Test Drive: 2011 Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0T 4Motion

By Kevin Harrison

If you’re a heterosexual man, chances are you’ve had at least one girlfriend over the years that, to steal a Seinfeld analogy, had your brain and your penis duke it out in a game of chess. And if you’re at least the normal type, chances are you’ve had not one but several experiences like this. I certainly have.

It’s quite the catch 22 isn’t it? You could have the most stunningly beautiful girl, but she can be as dumb as Miley Cyrus, or as annoying as Miley Cyrus, or as embarrassing as Miley Cyrus or as high maintenance as Miley Cyrus. In which case, do you stay with her for the shallow but ultimately important reason of being able to constantly turn you on by wearing lulu lemon pants alone, or do you date someone who may be rather plain in appearance but can at least have an intelligent conversation with you and won’t threaten to key your car if you decide to watch the game with the guys instead of hanging out with her.

I’m convinced that most Volkswagen owners don’t bother choosing between the two. They just make do with the attractive high maintenance girlfriend that is their car.

The Volkswagen Tiguan is the perfect example of what I mean. Read the rest of this entry »

Oh Hi: 2012 Volkwagen Passat (North American Version)

Volkswagen introduced the next generation Passat a while back, but we were told that we wouldn’t be getting it. Instead, VW indicated that North Americans would get our own version. I’m sure you can insinuate that that means our version would be much bigger. And it is.

The North American version now has the longest wheelbase of any car to wear the Passat name. Like the Jetta though, Volkswagen is promising a lower starting price than the outgoing version. It’s not clear whether this will be at the cost of lower quality materials though.

The North American Passat gets three engine choices: a 2.0 turbodiesel TDI engine makign 140 horsepower and 235 pound feet of torque, a 2.5 litre four cylinder making 170 horsepower and 177 pound feet of torque and a 3.5 litre V6 making a much healthier 280 horsepwer and  258 pound feet of torque.

Hit the jump for a rear and interior snap.

[Volkswagen]

Read the rest of this entry »

Volkswagen Confirms Golf R For Canada

Just before Christmas, Volkswagen quietly revealed some exciting news about one of its most exciting products: The Golf R will finally be heading to Canada!

The Golf R32 has been on sale in Europe and America for a while now, snatching up awards left and right. If you think the GTI is a delicious piece of automotive engineering (which you really should) then start saving for a Golf R right now.

It’s expected to get 256 horses, 4motion all-wheel drive, upgraded brakes and suspension and performance wheels/tires. Volkswagen is taking aim squarely at the Subaru Impreza WRX with this one.

Expect to see the Golf R at your local Volkswagen dealership sometime in 2012. As impressive as all that sounds, it will really be the price that determines whether or not the Golf R will be a winner in Canada or not. If it’s priced right, the masses will come. And isn’t that what the people’s car is all about anyway?

[The Montreal Gazette]

Ward’s 2011 Engines of the Year Announced

This year’s engine of the year award winners are full of repeat winners and a few surprises.

The first big surprise is the Nissan LEAF winning this award. Mostly because it doesn’t even have an engine, it’s has an electric motor only. What was Ward’s reasoning? Apparently since the LEAF feels like a regular car (i.e four doors, five seats, an accelerator and brake) it deserves this award. That’s like saying since Stephen Harper has arms, legs and a face he should win a beauty contest.

Another big surprise is the engine/electric motor set up in the Chevy Volt. With the electric motor primarily propelling the car, it’s a wonder why it’s on the list. Ward’s sites reasons similar to the LEAF for its choice.

But despite those odd choices, the one that shocked me the most was Chrysler’s 3.6 litre Pentastar V6 making the list. This has been a traditionally awful engine. Just terrible. However since Fiat has taken the reigns, it appears they have put some work into this engine making it much better. It can be found in the 2011 Dodge Avenger and Chrysler 200.

Volvo also picked up an award for the 3.0 litre inline six that it uses in the redesigned S60. Ward’s says this engine almost rivals BMW’s 3.0 I-6 as it is buttery smooth, has great mid-range pick up and has virtually no turbo lag. Quite the statement, I’ll have to try it out to see if it stacks up.

Speaking of BMW, they unsurpsingly won once again for their N55 3.0 litre twin scrolled turbo engine for the 5th year in a row. I can wholeheartedly agree with this decision after experiencing the 135i (read my test drive in the post below).

