Aussie Motoring

VW Touareg continues to lead at the end of stage 6

The Race Touareg continues Volkswagen’s domination at the head of the leader board after six of the Dakar Rally’s 15 stages: The Spaniard Carlos Sainz and his French co-driver Michel Périn lead the Dakar Rally now for the fourth day in succession.

On the extremely fast stage from Tan Tan in Morocco to Zouérat in Mauritania, at 817 kilometres also the longest of the rally, Sainz recorded the fourth fastest time. Under these conditions the buggies were able to exploit their weight and power advantages granted to them by the regulations– the American Robby Gordon won from the Frenchman Jean-Louis Schlesser.

The third fastest time went to Giniel de Villiers in a Volkswagen Race Touareg. The South African and his German co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz clawed back 25 seconds from the overall leader and now lie second 3:11 minutes behind Sainz.

The Portuguese-German duo Carlos Sousa/Andreas Schulz still hold third position in the Lagos Team Race Touareg 2, who recorded the sixth fastest stage time. Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/South Africa) from the Volkswagen factory team completed the stage 12:38 minutes behind in ninth position and, in doing so, improved their overall position by two places to eighth on the tough stage, which saw several top teams tumble down the leader board.

VW is very happy

The 2007 Dakar Rally has just completed it’s third stage and VW must be feeling rather pleased at the moment. At the end of the day Volkswagen factory driver Carlos Sainz has taken the lead of the Dakar Rally. The Spaniard and his French co-driver Michel Périn took second place in the Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 on the third stage in Morocco from Nador to Er Rachidia.

The Volkswagen duo Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford improved from seventh to fifth overall. The Finn Ari Vatanen recorded the eleventh best time with his Italian co-driver Fabrizia Pons on the 648 kilometre stage.

The Race Touareg remains unbeaten in this year’s running of the desert classic with three stage victories and as many days at the head of the leader board.

It was designed in China for China and it sure looks different

The Volkswagen Neeza is a concept car … so far … but when Volkswagen released the Neeza at this year’s major Chinese auto show - Auto China 2006 - there were plenty of hints that the concept might soon turn into a production model.

The concept behind the Neeza is a crossover between a coupe and a station wagon.

The unusual name will have direct appeal to the Chinese market place because it is derived from “Ne-zha”, the name of a well-known figure in Chinese history.

Could it be something out of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds”? Actually, these mechanized vehicles and those that drive them “come in peace,” as hundreds of Volkswagen New Beetles trek to the New Mexico desert for the 7th Annual Roswell New Beetle “2K Car Show Weekend,” June 23 – 25, 2006.

This year, Volkswagen of America, Inc. will bring in a number of New Beetles, including the Teacher’s New Beetle, produced for the NEA (National Educators Association), whose surface acts as a dry erase board, allowing teachers to write on the car and then wipe it clean for the next lesson.

Also on hand and poised for stargazing: Volkswagen’s iconic Rabbit. The new Rabbit features a powerful five cylinder, 2.5 litre, 150 hp engine and is available in both two and four-door versions, . The Rabbit was the first Volkswagen produced in the United States and its appeal grew rapidly, with sales of over 1.3 million in its 10-year lifespan. The new Rabbit is darting into showrooms nationwide now.

The Roswell 2K event features a “Skywatch” event Friday night, and, on Saturday, a car show and New Beetle parade down Roswell’s historic Main Street. Barry Meguiar, host of Speed Channel’s “Car Crazy”, will serve as parade Grand Marshal. On Sunday, a road rally will take New Beetle cruisers to Carlsbad Caverns and a drive-in movie.

Last year’s event drew thousands of attendees and more than 250 New Beetles from 34 states and Canada. This year’s caravans hail from all over the continent, including: Denver, Houston, San Diego, Seattle, Toronto and Washington, D.C.

The Roswell 2K event originally grew out of two significant New Beetle occurrences. The first was the online frenzy generated by the car’s official launch in 1998. As new cars left dealer showrooms for the open road, Volkswagen enthusiast websites excitedly “buzzed” with initial New Beetle “sightings” from across the country.

In 1999, the idea for an event and its Roswell setting were firmly cast with the airing of a New Beetle commercial which stated (tongue firmly in cheek) that the car was “reverse-engineered by UFOs.”

Held in Roswell, N.M., famous for a 1947 UFO crash that was reported then later denied by the U.S. military, the three-day weekend of activities is the largest New Beetle celebration in the world.

As a little bit of publicity for Aussie Motoring we have the URL emblazoned across the rear windscreen of our car and for some reason it seems to bring out the worst in some motorists. Some drivers seem to want to impress us by sitting glued to our tail on the highway - so tightly attached to us that you can’t even see their headlights in the rear vision mirror.

