Beijing (dpa) – The new Volkswagen Lavida, based on the Passat, made its debut at the China Motor Show with a completely restyled body reflecting the current VW design.

The Lavida is being offered in three engine versions and four equipment lines. The base version already comes equipped with such standard safety features as ABS, ESP and front air bags.

According to VW, the Lavida is designed to specifically meet the needs of Chinese consumers and aimed at strengthening the car maker’s position at the top of the highest A-segment on the Chinese market.

VW also upgraded its best-selling Tiguan SUV for Chinese customers. R-line packs were conceptualised for the exterior and interior based on the dynamic ”Track & Style” equipment version.

Especially prominent features are the R-Design bumpers and dynamic 19-inch alloy wheels.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Daimler’s flagship luxury brand Mercedes-Benz expects it will at least keep pace with the 15-20 percent growth of the overall premium car market in China this year, its chief executive said.

China is the key growth driver for companies like BMW and Mercedes. Volkswagen’s Audi counts China as its single largest market, responsible for a quarter of its volumes.

Last year, the Mercedes brand increased sales in China by nearly 31 percent to 193,339 vehicles, or 15 percent of its total figure for 2011.

Los Angeles (dpa) – Celebrating its debut at the Los Angeles Motor Show this month is an updated version of the Volkswagen CC with an extended range of features including bi-xenon headlights, static cornering lights and a new LED taillight design.

Standard features are fatigue detection, stainless steel door sill plates and safety head restraints with additional longitudinal front seat adjustments. New assistance systems include optional technologies such as Side Assist Plus with integrated Lane Assist and a camera-based traffic sign detection system.

The European CC petrol versions are in the range between 118 kW/160 hp to 220 kW/300 hp while the diesel versions have an output of 103 kW/140 hp and 125 kW/170 hp.

The 140 hp TDI is listed with a fuel consumption of 4.7 l/100 km and carbon dioxide emissions of 125 grammes per kilometre.

HERNDON, Va., /PRNewswire/ –

• August sales total 25,232 units, a 10.4 percent increase over prior year sales
• Year-to-date increase of 20.7 percent
• 55.5 percent increase in Jetta Sedan sales vs. last year
• GTI sales up 59.5 percent and Golf up 20.2 percent
• Model Year 2012 Tiguan launched, overall sales up 25.5 percent
• Touareg sales increase 140.1 percent
• High-mileage, TDI clean diesel models account for 24.4 percent of sales

Volkswagen of America, Inc. today reported 25,232 units sold in August 2011, a 10.4 percent increase over prior year sales. Year-to-date sales are up 20.7 percent.

“August saw its share of challenges, with consumer confidence sliding and a substantial hurricane on the last weekend of the month, to name just two,” said Jonathan Browning, President and CEO, Volkswagen of America, Inc. “Nonetheless, Volkswagen continued to show strength in its base demand, with the seventh straight month of double-digit growth, and continued strong performance across the lineup.

Volkswagen Jetta sales (including SportWagen) totaled 10,667 units, a 35.9 percent increase over last year. GTI sales increased 59.5 percent while Golf rose 20.2 percent versus last year. Sport utility vehicles Touareg and Tiguan experienced 140.1 percent and 25.5 percent sales increases, respectively. Volkswagen’s high-mileage, TDI clean diesel models accounted for 24.4 percent of all August sales and 25 percent year-to-date.

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PARIS (Xinhua) – Car sales in France gained momentum in August after sharp drop in the previous months, French car sales federation (CCFA) said on Thursday.

August’s new car sales stood at 108,530 units, up from 105,166 vehicles sold in the same month a year earlier, the federation said in its monthly report.

Sales of French brands were down by 2.2 percent while foreign brands expanded by 10.5 percent on high demands for Nissan and Volkswagen cars.

France’s main automaker, PSA Peugeot Citroen group saw its sales down by three percent last month after offering 31,867 units while Renault, reported 1.4-percent fall due to sharp decline in sales of its low cast brand Dacia.

After a couple of best cars awards list, I think it would be fair to look at the other extreme: the worst ones. Although it may not seem nice at first, it’s a way for the auto industry to look back and learn for their past mistakes to ensure that they don’t name a particular vehicle the wrong way. A good way to start would be Cars.com’s Worst Named Cars of All Time List.

