Talk about a blast from the past, the latest Volkswagen Beetle Classic is a real head-turner thanks to chrome hubcaps on 17-inch alloys, checkered beige and brown two-tone cloth and leatherette upholstery,…

2015 Volkswagen Beetle Classic Road Test Review

How do you feel when catching sight of the new VW Beetle Classic? If you're getting up in years it's quite possible you had one of the original air-cooled rear-engine Bugs in the family fleet when you were a kid, and therefore this wonderfully retro version of an already retrospective design just might just dig up some old memories as it stirs the inner emotions. It certainly does that for me.

I went just about everywhere riding in the little storage compartment behind the rear seats of my dad's '66 Beetle. That was the late '60s and early '70s, before safety regulations took most of the fun out of driving and being driven. While I loved lying back there and staring upwards as the trees and houses blurred past the raked rear window, I didn't get that "seat" because I enjoyed special privilege over my brother and sister. Rather, I was the youngest and therefore able to climb up and over the rear seatbacks and then actually fit inside the 10-cubic-foot compartment, a necessity Read Full Story
You could be forgiven for thinking the latest Volkswagen Passat was a mid-size Audi. After all, the two brands share the same VW AG parentage and the namesake brand hasn’t been shy about adopting a…

2015 Volkswagen Passat TDI Highline Road Test Review

It's amazing how times change and our perception about what's acceptable changes with it. This is true for politics, social issues and even religion, plus of course the products we buy.

On that last point I first covered the Volkswagen Passat in June of 2002, and the 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine in my test car made 170 horsepower, up 20 horsepower from the year before and therefore well deserving of an emphatic exclamation mark! Likely such excitable punctuation had more to do with my youthful exuberance and inexperience as an auto scribe as it did this model's performance, but just the same that was a lot of power for a base mid-size car back in those days, whereas its upgraded 190 horsepower 2.8-litre V6 delivered considerable performance for the era.

Something we'll likely never see again is an eight-cylinder mid-sizer from a mainstream volume brand, but a week spent with the fabulous Passat W8 in the summer of '03 was enjoyable to say the least, yet Read Full Story
Volkswagen has given its luxuriously equipped Touareg SUV a mid-cycle update for 2015, including new front styling, new wheels and some updates to the interior, while HID headlamps are now standard. Today…

2015 Volkswagen Touareg TDI Execline Road Test Review

Every time I climb into a Volkswagen Touareg I'm reminded that this is no volume crossover SUV from a mainstream automaker, but rather a premium CUV in every sense of the word. This is evidenced everywhere, from the higher grade of materials used inside the cabin to the way each door thumps shut, but possibly the most obvious clue to the Touareg's upper crust character is the way it drives.  

After pressing one of four proximity sensing buttons at each door for access, a simple push of the start button ignites the engine at which point another suitably premium sound exudes, optional clean turbo-diesel technology. Yes, this is the same diesel as offered in various Audi and Porsche models, VW's direct-injection and turbocharged 3.0-litre V6. It's tuned to produce 240 horsepower from 3,900 to 4,400 rpm and 406 lb-ft of torque from 1,750 to 2,750 rpm and drives all four-wheels by way of Volkswagen's 4Motion all-wheel drive via a state-of-the-art eight-speed automatic transmission, Read Full Story
The new 2015 VW Golf has been winning major awards along with big time sales, almost doubling the number sold during the first half of last year. Today on CarCostCanada we test a 5-Door TDI Highline model,…

2015 Volkswagen Golf 5-Door TDI Highline Road Test Review

When it comes to the Golf, Volkswagen doesn't make brash moves. Its development is purely evolutionary, evidenced in the all-new 2015 Golf, which is one of the safest redesigns in recent memory and therefore looks very similar to the outgoing 2014 Golf. Fans of the car, and there are many (that border on zealots no less), will say the new model is dramatically different than the old one due to its chiseled new LED infused headlamps, more sharply angled LED taillights and so on, but to most consumers who only pay attention to the auto market when it comes time to purchase a new car, this Golf looks much the same as the old Golf.

Of course, this is intentional. You don't build a nameplate as successful as Golf by uprooting its diehard followers with every redesign. The changes need to come slowly, at least visually, as the powers that be certainly wouldn't want to go too radical with a car that is now as iconic as the original Beetle. Still, despite this completely new Golf appearing Read Full Story
Volkswagen’s slightly smaller than compact Tiguan crossover SUV offers up a premium experience within the mainstream volume sector, and today we review a mid-grade Comfortline trimmed model complete…

2015 Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 TSI 4Motion Comfortline Road Test Review

When Volkswagen introduced the Tiguan to the world back in 2008, its partial first year sales here in Canada and the US were hardly anything to write home about. I was a bit surprised after joining the German automaker on the long-lead press launch in Budapest, Hungary the year before, during which the little crossover utility wowed all present with strong performance both on and off the road, superb fuel economy from the impressive little supercharged and turbocharged 1.4 TSI "Twincharger" four-cylinder I drove, VW's usual above average cabin quality and wonderful comfort.

It looked like a hit in making, but 5,075 sales here, plus an even more meager (per capita) 13,903 deliveries in the US hardly made for a stellar first full year, especially in a market that was already selling 36,980 Ford Escapes in Canada and 173,044 in the US, 25,784 Toyota RAV4s here and 149,088 in the US, 18,554 Honda CR-Vs north of the 49th and 191,214 south of the border, 11,759 Chevy Equinox models Read Full Story