Others want to take us on at traffic lights and earlier this week one absolute tool forced their way up our left-hand side as we drove out of the narrow exit of a hospital carpark. That particular individual was driving a new VW Touareg V8 and at the time all I could think of was that she really needed to be driving ‘Stanley’ - a robotic vehicle built around the VW Touareg. Even robots have some thought of self-preservation and that was something the other driver lacked.

‘Stanley’ was the first robotic vehicle to ever complete the annual Grand Challenge run in the US by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. You can read more about the challenge here.

While I had seen photos of the Touareg before actually seeing one first-hand came as a bit of a surprise - even as I slammed on the brakes and waited for her to rip the front of our car off. In the photos I had see it looked to be around the size of a Subaru Forrester but in real life it’s a much larger.

Here in Australia the VW Touareg is available in five cylinder turbo diesel, V6 and V8 petrol and V10 diesel models. The V6 and five cylinder diesel both come in base or luxury versions and all models come with a range of options.

Prices start at at $69,900 for the base model V6 and five cyclinder diesel and peak at $142,050 for the fully optioned V10 diesel. Delivery charges, stamp duty and registration costs are all extra. That’s a lot of money to pay for something that comes with with one of those silly reduced-size spare tyres.

Unfortunately the only images on the VW Australia website are of the left hand drive model as sold in the US.

A full road test of the VW Touareg can be found here

It seems that it could be Kia with 75,474 vehicles sold overseas in May - an 8.2% increase on sales for the same time last year. Sales in Europe are up 12% and sales in United States were up 6.4%.

At the same time Volkswagen reported a 35.6% increase in sales in May in the US compared to the same time last year.

Unfortunately it’s not available in Australia but this neat little machine - the Eos is set to hit the US showrooms at the end of the northern summer. The Eos features a three-panel roof that transforms a hardtop coupe - complete with sunroof - into an open convertible.

The Eos will come with a choice of two engines:

The 2 litre 4 cylinder turbo that produces 200 horspower and starts at $27,990 and

The 3.2 litred V6 that produces 250 horspower and starts at $36,850

Both versions are available with a range of options that include 12-way power drivers seat, heated front seats and washer nozzles, multi-function steering wheel, rain sensing wipers, satellite radio, DVD navigation system and park distance control - just to name a few.

It will be interesting to watch the sales of this car because Chrysler have been trying to sell the Crossfire - a very similar vehicle built by Karmann in Germany - for several years and last year had to resort to trying to sell old stock through an online discount site.

The Volkswagen brand achieved worldwide record sales in the first quarter of 2006. 795,000 vehicles were delivered to customers during the first three months of the year.

This is the highest start-of-year figure in the history of the company and represents a rise of some 108,000 vehicles or 15.7 percent compared with the prior-year period. Dr. Michael Kern, Board Member for Sales and Marketing at the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, said: “Our new products are now realizing their full potential on the markets. Additionally, improvements in sales structures independent of the models themselves are having an effect.”

In March alone, Volkswagen Passenger Cars sold 330,000 vehicles to customers worldwide. This represents a rise of 16.3 percent compared with the same month in 2005. During the first three months of this year, a total of 795,000 vehicles were delivered to customers worldwide, 15.7 percent higher than the first quarter of 2005. According to Kern: “The Passat has made an impressive mark on the market. And there will be other models to follow this year, first and foremost the Eos, which will be launched on the German market in May.”

Volkswagen achieved noticeable growth in all regions during the first quarter. Growth was strongest in China, where deliveries increased by 32.2 percent to 144,800 vehicles, and the USA, where sales totaled 53,300 units (plus 24.3 percent). In South Africa, sales rose by 22.8 percent to 19,600 units, while sales in South America rose by 10.1 percent to 108,700 vehicles.

Volkswagen Passenger Cars also reported a noticeable increase in Western and Central Europe (excluding Germany), where deliveries to customers rose by 15.3 percent to 259,000 units. In Germany, 125,200 customers opted for a Volkswagen during the first three months of the year, 8.9 percent more than during the prior-year period. In March alone, 52,800 new Volkswagen were delivered to customers in Germany, 9.8 percent up on March 2005. Kern commented: “As a result, our market share has risen to over 19 percent and we have significantly extended our leading position compared with last year.”

The Golf was the main motor for the delivery record. 288,000 customers chose the Golf, Golf Plus, Golf Variant and Jetta, 11 percent up on the prior-year period. The Passat, both the saloon and estate versions, was the second largest contributor, with a total of 140,000 units delivered to customers during the first quarter of the year.

In another life I’m not only a freelance writer but I’m also involved in online marketing so I’m always interested to look at the way various manufacturers promote their product.

It’s unlikely that we will ever see advertising like this in Australia but this is definitely thinking outside the box and it’s going to give you three good laughs.

VW’s Unpimp My Rides

It’s unlikely that we’ll see this interesting VW Polo variation here in Australia but it’s still interesting to see what some of the European manufacturers can do to enhance their basic designs.

The VW CrossPolo is one of those interesting variations. Follow the link to read the details.