BMW also won a second award for the 1.6 litre turbocharged inline 4 that it uses in the Mini Cooper S. With more power, more efficiency and little turbo lag, it helps make the Cooper S quite the little performance machine.

Volkswagen picked up two awards as well. One for the supercharged V6 found in the Audi S4 and one for new Clean Diesel 2.0 litre TDI found in the Golf, Jetta and Audi A3. The former delivers all encompassing performance while the latter does exceptionally well at combining efficiency with performance.

Rounding up the list is the Ford and Hyundai. After reintroducing the 5.0 litre V8 found in the Mustang they were actually able to make a car that could keep up with the BMW M3. Enough said.

Hyundai on the other hand won for its 5.0 V8 as well found in the base Genesis sedan and the upcoming Equus flagship sedan. It won for keeping power plentiful while being even more efficient than the previous engine.

Congrats to all the winners!

[Ward's]

Oprah Reveals 2012 VW Beetle Sillouette, Audience Loses Their Shit

Orpah Winfrey has got to be the most powerful female in America, or maybe even the entire world. Why? Because she called up Volkswagen and asked to see what the new Beetle will look like and VW happily obliged without hesitation. You don’t say no to Oprah. Try calling up your favourite automaker and see how willing they’ll be to show you their upcoming product. They’ll say, “who do you think you are, Oprah?”

Why did Oprah want to see it so badly? Well it turns out Oprah is very fond of the Beetle and is a proud owner. In fact, Oprah decided it would be awesome if she could feature it on ‘Oprah’s favourite things’. Oprah’s favourite things is a big deal if you’re in the audience because Oprah not only lets you in on what she likes, but you get everything that she likes for free.

As a result, the audiences usually loses their shit when it’s revealed that they’re at a ‘favourite things’ show. It’s actually quite funny/pathetic to see the reactions of the audience. In fact SNL did a hilarious parody of it (look it up on youtube).

Anyway, when the audience found out that Oprah loves the Beetle, they all rightfully lost their shit. Oprah is giving out a New Beetle to every single audiance member.  She had the current version on hand to show off, but it will be the redesigned  version that each audience member will receive. Oprah wasn’t allowed to actually show it off, but VW allowed her to show a sillouette to whet the audiences appitite. As far as I can tell, the 2012 Beetle will be longer and will have a flatter roof.

According to VW, they hope to squash the Beetle’s reputation of being a girl’s car and they want more guys to buy the new Beetle. If that’s the case, why did they show it off on a show that is prodominently female oriented? How many guys do you know that watch Oprah of their own choosing?

[ABC]

Auto Express 2011 Performance Car of the Year Announced

As the year draws to a close, another Car of the Year (COTY) accolade is up for grabs. This one is courtesy of Auto Express, however it’s not your typical COTY award. Most COTY awards include any new model and usually the winner is based on how it handles day to day elements. Well Auto Express is tossing that formula out the window as their focusing solely on performance.

They took 20 cars that have performance as their top priority and ranked them from best to worst. Everything from cheap hot hatches to exotic supercars were considered. All were measured based on their performance abilities and value… which is odd considering they have an Aston Martin up against a Seat. Perhaps they meant best balance of performance for value.

Subaru fans will likely be up in arms at the results as the Cosworth WRX was ranked the lowest at number 20, especially since it was bested by several hot hatches including a hybrid, the Honda CR-Z.

Another surprise on the list was the Audi RS5 which ranked a bit low at number 11. Especially considering its arch rival, the BMW M3, not only cracked the top 10, but cracked the top 5 coming in at number 5.

I won’t spill the beans on who won the coveted top spot, however I will say that I definitely agree with their decision. Check it out in the video above. Notice no domestic cars were nominated? Just sayin’.

Do you agree with the performance COTY?

[Auto Express]

Test Drive: 2011 Volkswagen Golf Wagon TDI

By Kevin Harrison

Have you ever really liked something that was really popular, then all of a sudden people decided it wasn’t cool anymore? For instance, I like sweater vests. Believe me, I know they are terribly uncool, but the fact of the matter is, they really aren’t uncool. If you haven’t noticed, old men wear sweater vests and old men have completely fresh style. Think about it. Most old men are married and have been for a long time. How many single old men do you know? Exactly. I guarantee you their old man clothes had something to do with getting them a woman.

