Volkswagen Brings All 6 Generations of the Golf GTI to the Track

The year is almost up yet Volkswagen continues to celebrate its much vaunted Golf GTI's 35th birthday. Over the year we saw the Germans release the production Golf GTI Edition 35 as well as numerous concepts including a Cabriolet at the Wörthersee meeting in Austria.

Now, just before 2011 comes to an end, Volkswagen's UK division released a video showing all six generations of the Golf GTI on the racetrack and which we presume, is a preview for something a little more exciting as there's not much action going on in this clip.

You won't be missing on much, but if you're still interested, you can watch the video after the break.

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VW to Return to Super Bowl with New 60-Second Ad on the 2012 Beetle

There's no doubt that this year's Super Bowl XLV played host to some original commercials but the one ad that stood out more than the rest was "The Force" from Volkswagen, the official YouTube version of which has garnered over 45 million views since it aired on February 2.

Volkswagen actually aired one more commercial during the game, the “Black Beetle”, which has been seen by more than 5 million viewers on the German firm's channel.

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New VW Up! Commercial Reminds us of Big Things that went Extinct

"The future belongs to the small," says Volkswagen and to prove its point, the German automaker came out with a new commercial for the recently launched Up! city car.

The advert takes us on a quick journey through history showing us numerous "big things" that eventually went extinct, from dinosaurs to 1940s swimsuits and from 1970s sideburns to 1990s lexicons.

The spot is smart, to the point and reaches the Up!'s youthful target audience. Hop over the jump to check it out.

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Ad Watch: Volkswagen Tiguan and the Parking Duel

No matter where you live, searching for a parking space is a frustrating experience and can often lead to a confrontation with another driver vying for the same spot.

Recently, advertising agency DDB Argentina took this modern day problem and morphed it into a clever car commercial title "Volkswagen Tiguan: The Duel" to showcase the compact SUV's hands free parking system.

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VW Signs WRC's Hottest New Driver, Sebastien Ogier, for its 2013 Assault [with Video]

We all know that when the Volkswagen Group puts something in its mind, it will achieve it no matter what: the Bugatti Veyron is a perfect example.

Now that VW has decided to enter the FIA World Rally Championship with the new Polo R WRC, it wants to make sure that it will be competitive from the first race. Consequently, it will enter the championship in 2013, having a full year to test its new car.

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Consumer Reports Questions if VW's Press Cars are the Same as the Ones Found in Dealerships

Credibility is like virginity: once you lose it, you never get it back. Therefore, motoring journalists try to be as objective as possible (well, most of them, anyway) and report all their findings, good or bad alike when they take a car for a test drive.

However, Consumer Reports [CR], asks a rather intriguing question concerning this issue: are the press cars driven by motoring journalists the same as the ones bought by the public?

It's true that, despite quality control, two cars of the exact same make, model and specification that roll out of the same plant may differ in certain aspects such as fit and finish or actual engine output by a few ponies, but those differences are most of the times imperceptible to the human eye.

Earlier this summer, Volkswagen gave Consumer Reports a 2012 Passat from its press fleet for a first drive. CR's Jon Linkov noticed at the time that, unlike the Jetta, the U.S.-built 2012 Passat sedan's trunk hinges were dressed up in plastic.

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Watch a High-End Technician Try to Install a Subwoofer on a VW Golf Cabrio

We could be wrong but a car audio installer holding a hammer and wearing a speedo with a tool belt wrapped around his waist, white socks and fancy flip-flops from the days when Richard Nixon was in presidency, doesn't seem like the kind of guy you'd let anywhere near you vehicle (or your house for that matter), let alone try to connect a subwoofer.

Still, if you have your doubts, you can hop over the jump and watch this craftsman in some hammer-time action.

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Spicy VW Beetle R Concept Makes its U.S. Debut at the 2011 LA Auto Show [Updated Gallery +Video]

Officially, it’s just a concept, but the wording on VW’s press release hints at a production version of the Beetle R that was first shown at the 64th IAA in Frankfurt before it made its North American debut today at the LA Auto Show.

Developed by Volkswagen R GmbH - that is, the same people responsible for the Scirocco R and Golf R models, the Beetle R is said to show “the potential for an ever sportier version of the Beetle”.

The company also claims that the 200HP turbocharged 2.0-liter of the Beetle Turbo “could offer even more performance, similar to that of the Golf R and Scirocco R”.

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Greenpeace wants to Turn VW Away from the Dark Side, Launches Spoof Star Wars Ads

The rebel alliance from…Greenpeace launched a coordinated attack against the Volkswagen Group this morning by airing spoofs of the German firm’s now famous mini Darth Vader commercial, taking over advertising hoardings to install their own banners on billboards located in London and unleashing “eco-storm troopers” to protest on London's Old Street.

