Can you image a VW-badged Panamera? What about a 911-based product from Wolfsburg? It could happen according to Porsche CEO Michael Macht. Autocar reports that Macht says, "Porsche needs to become a strong pillar of VW," and part of that means sharing platforms and components. The two companies have been on a rocky collision course towards merging for years, and now that the deal is all but done, the business of identifying synergies between the two companies is on.
Porsche apparently is not worried about diluting its brand image by sharing platforms with VW, even if that includes the iconic 911. What they won't be sharing, however, is engines. Macht made it clear that "Engine development is a core value for Porsche." At the moment, the only Porsche model with an engine that wasn't developed in-house is the V6-powered Cayenne.
Putting aside your feelings about whether or not Porsche sharing its platforms with VW is a good idea, what are some positive results that can be imagined? A Panamera-based Phaeton? A 911-based Audi speedster? A Boxster-based production version of the VW Concept BlueSport?
Volkswagen is no stranger to promoting its vehicles using games for the iPhone and iPhone Touch. Witness such forgetables as Volkswagen Polo Challenge 3D [iTunes link] and Volkswagen Scirocco R 24H Challenge 3D [iTunes link], both by developer FISHLABS. Neither game is very fun to play, being on the early end of the curve for racing games on Apple's smart phone. For the launch of the new GTI, however, Volkswagen got smart and instead partnered with developer Firemint, which already has a well received racing game for sale in the App Store called Real Racing [iTunes link]. Together, the two companies have put out Real Racing GTI [iTunes link], a free version of the $6.99 app that exclusively features the new 2010 Volkswagen GTI.
We'll get to the game in a second, but the big news is that VW is putting some promotional muscle behind the app by launching a contest (view rules and regulations here) to give away six brand new, limited edition GTIs just for playing the game. Thankfully, your chances of winning are not tied to your skill level, and entering involves simply registering through the game and completing a race. What's more, you can enter once per day and Volkswagen will pick a winner each week for the next six. The GTI prize cars are limited edition models with numbered dash plaques, special interior and exterior trim and unique 18-inch black wheels.
As for the game, it's pretty solid. While only featuring the GTI and fewer tracks, all the gameplay mechanics are the same as the paid app. The control settings are also extensive allowing you to steer using either the device's accelerometer or a steering wheel on the screen, as well as choosing between auto or manual modes for accelerating and braking. The competition AI, however, is pretty weak, allowing you to pass them all from the back of the grid before the first turn and then hanging on the back of your bumper for the rest of the race.
The days of Porsche being an independent automaker will soon be drawing to a close. Volkswagen has announced that it is ready to move ahead with the first stage of its buyout of the smaller company that had tried to do the same thing to it just a short while ago. Back in August when the VW board approved the merger, the Wolfsburg company announced that it would start off by purchasing 42 percent of Porsche AG, the car building unit of Porsche. That stake has now been increased to 49.9 percent and the purchase will happen before the end of 2009.
According the announcement from Volkswagen, work on future joint projects between the two companies is moving ahead faster than anticipated. As a result, VW is buying a larger stake now with the expectation that Porsche's share price will increase next year due to these new projects.
Next year VW will be issuing more preferred shares in itself to help pay for the rest of the acquisition while maintaining its credit rating. The full merger is expected to be completed sometime in 2011.
We've always been dog people. It's not so much that there's something wrong with cats, it's just that we can do more with our dogs... like teach them tricks, take them to the beach and play fetch. Apparently, Volkswagen of Argentina is full of dog people too. Well, dogfish people, at least.
Just like with their furry companions, it seems that dogfishes are so much more interesting and fun than catfish. We don't know of anyone that keeps a catfish as a pet, and even if they did, catfish don't like to go on walks or for car rides. Heck, catfish don't even want to get out of the water. Dogfishes do all of these things. What do they have to do with cars? We have no idea. Click past the break to watch the video and visit veryfunnyads.com for more offbeat commercials from around the world.
VW's Fun Theory project, with its European ad agency DDB, takes on a third task to show that you can get more people to do the right thing if you make it fun. This time it's bottle recycling, and the tool used is a bin fitted with an arcade scoreboard. After a "player" presses start, lights flash above any of the six holes in the bin and the recycler collects points for putting a bottle in the correct opening. It's the same theory as whack-a-mole but with glass bottles.
Just as the other Fun Theory demonstrations with the bottomless garbage can and the piano steps, people flocked to the Bottle Bank Arcade: it was used 50 times more than the plain green bin sitting nearby. Put a scoreboard on something and all of a sudden people will celebrate doing anything – when's the last time you saw a grown man shaking his fist over throwing away a bottle?
In the wake of Toyota's huge floor mat recall, theorists have come up with several survival strategies designed to overcome a throttle that's stuck wide-open. Putting some of these theories to the test – and debunking several myths in the process – is the team over at Consumer Reports.