After 30 years of looking back at the automobile industry, Cars.com presents the Worst Car Names of All Time!

10. The Entire Lincoln Lineup
Lincoln is a brand with a considerable history, and we know they know how to give cars strong iconic names such as Continental or Navigator. Somewhere around 2007, many of those easy-to-remember names went out the window, leaving consumers with a hodgepodge of names starting with “MK.” That’s a shame because Lincoln has a strong lineup right now. What’s the difference between the MKZ, MKX and MKS? Gimme a second to look it up because I honestly can’t remember which is which.

9. Hyundai Equus
The inclusion of the Equus might be premature considering it’s not even on sale yet, but this could be the push Hyundai needs to give the car a proper name before it’s released. Companies occasionally give Latin names to products to make them sound sophisticated or fancy, but Equus just makes us think of the Broadway play of the same name — most recently starring Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame — where a young man loves horses a little too much.

8. Toyota Yaris

There was a girl in my dorm freshman year who organized her shoes alphabetically by mood. She majored in dead languages and responded to every single question with “no worries.” She once set the dorm microwave on fire by overcooking a ham-and-cheese Hot Pocket. Yes, that story is ridiculous and nonsensical … sort of like naming a car Yaris.

7. Kia Forte Koup
As writers, we’re particularly offended when companies take liberties with the English language in an effort to be cutesy — and this is no exception. We actually like this car! But Kia is asking us to overlook years of schooling and experience to accept their quirky spelling of coupe. It might require a few sessions with a therapist before we can get to that happy place.
6. Subaru B9 Tribeca
Here we’ve got a family crossover named after a fashionable neighborhood in lower Manhattan and … a World War II bomber? Consumers didn’t understand the B9 moniker either; that part of the name got the ax when Subaru redesigned the SUV for the 2008 model year.

5. Volkswagen Touareg
A few Volkswagens could’ve made this list, but the Touareg was easily the name that tripped up our American mouths the most. Early Touareg commercials in the U.S. even depicted people struggling to say the name. When an automaker has to spend precious time and ad dollars helping consumers learn to pronounce the car’s name — something is wrong.

4. Ford Probe
There are many borderline inappropriate jokes you could make about a 1990s sport compact named Probe, but we’re far too classy for that. Even if you don’t take into account the tasteless jokes, this is just a bad car name. There is nothing cool about a probe (the word, not the car). What thesaurus was Ford using where probe was synonymous with sleek and sporty?

3. Subaru Brat
Although Brat is technically an acronym — it stands for Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter — it’s a particularly unfortunate one. “Brat” is almost never used to describe something positively. A brat is not a calm, confident driver who knows what he wants and how to get it. A brat is busy throwing a hissy fit in the corner because his mom won’t let him borrow the car to go buy the new Styx album.

2. Isuzu VehiCROSS
Isuzu deserves a little credit for creating an attention-grabbing crossover before it was even a recognized vehicle segment, but the name practically beats consumers over the head with the idea (think SUV plus a cross-training sneaker). Add to that the unnecessary capitalization and the fact that VehiCROSS is a mouthful, and you have one bad name.

1. Ford Aspire
It’s pretty safe to say that many drivers’ dream cars fall under the category of sports car or luxury auto; few children hope to one day spend their commuting hours behind the wheel of a 63-horsepower subcompact hatchback. When Ford slapped the Aspire name on the back of this car, they were basically saying: “Yeah, even our car knows you wish you were driving something cooler.”

