passat Sales Soar

You may recall Honda’s 2012 Civic comprehensively hammered last year by Consumer Reports. The publication's verdict was such a big blow that Honda decided to speed-up its next redesign and its CEO took responsibility for its poor performance.
One would expect its sales to slump; but instead, they have gotten through the roof. Civic deliveries have increased this year by 40 percent through September, to 234,029 units and Honda’s compact car is on course to regain the segment crown in the U.S. after finishing third last year behind the Toyota Corolla and Chevrolet Cruze.
This brings up an interesting question: how much does automotive experts’ testing weigh on buyers’ decision when the time comes to buy a new car?

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Fender Brings the Music to New VW Beetle Special Edition, Priced from $24,440*

Volkswagen has released U.S. pricing for its new 2013 Beetle Fender Edition that will arrive in dealerships across the country at the beginning of November with a choice of two engines.
The base model is equipped with VW's 170-horsepower 2.5-liter five-cylinder unit and is priced at $24,440 with the manual gearbox and $25,540 with the automatic, while those looking for more oomph can opt for the 200-horsepower 2.0-liter TSI Turbo model that starts at $28,130 for the manual version and $29,200 for the DSG-equipped model. All aforementioned MSRPs exclude a destination charge of $795.
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Volkswagen Jetta Pickup Truck Builder Looking for Interested Buyers

Massachusetts-based kit car company Smyth Performance is pondering a new project for a pickup truck conversion of the fourth generation Volkswagen Jetta sedan.
The company's founder, Mark Smith, who also happens to be the co-founder of Factory Five Racing, said in a posting earlier this week that he is accepting "orders" from interested clients without a deposit, for one of the 50 kits he plans to manufacture for the Jetta pickup truck.
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VW Launches Second Generation of Santana Sedan in China After 30 Years!

In most markets, the lifespan of a new model is about six to eight years - give or take, with a facelift scheduled somewhere in the middle. China, on the other hand, is not your usual car market; or at least it wasn’t for quite a long time.
That’s why the Volkswagen Santana, which was based on the second generation of the Passat, code-named B2, and was launched in the Chinese market in 1982, soldiered on for three decades!
During that period, it sold nearly four million units, which made it one of the most popular cars in the country.

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U Design: VW Ayoreo Design Concept for a More Affordable Alternative to the Tesla Model S

It's been a few years since the first modern-era electric cars started to become available to the masses, and even though they haven't exactly set the market on fire, they're slowly gaining pace in the automotive marketplace.

Over the next few years, we're going to see many new battery-powered models going on sale, be that with pure electric drivetrains like the BMW i3 or EV's with a range extender such as the Cadillac ELR Coupe.

Along with carmakers, automotive designers are also preparing for the things to come. Erik Sætre, a Norwegian Industrial design-engineering student who is currently doing an exchange year at the UK's Coventry University, sent CarScoop a concept study he created for an all-electric Volkswagen four-door coupe named the Ayoreo.

"The Volkswagen Ayoreo is a coupe designed to enter the EV market in 2013," Sætre tells us. "The goal was to achieve a fairly simple and clean surface language with incorporated industrial elements, like its rear view cameras. A more affordable option than the Tesla S, but hopefully a more appealing one then the Nissan Leaf."

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Ford Focus ST vs. VW Golf R and…Subaru BRZ in MT's Head2Head

What are the criteria for comparing one car against another? Well, basically, they should belong to the same category; have similar performance stats and, perhaps more importantly, be close in price.

The new 2013 Ford Focus ST and the soon-to-be replaced VW Golf R that are featured in latest episode of "Head 2 Head" from Motor Trend are a match in two out of these three criteria: they're both compact hatchbacks and each gets a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 256hp in the VW and 252hp in the Ford.

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Porsche Fires “Italian Torpedo” Over Failed VW Takeover, Former Execs Charged

Don’t worry, Porsche is not attacking Ferrari or Lamborghini. An "Italian torpedo" is lawyer slang for when someone files a lawsuit in a certain court while the other party does the same in a different country. Italian courts can take years to decide on jurisdiction, so the case stalls; hence the term.

That’s exactly what Porsche has done, filing a lawsuit against the Pendragon fund in the Regional Court of Stuttgart 11 days before Pendragon filed its own lawsuit against the company in London.

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VW Rocky 3-Door SUV Design Concept Based on the Up! Mini Car Platform

Here's another design concept for a small crossover model utilizing the platform hardware from the Volkswagen Up! family of mini cars.

