Vehicles

The new 2019 Volkswagen Jetta GLI marks 35 years of four-door fun

The formula has been simple from the start: Pair a four-door, affordable compact sedan designed for everyday usability with the engine and handling prowess of a hot hatchback. Volkswagen first deployed this formula in 1984 when it created the first Jetta GLI, and the 2019 Jetta GLI unveiled today proves the old recipe still has a kick. Redesigned with American drivers in mind, the new GLI has more power, more technology and more handling prowess than its predecessor, in a package that’s withi

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Community

A Beetle owner reunites with her first car after 22 years

If you’ve ever wondered what happened to your first car, or considered trying to track down the one that got away, Amanda Dorset can tell you what it feels like to chase down a memory. Two decades ago as a teenager, Dorset bought, restored and sold her first car, a 1975 Volkswagen La Grande Bug. A few months ago, Dorset was able to reunite with her Beetle thanks to a little help from the Internet. “It’s the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me,” Dorset says. Raised in Vic

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Company

Next challenge for VW’s electric race car? Breaking a Nürburgring record

It’s called the Green Hell for a reason. The color half of the nickname for the Nürburgring Nordschelife race track comes from the German forests surrounding it on the Eifel Mountains, where it was built in the 1920s. The second part comes from the sheer challenge of driving the 12.9-mile track at speed – a cavalcade of at least 75 curves, bumps and undulating surfaces. It was so dangerous that it stopped being used as a Grand Prix race track after the 1976 German GP, but has served as an uno

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Vehicles

Building a sportier sedan: 35 years of the VW Jetta GLI

This year marks the 35th anniversary of Volkswagen’s Jetta GLI – a performance version of VW’s best-selling sedan. Over the past three decades, multiple generations of the Jetta GLI have delivered an affordable, family-friendly package to automotive enthusiasts. Ahead of unveiling the 2019 Jetta GLI at the Chicago Auto Show, let’s take a quick look back at the car’s history. The Jetta GLI first arrived in the United States for the 1984 model year. After the successful launch of the Golf G

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Community

Restoring Annie the Beetle for Her Owner of 50 Years and Counting

Kathleen Brooks remembers buying her first new car. She was 21 years old in December of 1966 when she went to a Volkswagen dealer in Riverside, California, and left with a 1967 VW Beetle in ruby red, complete with white vinyl interior, upgraded exhaust and all of 53 horsepower. Total price: $2,300, with a loan of $28.87 per month. Because of its red coat, Kathleen quickly named her car “Annie.” Soon the miles began to accumulate, as she drove around southern California, from San Francisco to

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Community

Volkswagen kicks off with U.S. Soccer, aiming to become America’s preeminent sport

Around the world, more people watch and play soccer than any other sport. In the United States, soccer has steadily gained fans and players over the past few decades; it’s now the third-largest participatory sport in the nation, and its popularity among people under 35 years old is surpassed only by American football. Today, Volkswagen of America announced it was taking a major step to bolster soccer in America by becoming the presenting sponsor of U.S. Soccer for the next four years – su

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Company

Volkswagen plans to produce EVs in America starting in 2022

The future of personal transportation is electric, and for Volkswagen, building the vehicles of the future means expanding in the United States. Volkswagen announced today it plans to expand its Chattanooga factory to build the next generation of electric vehicles – a investment of about $800 million that anticipates creating about 1,000 jobs in Tennessee and elsewhere in the United States. The Chattanooga plant will become the North American hub for Volkswagen’s all-electric vehicles bui

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Company

How the Volkswagen Apprenticeship Program makes an impact with jobs

Across the country, more than 530,000 people are chasing the dream of a career through an apprenticeship program. These programs combine on-the-job training with classroom work to help enable tech-focused workers to graduate with in-demand skills – and often, a job offer waiting for them. The Volkswagen Apprenticeship Program began at the Chattanooga plant in 2010, training workers who graduate certified to work in any Volkswagen plant worldwide. To mark National Apprenticeship Week, we asked