The same thing could be argued for wagons. I mean they used to be cool, but now, where are all the wagons? They’ve all turned into stupid useless SUV’s. As a result, wagons are seen as uncool and I really don’t understand that either. Going back to my old man analogy, how many old men to do you see in Hummers, Navigators, or even Explorers? Yet think of what old men typically drive. Cadillacs and Buick’s of course, but if they’re a bit more adventurous, they all get wagons. And on top of that, they always have a woman in the passenger seat. Wagons therefore = cool. On the flip side, How many douchebags do you see in SUV’s blasting questionable music with absolutely no girls in the car? See my point?

There are still a few automakers that are smart enough to get this. Volvo and Subaru are the ones that usually come to mind when you think of wagons, but Volkswagen should be considered as well. They’ve had the Passat wagon going for decades (and is still going strong) and they smartly introduced the Jetta wagon in the early 2000′s. It has since turned into the Golf wagon. It should also be noted that the Golf wagon name is just for Canadians. In the States, they still call in the Jetta wagon. That’s probably inaccurate now that it has a Golf front facia. Once again, Canada does it right.

But the bigger question is, does it actually do what a good wagon should?

Read the rest of this entry »

Volkwagen Passat Dead To Us?

Volkswagen released the new Passat in Paris today and it seems to bare a striking resemblance to the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta, only a bit more upscale looking. Actually the only thing that doesn’t look quite upscale looking is the rear end where the tail lights have too much of a resemblance to the Canada-only VW Jetta City. Still, the design is clean and classy.

But none of that matters because apparently Volkswagen is done with selling the Passat in our market. Whaa?!

Volkswagen confirmed that it would continue to sell the Passat in its current form here for another year, then it will get pulled. So we won’t even get to try this new Passat? What gives?

Volkswagen hasn’t exactly abandoned the mid-size market in North America. VW plans to offer a replacement to the Passat here called the NMS. Hmm… not sure how I feel about this. Usually cars designed specifically for North Americans means that you get a softer, bigger, less wagon or hatchback kind of ride. Mazda did it with their Mazda6 by offering a fatter, slower and uglier version just for us from the rest of the world and now it appears VW is going down the same road.

Let’s hope the NMS isn’t quite as much of a disappointment as I’m setting it up to be. I’ll be the first to eat my words should a test drive of the NMS proves to be impressive.

[Autoblog]

Test Drive: 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Highline

By Kevin Harrison

There are a lot of things about North Americans that I really don’t get. For instance why do we like Walmart enough that it has to be open 24 hours? Have you ever bolted up at 4 am wanting to buy a new set of silverware?

Likewise, why are we so opposed to diesels? For some reason we’ve asphyxiated them with a bad reputation, and as a result, North Americans have not responded well to them.

This attitude is in complete contrast to Europe where selling a car without a diesel option is like ordering a hamburger at a Chinese restaurant – it just doesn’t make sense.

VW has been trying for decades to make diesels more mainstream in our market but they hit a bit of a snag in 2007 when stricter emission standards forced them to axe their diesel and revamp it. During that period TDI’s were missing in action in our market.

But they’re back and VW promises them to be even more powerful yet more efficient than before.

Read the rest of this entry »

Test Drive: 2010 Audi A3 TDI

By Kevin Harrison

I was driving behind an old Mercedes-Benz diesel a while back and I have to say, it was about as desirable as playing strip poker with your parents. It was just awful.

I actually had to turn my radio up because that diesel clatter was making my ears bleed. Then, despite being 30 degrees outside, I had to roll up my windows because the exhaust coming out of the tailpipe had a rather black/purple-ish hue that would make even Stephen Harper concerned about its effect on the environment. On top of that, the smell was less agreeable than a hockey player locker room after the second period.

For the first time ever, I finally started to understand North American tendencies. Diesels of the past were terrible.

Since then, many automakers have refined diesel technology, most notably Volkswagen. Even though most automakers bailed on the idea of bringing diesels back, Volkswagen stuck with it, leaving them with virtually all the market share. Not a bad move. BMW and Mercedes-Benz have followed suit with each brand offering a small dosage of their diesel technology for open minded North Americans.

Volkswagen has expanded the technology into four of their models. But what if you want a little premium with that oil burner? Well, for the first time Volkswagen has made its famous TDI engine available in the Audi A3. Is it worth it?

Read the rest of this entry »

Bargain: 2011 Volkwagen Jetta to Start at $15,875

Whoa! I was not expecting this.

