Volkswagen

The ID.3 is a very important car for Volkswagen. The company is aiming to capture a strong market share in the EV segment with this product, and even pitting it against the likes of the Tesla Model 3. The ID.3 looks futuristic and is pretty spacious on the inside. And, it even comes with a host of new tech features. But, it is as good in real-world conditions as it sounds on paper? German YouTube channel Autogefühl has a brutally honest review on this new EV for us.

It has barely been a month since Volkswagen revealed the refreshed Arteon and Arteon shooting brake. As a model that just landed in the States two years ago, I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t paid it much attention, and that means you probably didn’t know that there’s also an Arteon R – a mid-level performance car with more than 300 horsepower. Sounds great, right? Well, if you live in the United States, that’s too bad, because it’s our latest forbidden fruit.

Two years ago, we reported that the VW Beetle was going to die and would never come back. Then, come late-2018 and the Beetle’s demise became a confirmed fact. Part of that coverage indicated that the Beetle would be replaced, in part, by the I.D. Buzz E.V. and the T-Roc subcompact crossover. It was also reported that the Beetle would return as an electric four-door, but given the introduction and push of VW’s new I.D. range of vehicles, that didn’t make a lot of sense. Until now, that is, as VW has filed trademark for a number of names with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, including “e-Beetle.” Here we go again, folks.

If you’re from China and you’re in the market for a new four-door sedan, you might want to steer clear of the Volkswagen Passat. The German sedan of Chinese roots was recently subjected to a safety test by China’s C-IASI (that’s the country’s equivalent of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety), and to the surprise of many, the Passat recorded one of the worst performances of any car in the crash test.

A video of the C-IASI’s crashworthiness assessment shows the Passat undergoing several crash tests that end in a similar fashion: the sedan gets beaten up pretty badly. The Chinese Passat’s poor performance in the crash tests has bought into question the quality of the model relative to Passat models that aren’t built in China, including Passat models that have received good safety ratings in American crash tests. Is this a case of one Passat being much safer than the other?

It’s been almost four years since Volkswagen launched the second-generation Tiguan, and the crossover was just unveiled with a mid-cycle facelift. The Tiguan was mildly revised inside and out, but there’s big news in the form of a plug-in hybrid model, a performance-oriented R version, and a new AWD system with selective wheel torque control. Let’s find out more about all of that below.

The U.S. market is bereft of wagons. In the last few years, most automakers pulled their wagons due to the falling demand. There aren’t a lot of options right now and even though there seems to be a positive response to wagons lately, automakers are still hesitant about getting them back. The latest example of this is the Volkswagen Arteon. The company recently refreshed the model and introduced a Shooting Brake version, but it won’t be reaching the U.S. shores.

To give you an idea of how of what we’re missing, here is a couple of renderings from X-Tomi Design that show how hot a two-door Arteon Shooting Brake would look.

At a time when the whole world is moving from sedans to crossovers and SUVs – much to the dismay of the car lovers – the Volkswagen Arteon comes as a knight in shining armor. The Arteon was launched as a successor of the Volkswagen Passat CC just three years back, and now VW has given it a mid-cycle refresh with a few tweaks on the outside and many changes on the inside. The German automaker is unearthing the R-Line variant, adding a plug-in trim, and also introducing a shooting brake body style.

Thanks to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, we now know what the production-version Volkswagen ID.4 will look like. The crystal-clear images of the ID.4 were leaked by the department and show the exterior of the EV from all the angles.

The images were picked up by VWIDTalk.com and also show the different wheel designs on offer. The all-electric SUV is due for launch later this year, but this is a nice surprise. Will this lead to Volkswagen launching the ID.4 any sooner?

The modern-day America-Germany treaty of the automotive industry was announced a few years ago, but things slowed down for a while. Now, things are back on track and the alliance between Ford and Volkswagen is expected to be finalized by the end of June. A lot of products and technology will be shared amongst the two brands, and the latest news is about a Ford-built Volkswagen. According to a press release, Ford will be building a truck for Volkswagen, and it will go on sale in 2020 as the new Amarok. Is this a big win for the German automaker or what?

Volkswagen is looking to freshen up the Arteon - which it calls a Gran Turismo now - and with it, we’ll be getting the so-called Arteon Shooting Brake.

What’s more, in the carmaker’s own words, the incoming Arteon update is "major", so let’s see what that could mean, because there’s not much given away in the press blurb.

The Ford-Volkswagen alliance has been brewing for a couple of years now. Things started looking stale in between, but it looks like everything is getting back on track.

According to Ford Authority, the alliance between the two automakers is expected to be finalized by the end of June. Also, the German automaker’s board has approved several projects, one of which is a new Ford electric vehicle that will be underpinned by Volkswagen’s MEB platform. Do you think it will be a badge-engineered ID.4 crossover?

Since the Geneva Motor Show was canceled for 2020, Volkswagen was forced to do a virtual debut for the 2020 Mk.8 Golf. During that stream, we learned about the Golf GTI, GTD, and GTE, but a lot of necessary information for the GTI was left shrouded in mystery. Now, despite the fact that the Mk.8 Golf GTI is still a year or so away from landing Stateside, VW company execs have spilled the beans and given us a little something to be excited about.

The Mk. 8 Golf GTI TCR will build on top of an already amazing package to take things to the next level. As a model that’s more oriented toward the driver, it’ll feature a whopping 300 horsepower, all of which will be shunted through an eight-speed DCT. There’s no definite on-sale date as of yet, but it should launch in late 2020 as a 2021 model.

Update 5/12/2020: The Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR was spotted in the wild with almost no camo. Check it out in our special “Spy Shots” section below!

The Volkswagen Golf may have started life as a small hatchback in the 1970s, but it evolved into a multi-model nameplate that included several variants over time. Many of them are no longer available, but the Golf spawned a wagon, minivan, convertible, and even raised crossover-like versions in the past. The first raised Golf was launched in 1989 as the Country and wasn’t successful because crossovers weren’t exactly popular back then. But the Russian folks at Kolesa think that the Golf Country would be popular in the modern era, so they put together a version based on the latest Golf Mk8.

While many automakers are still hooked on offering electric versions of their existing combustion cars, Volkswagen thinks that stand-alone EV models are the best option for the future. Volkswagen design chief Klauf Bischoff says that the brand’s upcoming line of ID models is a better solution than to simply roll out electric variants of models like the Golf, Passat, and Tiguan. He argues that electric car can’t reach their full potential "in the traditional space" offered by a vehicle designed for internal combustion engines.

A new report claims Volkswagen is hard at work to produce a Golf R hot hatch based on the Mk8 Golf. The 2023 Golf R will supposedly have to do battle against the likes of Mercedes-AMG A45, Honda Civic Type R, and Hyundai i30 N with underpinnings from the newly-launched Mk8 Golf GTI.