Well, there they are, hopefully this list won’t grow longer…

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Enough with the car awards of the year, it’s time to look under the hood and check out which engines made it as the 10 Best for 2010. According to Ward’s 10 Best Engines, the winners are as follows:

This year’s winners and the applications tested:
2.0L TFSI Turbocharged DOHC I-4 (Audi A4)
3.0L TFSI Supercharged DOHC V-6 (Audi S4)
3.0L DOHC I-6 Turbodiesel (BMW 335d)
2.5L DOHC I-4 Hybrid (Ford Fusion Hybrid)
3.5L EcoBoost Turbocharged DOHC V-6 (Ford Taurus SHO)
2.4L Ecotec DOHC I-4 (Chevrolet Equinox)
4.6L Tau DOHC V-8 (Hyundai Genesis)
2.5L Turbocharged DOHC H-4 (Subaru Legacy 2.5GT)
1.8L DOHC I-4 Hybrid (Toyota Prius)
2.0L SOHC I-4 Turbodiesel (Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI)

“This year’s list embodies how the industry is responding to demands for higher fuel economy and lower emissions without shortchanging performance,” Ward’s AutoWorld Editor-in-Chief Drew Winter said. “Auto makers are using innovative designs and advanced technology to boost horsepower and torque while downsizing engines and increasing efficiency.”

It’s a good thing that one of the criterias involved was the lower gas emissions. It just shows that engine makers do care about saving the environment. Now if they can only make engines this good that runs on ethanol. In the meantime, since the US economy’s going down the slippery slope, it’s great that they’ve also included the criteria regarding fuel economy. The last thing we need are engines that guzzle gas like there’s no tomorrow.

Here’s to hoping that next year’s best engine’s list will have engines that help save more on gas and produce lower (or better no) carbon emissions.

Press Release

Where have all the quality and safety in American cars gone to? It seems that overseas manufactured cars and automotive vehicles seems to be the one that’s taking a look at quality and safety more than it is over here. No wonder our automotive industry is down in the gutters. This is further proven after Car and Driver Magazine just listed down the 10 best cars of 2010: and it’s no surprise that only two of the top ten belong to American car manufacturers.

Following are the 2010 Car and Driver 10Best winners (in alphabetical order), followed by the number of times each model has made the list:

• 2010 Audi S4 (2)
• 2010 BMW 3-series / M3 (19)
• 2010 Cadillac CTS / CTS-V (2)
• 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid (1)
• 2010 Honda Accord (24)
• 2010 Honda Fit (3)
• 2010 Mazda MX-5 Miata (11)
• 2010 Mazda 3 / Mazdaspeed 3 (3)
• 2010 Porsche Boxster / Cayman (3)
• 2010 Volkswagen GTI (7)

The list is not in a ranked order. A panel of 18 Car and Driver editors determined the winners by rating them on a scale of 1-100 with a focus on functional performance, driving satisfaction and value. Vehicles considered for the award must be available in the United States by January 2009 and priced below the cap of $80,000, or 2.5 times the average transaction price as of summer 2009. Winners from the previous year are re-nominated if they are still available under the price cap.

Hopefully this is a wake up call to American car manufacturers to do their best to produce quality cars that will attract not only local buyers but foreign ones as well.

Press Release

Essex Racing Limited has announced that it has adjusted its prices for full body kits online. Essex Racing is the UK’s number one importer and retailer of body kits for a wide variety of cars including Ford, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, Honda, Renault, Audi and other popular automotive manufacturers.

All of Essex Racing’s body kits are manufactured to the very highest standards in Europe. They come ready for preparation and painting. Body kits add style to vehicles, producing a focus on the curves and shape of the vehicle the kit is fitted to.

General manager, Keith Johnson states, “We believe we have the most comprehensive range of body kits at the most competitive prices in the UK.”

Customers may purchase securely online. Trade accounts with Essex Racing can also be opened upon request and review.

As far as the Volkswagen Routan is concerned, you can chalk up another glaring feature from this new minivan. Normally you would be looking at the interiors and the technological advancements. But if there is one thing that now places it along the lines of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep, it has to be the WiFi feature that has been added to it.

Thanks to Autonet mobile, people who find themselves on the road can access the web anytime that they please. This adds another dimension towards the benefits motorists can get from certain vehicles, a minivan in this case, which is known to be a family-type of a vehicle. Placing a Wi-Fi access only adds to the various thing they can do while on the road which can become boring at some point, especially in long trips.

“Volkswagen is committed to delivering vehicles that epitomize and enhance our digital customers’ lifestyle, and the Routan is a modern family vehicle” said Mark Barnes, COO of Volkswagen. “Internet access is a clear benefit to our customers. We’re excited to work with Autonet Mobile to bring connectivity to our Routan customers.”

(Source) Press