Tag Archives: VW

VW to take full control of Porsche

July 06, 2012   simon

The most convoluted saga in car industry history is due to end this August when VW will buy the 50.1% of Porsche’s parent company that it does not already own. This ends a battle that started in 2005, when Porsche, bizarrely, started buying into VW and then tried to swallow its vastly bigger German neighbour. Think of those wildlife films where a snake swallows a deer, but substitute an elephant for the deer, and you get the idea of the difference in scale.
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Dacia prepares to launch Duster SUV in the UK

June 15, 2012   simon

If you have never heard of Dacia, you soon will – it is to Renault what Skoda is to VW. The new low cost brand, which has been a big success in both emerging markets and the rest of Europe since 2005, will arrive in the UK at the end of June. Its main model will be the Duster SUV – think of a more basic, and far cheaper, version of the smash-hit Skoda Yeti. The new car officially goes on sale on June 28th.
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VW Polo WRC Street concept debuts at Worthersee

May 19, 2012   Ian

Volkswagen’s annual enthusiast festival, the GTI Meeting at Worthersee, has seen the debut of the beefed up Polo WRC Street. The car sports a wide body kit, over-sized wheels and, most importantly, a 217bhp 2.0-litre turbo engine. As the name alludes, the Polo WRC has links to the World Rally Championship, with the car made to mark Volkswagen’s entry into the competition in 2013.
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VW accidentally advertises Fiat 500

May 17, 2012   Ian

Fiat has managed a cool piece of ambush marketing in Sweden – by parking a Fiat 500 directly outside VW headquarters when Google was filming it for Streetview. Now anyone in Sweden looking up the VW HQ in Södertälje will see a Fiat 500 perfectly parked under the VW corporate identity. Is it Fiat’s way of showing how much better looking the 500 is than the Beetle?
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DAB radio now standard on all VW models

May 16, 2012   Ian

All 2013 model year VWs will have DAB radios fitted as standard – good news for any fans of Radio 6 Music.  Some car companies have been a bit slow in changing over to DAB radios, despite the fact that the UK was originally planning to switch off the FM network in 2015. The government is currently refusing to confirm that date, saying a decision about the switchover date will be taken in 2013.
Partly because of the issue of car radios, the proportion of people currently listening via DAB is way below the 50% target set by the government as the point at which switchover could start to happen.
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