We say another one because Volkswagen itself introduced a very-near production study at this year's edition of the São Paulo International Motor Show in Brazil in October.

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VW Confirms New Scirocco GTS and Beetle Fender Edition for the UK

The New Year will bring two special edition models to Volkswagen's UK showrooms, the spicier looking Scirocco GTS and the…spicier sounding Beetle Fender, both of which have been presented in these pages as they're already offered in other markets. Both cars will be available for order in the UK on January 2. Read more »

Volkswagen Reveals Production Golf R Cabriolet in Video

It's been a year and a half since Volkswagen displayed the Golf R Cabriolet Mk6 Concept at the 2011 edition of the Wörthersee GTI meet in Austria, and even though the company has already presented the hatchback versions of the seventh generation Golf, it appears that the Germans will finally go ahead and produce the car.

VW released a video in which it simply states, "Take a look at the new Golf R. It boosts the level of adrenaline in just a few seconds and is now open to the top. The Golf R Cabriolet."

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Scoop: MQB-Based 2013 VW Golf Estate or 2015 Jetta SportWagen

This fresh spy video from Spain shows the station wagon version of the seventh generation Volkswagen Golf that will be named the Golf Variant (Estate in Britain) when it is introduced in Europe in 2013, and Jetta SportWagen when it arrives in North America within the next two years. Read more »

Toyota to Regain Sales Throne, VW and GM Fight for Second in the Best Year Ever for Car Sales

Having dropped to third position after a number of disasters crippled its production in 2011, Toyota looks set to reclaim the title of the world’s largest automaker this year. This leaves General Motors and the VW Group to fight it out for second place until the last moment as they currently have a sales difference of less than 1 percent.

According to a report from Autonews, based on the automakers’ own data, Toyota is in first place through the first three quarters of the year with 7.4 million units, followed by GM with 6.95 million deliveries and the Volkswagen Group at 6.9 million sales.

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VW Group Starts Building New Engine Plant in Russia, Operations to Commence in Early 2015

The VW Group is already the largest foreign investor in Russia. Since 2006, it has invested nearly €1 billion (US$1.3 billion) in facilities and new models and just last week, it announced the allocation of a further €840 million (US$1 billion) in the next three years.

Nearly €250 million (US$326 million) will be spent building a brand-new, 30,000 square-meter engine plant next to its existing vehicle facility at Kaluga, which currently produces the VW Polo and Tiguan and the Skoda Fabia and Octavia models.

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VW's Polo R WRC is a 220HP, €33,900 Celebration of its Entry into World Rallying [106 Photos]

Like every year, the 2013 World Rally Championship’s first race will be the Monte Carlo Rally. Even though the event won’t start until January 15, VW chose the Principality to host the launch of both its 2013 WRC racer and the road-going version that will make its motor show debut at next year’s Geneva Salon.

The Polo R WRC, which was displayed last March as a concept during the Wörthersee Tour festival, is a limited edition based on VW’s supermini that will be produced in just 2,500 units priced at US$33,900 (US$43,800) a pop. The order books open on Tuesday, December 11, though the first customers won’t receive their cars until September 2013.

A white paint job with blue and grey stripes, an aggressive front bumper with large intakes that’s supposed to echo that of the racer’s, 18-inch “Cagliari” wheels with 215/35 tires and a rear roof spoiler and diffuser make this limited edition Polo stand out from lesser versions.

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Marchionne Chooses U.S. Soil to Get Back at Germans by Offering Discounts to VW Owners

Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has accused the VW Group of taking advantage of its overseas profits to undercut its rivals in the European market and, thus, create a “bloodbath” for their sales.

Despite VW calling for his resignation as president of the ACEA, the European Auto Manufacturers’ Association, they subsequently made up, with VW CEO Martin Winterkorn and Marchionne settling the issue during the Paris Auto Show.

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Volkswagen to Offer New Jetta Hybrid in Germany from Next Year

Only days after Volkswagen premiered the final production version of its new Jetta Hybrid at the LA Auto Show, the Wolfsburg carmaker announced that it will begin to take advance orders for the sedan model in its home market of Germany.

The new Jetta Hybrid will arrive in VW's German showrooms from mid of April 2013 with prices starting at €31,300 (US$40,600), which is significantly more than what VW is asking for the same car in the States at €19,900 (US$25,790) including destination but not tax.

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