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Company

A new era for Volkswagen innovation in America begins with the Type 20 Concept

Some two decades ago, the Volkswagen Group opened a three-person office in Silicon Valley, looking to tap the region’s burgeoning tech scene for new transportation breakthroughs. Today, that office includes more than 180 engineers, designers, researchers and social scientists – the largest such office outside Germany. Earlier this month, Volkswagen announced a new name and increased responsibility for the site: the Innovation and Engineering Center California. And to demonstrate how it wi

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As the Beetle ends, a look at its impact on design and Volkswagen’s future

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) holds over 200,000 works of art in its collection from around the world that represent the best modern and contemporary art. One of these is a 1959 Volkswagen Beetle, acquired as an example of iconic industrial design and cultural impact.  With approximately 21 million Beetle units built, it was one of the best-selling vehicles globally of the 20th century. With the Beetle’s third generation coming to an end, Volkswagen convened a panel of design experts at

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Community

How pitcher Daniel Norris lives a Volkswagen #vanlife every offseason

Professional baseball pitcher Daniel Norris says music inspired him to live on the road. Growing up in Johnson City, Tenn., Norris was captivated by singer Jack Johnson’s songs about quirky camping adventures in a VW bus. The music left such a strong impression that Norris, at 18 years old, purchased his own 1978 VW Westfalia microbus with money earned from his first professional baseball signing bonus. “One of [Johnson’s] songs talks about him and his wife in London, and they had an o

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Community

How soccer and poetry give kids a new way to compete with America SCORES

Twenty five years ago, an elementary school teacher in Washington, D.C. saw that many of her fifth-graders had nothing to do in the hours after school. She invited them to stay after school and play soccer – and when the weather turned cold, to explore poetry and spoken word performances to keep the group intact. That combination – along with community service – form the pillars of a fast-growing non-profit now known as America SCORES that serves more than 13,000 students a year, at 311 s

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Community

U.S. soccer star Mia Hamm teams up with Volkswagen to inspire young women

Mia Hamm – one of the most important and influential female athletes of all time — dropped in and surprised a girls’ soccer team in Palo Alto, Calif. The five-time U.S. Soccer Player of the year, two-time Olympic gold medalist and Soccer Hall of Famer was invited by Volkswagen of America to crash the girls’ practice, train with the squad and offer advice to the next generation of young female soccer players. Hamm, who retired in 2004 as the leading goal scorer – male or female – in the wo

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Community

Volkswagen Remixes: Seven custom vehicle builds for 2019

Just as the summer starts with a dance remix hit or two, Volkswagen annually takes some of its most popular models and builds special remixed versions to inspire enthusiasts across this country. The 2019 edition of the Volkswagen enthusiast fleet ranges from off-road haulers to ‘90s-themed throwbacks—all built with the sense of fun that’s an essential part of Volkswagen. Created at the Volkswagen Technical Service Center in Auburn Hills, Mich., this Golf Alltrack Combi brings a global loo

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Golf R

One of the first Golf R Spektrums heads north to a true Volkswagen enthusiast

Imagine designing your favorite car in your dream color. Thanks to the new Volkswagen Spektrum Program, Jennifer Jensen was able to turn her vision – a 2019 Volkswagen Golf R in Violet Touch Pearl – into a reality. Jensen was one of the first customers in the United States to receive the 288-hp, all-wheel-drive Volkswagen Golf R in one of the 40 custom-order Spektrum colors. The Auto Exotica magazine publisher and TV host resides in Oshkosh, Wis., and her collection of high performance an

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Magazine

All in the VW Family

Zoey. Gretchen. Henry. Izzy. In any other family, it might be a list of children’s names. But Chris and Erin Scheureman of Oregon aren’t like any other family. They’re Volkswagen enthusiasts who would be hard-pressed to find a family as passionate as they are for their air-cooled models. The oldest VW in their collection of 8 dates from 1959 (Henry, a red-and-white 1959 SO 23 Westfalia). Erin still has the 1966 Beetle (Gretchen) she got in high school, and it’s still running at 368,000 mil

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Community

The magic in the Bus: One woman’s push to restore classic car know-how

Fallon Taylor is not your typical classic-car restorer: she is young, talented and female. She is also an expert at what she considers a “dying trade,” which is repairing and restoring vintage Volkswagen Beetles, Karmann Ghias, and Buses, using old school tools and tricks to regain their former glory. More than half of U.S. drivers are women, but they comprise less than three percent of auto service technicians and mechanics, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The statis