Greenpeace went ahead with the attack to draw attention to its concerns over the German company’s ecological record.

The environmental activist group claims that the car giant is “spending millions of Euros every year funding lobby groups who are trying to stop Europe increasing its commitment to greenhouse gas reductions from 20% to 30% by 2020” and calls Volkswagen to turn away from the Dark Side.

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New 2012 VW Beetle Makes Music Video Debut in Britney Spears’ “I Wanna Go”

Ever since Hershey’s chocolates appeared in William A. Wellman’s 1927 Wings movie - the first and only silent film ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, the practice of product placement has become an every day part of our television and cinematic experience.

Volkswagen is one of the many automakers that has adopted this strategy spending millions of dollars each year to place its products not only in movies but in music videos as well. One of our eagle-eyed readers, Dallas Howell, noticed the product placement of the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle in Britney Spears’ brand-new, paparazzi-bashing "I Wanna Go" music video.

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Alleged Dealer Employee Slams Ferrari 456 into an Oncoming Volkswagen Gol

A violent accident between a Ferrari 456 and a Volkswagen Gol that took place in Martinez, an affluent city located near the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires was caught on tape by a nearby security camera.

The video shows the blue Ferrari 456 after the driver lost control of the car as it heads slideways towards an oncoming Volkswagen Gol hatchback. The impact, as you can see for yourself in the security footage, is severe. Both drivers were taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Although we could not confirm this, media reports from the country citing police sources state that the driver was not the owner of the car but a dealer employee who was taking the Italian supercar for its technical inspection.

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VW Salesman Likes to Bang and Jump on Doors

As the adage goes, there is no such thing as bad publicity and it is better to be reviled and even mocked at than to be ignored. In the case of Larry Roesch Volkswagon (that’s how the name of the German automaker is spelled on the dealer’s Youtube account), making the automotive ridiculist was intentional to grab some media and customer attention. And since we’re here talking about it, you could say that their goal has been achieved…

The VW dealer has published a series of intentionally cheap and corny commercials starring one of the company’s salesmen, Nick Pontarelli. In two of the videos, Pontarelli abuses a Volkswagen Golf GTI and a Jetta by forcefully shutting and climbing onto the doors to prove the cars' ‘German’ strength and quality. His final statement is “try that with a Hyundai or a Honda”. Watch the clips after the break.

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Beatboxing with the Polo GTI: New TV Spot from Singapore

Let’s get one thing straight: I’m not a huge fan of beatboxing. It’s something me and my friends were big into in junior high, but I’ve since outgrown it. Others have not. In a recent TV spot promoting the latest-generation Volkswagen Polo GTI, the Singapore arm of global marketing agency Tribal DDB brought in local beatboxing talent Dharni Ng to lay down some slick beats.

The result is...interesting, I guess. I’m not really in much of a position to judge beatboxing, so it’s hard to tell if this is good or merely average. You can check out the full ad below and an additional clip of Ng “rehearsing” while being driven about in the Veedub. Oh, and don’t forget to leave a comment in the section below.

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VIDEOS: 2011 VW Jetta Hits the Road in San Francisco

Yesterday we brought you the full performance specs as well as a new gallery of the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta. Now, the German automaker has dropped a B-roll video of the compact sedan with driving footage from San Francisco as well as the usual interior and exterior beauty shots. You can watch the video footage right after the jump.

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Blast from the Past: MTE Turbochargers VW Golf IV R32 to 790HP

The VW Golf R32 IV may be an old model but there's no shortage of tuners willing to step up to the challenge and mod the hot hatch like there's no tomorrow. The latest tuning proposal for the Golf R32 IV comes via German specialist MTE in the military-theme wrapped R32 BiTurbo2.

The stock R32's 3.2-liter V6 makes 241bhp and 320Nm / 236 lb-ft, but thanks to a series of modifications including -but not limited to- a pair of Garrett turbochargers with intercoolers, a custom exhaust system, recalibrated ECU, new pistons and cylinder heads, output has been lifted to 790HP and 1,200Nm / 885 lb-ft. That's 50HP more than MTE's previous Golf R32 IV BiTurbo1.

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SPY VIDEO: 2011 Volkswagen Passat Saloon and Estate Facelift

Here's a spy video of the redesigned (and not all-new, as some reports suggested) for the 2011 model year, Volkswagen Passat that will break cover at the Paris Motor Show in October and arrive in dealerships early next year.

Caught here in both four-door sedan and estate body styles while trailer testing, the new Passat is expected to receive a new front- and rear-end design that will bring it more in line with the automaker's latest products such as the Scirocco and more recently, the 2011 Jetta.

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