NEWS

VOLKSWAGEN is the latest brand to launch a fixed price service plan to help retain customers in the network. Retail buyers signing up before the end of the year will pay a one-off fee of £250 for the 3 year plan. Impressively, it covers all models, from the Fox city car to the posh Phaeton. [...]

RIDGEWAY Group has acquired two former Motorworld Volkswagen car dealers in Oxford. The deal takes Ridgeway’s total Volkswagen representation to 5 – the Group now holds a brace of Volkswagen franchises: •    Ridgeway Oxford (2 sites) •    Ridgeway Newbury •    Ridgeway Reading •    Ridgeway Wantage All former Motorworld staff have moved over to Ridgeway, which [...]

VW will join the double cab pickup market in September 2010 with the launch of the all new Amarok. The Brazilian-built model will boast a 1.15-tonne payload, and be sold through Volkswagen Van Centres. A surprise new entrant into the still-popular double-cab sector, the Amarok looks set to shake things up. The Volkswagen name, combined [...]

CAR of the Year 2010 is the Volkswagen Polo, the top award judging panel has just announced. It won 25 top-place votes from the 59-strong voting panel. Toyota’s clever IQ came a close second, though – that car was top dog for 20 judges! The final scores were 347 for the VW Polo, 337 for [...]

VOLKSWAGEN shareholders will be asked to sanction a further €3.9bn investment in Porsche AG, as merger plans continue. This will see Volkswagen owning 49.9 percent of Porsche AG – a position it would reach more quickly than first anticipated. The quicker pace of the negotiations, and the resulting EGM scheduled for 3 December, is because [...]

VOLKSWAGEN CVs will now be headed by Matthew Bowden who moves from national fleet sales manager. Being an employee of Volkswagen financial services since 1995 has taken him, in that time, to China and three years at Shanghai Volkswagen. He’s timed joining Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles perfectly on cue to launch the new Transporter. Director of [...]

CAR Dealer Magazine has rounded up some of the news stories from the past few weeks – including the UK’s best-mpg van! 76mpg Citroen Nemo UK’s most eco van CITROEN now officially sells the UK’s most fuel-efficient small van, following the results of the latest MPG Marathon. The 1.4 HDi diesel-engined Nemo SensoDrive beat the [...]

VOLKSWAGEN certainly has been busy, with a whole host of exciting new models here at Frankfurt. The real headline-grabber is the 39g/km CO2 L1 Concept… a model that can average 189mpg! It’s a 380kg aluminium and carbonfibre special, similar in length to a VW Fox, but only as high as a Lamborghini Murcielago. It seats [...]

VOLKSWAGEN has recommended a takeover of Porsche, following an extraordinary board meeting. The merger of the two companies will see Porsche remain an independent company. Developments come after dramatic, protracted wranglings between the Porsche and Piech families. The departure of former Porsche chief Wendelin Wiedeking has led to the latest moves. ‘In the opinion of [...]

PORSCHE has announced chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking is to step down – making a VW merger more likely. Car Dealer Magazine reported over the weekend that Wiedeking would step aside in the battle between the two brands. He will get an estimated £43m leaving package for doing so. The new boss will be Michael Macht [...]

PORSCHE boss Wendelin Wiedeking is being tipped to resign this Thursday, reports The Sunday Times. It is suggested he will get a massive £86m pay-off for doing so, as part of a contract he agreed would run until 2012. The move, reports the paper, is being made because Porsche is in financial difficulties. Wiedeking carried [...]

VOLKSWAGEN’S latest Golf 6 model has hit the car auction floors for the first time, at Manheim Leicester. The Volkswagen closed sale saw a good result for the new family hatchback, too: it made 90 percent of list. More than 20 early Golf 6 were sold, from a lot of over 350 Volkswagens. Every one [...]

PORSCHE and Volkswagen are to merge – ending lengthy negotiations for one to take over the other. Porsche had wanted to take over VW… which led to an angry Volkswagen threatening to take over Porsche. Now, the two German brands have settled on a merger. The details of this will be finalised after negotiations, set [...]

TROUBLED US car maker Chrysler faces a race against time to secure a bailout, or risk hitting bankruptcy. Sources from the US suggest it has just days to secure funds – as proposed saviour Fiat Auto starts looking to Europe’s GM offshoot, Opel. That wouldn’t stop a Fiat-Chrysler alliance; Fiat would use terms of the [...]