Volkswagen Canada announced today that the 2011 Jetta will have a starting price of $15,875 in our market. That’s over six grand less than a base 2010 Jetta!

Thing is, though, you get pretty much the old Jetta set up. That means that 2.Slow litre four cylinder engine making 115 horsepower. You also get the torsion beam suspension which, lets face it, is about as refined as Kid Rock. Also a 5-speed manual is the order of the day instead of a six speed. Despite all this, this will probably work well for Volkswagen, specifically in the Canadian market. VW has been selling the Jetta City in our market for a while now, which is essentially a facelifted previous generation Jetta. And it’s selling well here.

But if all that sounds too underwhelming for you, don’t worry, there will be more powerful Jettas available too. I’m even hearing a revival of the GLI is planned as well. The TDI Highline will be the most expensive Jetta at around $26,000 until the GLI arrives.

[Volkswagen Canada]

International Engine of the Year Award Winners Announced

Congrats to Volkswagen!

They picked up International Engine of the Year award honours for 2010 for the 1.4 litre TSI twincharger engine typically found in the Golf, Jetta, Scirocco, Tiguan, Touran, and Seat Ibiza Cupra. Unfortunately for us, we don’t get to experience that engine in any of VW’s offerings in North America. Volkwagen also picked up a second award for the 2.5 litre five-cylinder turbo that they use in the amazing Audi TT-RS.

BMW picked up the most awards for four different engines. The first was for the incredible 3 litre inline six D1 twin turbo used in the 135i, 335i, 535i, X5 35i, X6 35i and Z4. Next BMW was awarded for the 1.6 litre turbo found in the Mini Cooper S, Clubman S, Peugot 207 & 308 as well as the John Cooper works Edition Cooper and Clubman. BMW’s wonderful diesel was recognized as well, specifically the 2 litre twin turbo used in the 123d and X1 123d. Finally, and not surprisingly, BMW picked up an award for the 4 litre V8 used in the M3.

Mercedes-Benz and Toyota rounded out the list, each picking up one award. Mercedes-Benz won for their 6.2 litre V8 found in all the AMG models and Toyota was awarded for their 1 litre engine found in the Yaris and IQ.

Congrats to all the winners!

[International Engine of the Year]

Volkswagen Springs A Leak: 2011 Jetta Revealed

The official reveal of the 2011 Jetta wasn’t supposed to happen until tomorrow, but Auto Express apparently got their hands on some photos and decided the appropriate thing to do would be to leak them.

We saw spy shots a while back which pretty much revealed the entire design, but it’s nice to have official photos to look at.

There are no details for North American variants, but in Europe they will reportedly get a four engine choices: three gas engines ranging from 104 horsepower to 200 horsepower and a diesel. Speaking of the TDI, us Canucks will supposedly be getting the TDI version before the Amurricans do. Sweet deal.

The styling overall looks great, typical VW with non-flashy yet eye catching styling. The rear end styling is very Audi A4 and that’s definetly no a bad thing. I have a feeling VW is going to be setting the benchmark yet again in this segment for performance and refinement.

Two more pics after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Spied: 2011 Volkswagen Jetta

Don’t let that strange looking badge on the trunk hood fool you, it is very likely that this is the new Jetta caught tooling around in Michigan. Since the car is wearing nearly no camouflage, the badge is likely there to throw people off.

The dimensions of the car are a bit hard to tell, but as is the trend, it will likely be bigger than the current generation Jetta. Though the current gen Jetta is pretty big as it is (some say too big).

Front pic added after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Get a New Beetle While You Can

Volkswagen is reportedly taking final orders on the New Beetle, which really isn’t that ‘new’ anymore. It has been around since 1998 with only one very minor refresh over those twelve years.

The New Beetle will be riding into the sunset quite soon, but all you Beetle fans don’t need to worry. Volkswagen is working on a replacement which should make an appearance sometime around 2012. It is expected to retain a similar shape, however it will likely have a flat roof a la Mini Cooper, and is expected to be a bit more sport oriented.

I was never a huge fan of the New Beetle. The only version that ever peaked my interest (aside from Herbie when I was a young lad) was the Turbo S model pictured above.  The Turbo S had the same 1.8 litre engine except it produced 180 horsepower and 174 pound foot torque at only 1950 rpm. Mate that to a 6 speed manual along with some bigger and grippier tires and you had yourself one hot little bug.