With a large test track and a fleet of vehicles at their disposal, the magazine's engineers initially focused on the "just step hard on the brakes" method of bringing the car to a halt. Interestingly enough, CR tested a Mercedes-Benz E350 and a Volkswagen Jetta Wagon – both fitted with drive-by-wire "smart throttles" that are designed to ignore conflicting inputs (throttle and brake at the same time). CR reports that these cars simply shut down to idle and came safety to a stop. The story was a bit different with a Toyota Venza and Chevrolet HHR, however. When the brakes on those vehicles were firmly applied at 20 mph, their transmissions downshifted to fight the deceleration. The vehicles were both eventually brought to a stop after the first test. However, when the test was repeated at 60 mph on brakes that had been cooled since the earlier run, both vehicles quickly suffered fade from their overheated brakes and were unable to come to a complete stop.
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Outside of North America, the Golf has been Volkswagen's bread-and-butter model for more than three decades, making the diminutive hatch one of the best selling global vehicles since its mid-Seventies launch as the Beetle's successor. But in the States, it's a totally different story. Except for a few brief periods when fuel prices spiked, the GolfRabbit has always played second fiddle to the Jetta – little more than a Golf with a trunk.
While the sixth generation Golf has been on sale in Europe for nearly a year, U.S.-spec versions are beginning to trickle into retailers on this side of the Atlantic. But before you head down to your local V-Dub dealer to check out the newest Golf (and buy a Jetta instead), we made the trek to Germany to sample the latest iteration of VW's workhorse in and around its Wolfsburg birthplace. Is the new Golf finally enough to woo hatch-averse Americans out of their sedans and into something with an added helping of practicality?
Rumors of a possible motorcycle brand for Volkswagen aren't anything new. It's a well-known fact that Ferdinand Piëch, Chairman of Volkswagen's Board, wishes that the German automaker had purchased Ducati back in 1985 when the Italian bike manufacturer was in dire financial shape.
As recently as last year, Piëch – himself a Ducati rider even at age 72 – commented that Volkswagen could still purchase an unnamed motorcycle manufacturer if the conditions were right. Strike up the rumormill again, boys and girls. The Italian motoring press is reportedly signaling that Volkswagen is making renewed overtures toward Ducati, which, like pretty much all other motorcycle manufacturers these days, is seeing sales and profits take a dive due to the sorry state of the global economy.
Just a few weeks back at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Piëch indicated that the Volkswagen Group was looking to expand, and some took that to mean it would procure a sizable stake in Suziki, another long-rumored target of the German automaker. KTM, maker of the bonkers X-Bow roadster, has also been bandied about as a potential partner. So, is there any truth to the two-wheeled VW rumors? We'll see how it all pans out soon enough, but we're not exactly holding our breath.
Last week we showed you how Volkswagen and ad agency DBB teamed up to get more people walking up the stairs by making them into a Goliath-sized piano. VW calls this project the Fun Theory, and its aim is to show that people will be happier to do life's chores if they aren't so dull. The German automaker found that 66% more people took the stairs when they could tickle the ivories with their toes, and now it knows that the same sort of success can be achieved with trash.
In the next Fun Theory project, a standard outdoor garbage can was retrofitted with motion sensors linked to a pair of hidden speakers to give the illusion of a very, very deep trash receptacle. On a typical day, the garbage can eats up 41 kg (90.2 lbs) worth of garbage. Add a sound effect that makes your trash sound like it's going into a 2,000 foot deep well and a graphic that says Worldens Djupaste Soptunna; Swedish for "World's biggest dustbin," and the trash load climbs to 72 kg (158.4 lbs).
Hit the jump to watch the video. It appears the the sound of trash falling into a deep well is even amazing to those who use sign language as a means of communication.
The "New Beetle" was a smash hit when it debuted in 1998, and the cutesy little Bug immediately jumped to sales of 83,434 the next year. Over the next 10 years, however, Volkswagen left the spiritual successor to the original Beetle out to dry, and sales have steadily dropped down to near nothingness. AutoWeek is reporting that Stefan Jacoby, President and CEO of VW of America, confirmed at a press event in Germany that a long overdue redesign of the New Beetle is coming in 2012, and packaging will be vastly improved.
The current back seat of the New Beetle is a real problem being far too small and uncomfortable for a vehicle in the small car segment. Jacoby says the next Beetle will have a larger rear quarters and better packaging, without growing much beyond its current dimensions. Jacoby says the Beetle will also be used by VW as a kind of low-cost halo car, showing that the German automaker has returned to its roots of building cars for the people.
It's great that VW is finally getting around to making the next New Beetle, but with 14 years between redesigns, we're thinking VW needs to knock the next little Bug out of the park if it once again wants to catch the eye of the car-buying public.