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Community

Tracking down the wild, and wildly colorful, Volkswagen Golf Harlequin

Ross Cupples has been chasing down Golf Harlequin vehicles for decades. Ever since the Volkswagen enthusiast first spotted the color-blocked hatchback in 1996, he has made it his mission to own a complete set of the limited-run car in all four base colors. “I think a lot of people who are into them really like the head-turning aspect of them. It takes a certain kind of person to own one,” says Cupples, a used-car dealer in Belmont, N.H. “When you drive a Harlequin, nobody doesn’t look at

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Community

How a Photographer Draws Inspiration from the Arteon

Just after college, Douglas Sonders traded his classic convertible sports car for some professional-level digital camera equipment to document a tour with a rock band. It’s a gamble that’s still paying off today. From his days on a tour bus, Sonders’ award-winning career as a photographer and filmmaker now spans everything from celebrity magazine-cover portraits to industrial applications for virtual reality. But it was a new challenge to take a Volkswagen Arteon, the striking new flagship th

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Vehicles

The Volkswagen Tarok Concept Asks America if it’s Ready for a Compact Pickup Revival

Forty years ago, the first vehicle designed and assembled by Volkswagen entirely in America rolled out of the factory in Pennsylvania. Officially and simply called "Volkswagen Pickup," the compact truck built from the Rabbit chassis offered an economical alternative to full-size pickups in a time of fluctuating gas prices. Over five years, Volkswagen sold 77,514 Pickup models in the United States and exported several thousand more before the U.S. market shifted away from small trucks. At

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Community

Tailored bodies, Beetle basics: The quirky world of coachbuilt Volkswagens

A one-of-a-kind car celebration calls for a one-of-kind car – or 12. To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first Volkswagen Type 1 sold in the United States, a dozen Beetle-based cars with coachbuilt bodies were presented at the prestigious Amelia Island Concours d’ Elegance. Having a custom body tailor-made for your car was a power move among the wealthy from the start of the auto industry through the 1930s. Following World War II, the European carrozzeria (or karosserie) builders look

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Vehicles

A VW Beetle enthusiast gets her dream car after 12 years of saving

At 15 years old, Tiera Powers vowed she would one day own a 2005 Volkswagen New Beetle GLS convertible with an Aquarius Blue coat. Never losing sight of her goal, she saved for over a decade to buy her dream baby blue Beetle. “I always loved how the Beetle stood out in a crowd … It’s so unique,” said Powers, now 27. Powers was inspired to start her Beetle fund after spotting her ideal ride while out shopping with her mother for a family car in 2006. The Upstate New York teen couldn’t keep

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Community

Meet the VW camper van built from 400,000 LEGO® bricks

One brick at a time. It’s how you likely built LEGO® models when you were a kid, or with your own children. And it’s exactly how two of the world’s best builders were able to construct a life-size version of a Volkswagen Type 2 camper van from LEGO® bricks in just six weeks. Unveiled this week at a travel convention in Munich, the Volkswagen van required about 400,000 pieces, with a final weight of 1,543 lbs. It uses real wheels from a Type 2, and like all Volkswagen camper vans has a pop

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Community

How Warren Miller’s “Face of Winter” presented by Volkswagen is more than a ski movie

Since 1950, ski season in America has been synonymous with one name: Warren Miller. For the 69th installment of the skiing and snowboarding films, Warren Miller Entertainment created “Face of Winter” as a tribute to Miller, who died in January 2018. For the second year, Volkswagen of America was the presenting sponsor of the film, which focused on veterans and new athletes as they pay tribute to the legend. We talked with Josh Haskins, producer of the film, about capturing the spirit of adven

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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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Community

Volkswagen helps America’s ski and snowboard instructors get you on the slopes

With winter in full swing, thousands of people head to the mountains every weekend to enjoy their first taste of snow sports, and to level up their skills. Helping them at every step are the 32,000 members of the Professional Ski Instructors of America and the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (PSIA-AASI) – the world’s largest organization dedicated to skiing and snowboarding. And for the third year in a row, Volkswagen will help America’s ski and snowboard instructors get where t

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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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