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Vehicles

Volkswagen I.D. BUZZ CARGO: The electric van that could deliver the future

As electric vehicles evolve, there will be a need for them to adapt to all the shapes and sizes of vehicles we have today. No type of vehicle may be more ready for an all-electric future than delivery vans – and Volkswagen has an idea to deliver that future to your neighborhood in the I.D. BUZZ CARGO concept. While it’s based on the I.D. BUZZ concept, the I.D. BUZZ CARGO has several major updates throughout to transform it into an all-electric workhorse with autonomous driving capability. Lon

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Electric

Meet the Volkswagen platform designed to spawn 10 million electric vehicles

It’s not often that you get to see the future of transportation in such nuts-and-bolts detail. But this isn’t just any future vehicle chassis. In German, it’s called the “Modulare E-Antriebs-Baukasten,” which provides the source of its acronym at Volkswagen: MEB. Translated, its name means “modular electric-drive toolkit,” and it’s designed to be the basic building block of the Volkswagen brand’s electric transportation future. The MEB will form the basis of the future anticipated Volk

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Community

Taking the VW van life road to cosplay adventure

For many people, the thought of quitting a job and traveling the United States sounds like a dream. For Justin and Megan Webb, it’s a reality. Last year, the Tennessee couple decided they had nothing to lose by pursuing a passion. They sold almost everything they had, donated what they could, and kept only a box each of sentimental belongings. They then traveled to Boise, Idaho, where they picked up the vehicle they would live in and drive across the country—a 1984 Volkswagen Vanagon West

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Beetle

With the 2019 Volkswagen Beetle Final Edition, we say #ByeByeBeetle

It’s official: The 2019 Volkswagen Beetle will be the last production year of the iconic Volkswagen Beetle, exactly seven decades after it first came to the United States in 1949. But the Beetle will be getting a year-long sendoff, beginning with special Beetle Final Edition models for 2019 and continuing over the next several months. “The loss of the Beetle after three generations, over nearly seven decades, will evoke a host of emotions from the Beetle’s many devoted fans,” said Hinrich

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Company

Exploring the VW and MoMA partnership for art education

At its best, modern art challenges our way of seeing the world around us. It’s that sense of innovation, of searching for new thoughts and ways of thinking, that has led Volkswagen to partner with The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 (MoMA) since 2011. Together, Volkswagen and MoMA have given life to an array of museum exhibitions, educational opportunities and special event programming over the past seven years. Volkswagen became lead sponsor of MoMA Education in 2015, supporting e

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Vehicles

200 MPH and more: Breaking a speed record with a modified 2019 Volkswagen Jetta

All it takes to modify  a sedan to be able to push past 200 mph is to acknowledge its limits – and then find a way to break them without breaking the car itself. That’s where Tom Habrzyk’s talents come to life. “The power levels required to set records are very high,” explains Habrzyk, chief executive officer of THR Manufacturing, “so to get to those power levels from the drivetrain, we have to basically overcome some of the failure points that would inhibit us from safely reaching high speed

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Community

Five races, five podiums, one championship: Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross in 2018

When Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross launched in 2014, the series was a new experience for many Americans; fast-paced, timed motorsports action on closed courses that mixed pavement and dirt with spectacular jumps and "joker laps." So was the race car, a competition-bred version of the Volkswagen Beetle with nearly 600 hp, all wheel drive and a zero-to-60 mph time faster than most open-wheel race cars. Five years later, Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross and drivers Scott Speed and Tanner Foust ha

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Vehicles

What do you call the game of spotting a VW Beetle?

First: It is the official position of Volkswagen of America that no one should throw or receive a punch (or even a tap for that matter) simply upon seeing a Volkswagen Beetle. Volkswagen does not condone any form of violence, especially over an icon of the peace-and-love era like the Beetle. That said, it is well known that generations of bored American children on the road have invented and handed down a game around the Beetle. But there’s also a lingering debate that has never been sett

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Magazine

The Legendary Rabbit Name Makes a 2019 Comeback

It was fast. It was nimble. It was fun. And it had attitude. The original 1983 Mk1 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI sported red plaid seats, snowflake wheels, and a golf ball shift knob. It helped create a brand new category of sports car; the hot hatch. Now, the Rabbit is back for 2019 as a special edition model — the GTI Rabbit Edition is the first GTI to pay tribute to the Rabbit heritage since the 2003 20th Anniversary vehicle. Here’s why we should all be excited. Enthusiasm builds The GTI has

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