Community

#TBT: Remembering Bruce Meyers, creator of the Meyers Manx

Bruce Meyers lived the life most people only read about. A surfer, inventor, artist, war hero and racecar driver, Meyers distilled the essence of 1960s Southern California car culture with the invention of his Meyers Manx, a Volkswagen Beetle-based buggy that went where the pavement ended. Last week, Meyers passed away at the age of 94. A creator of the race which would come to be known as the famed Baja 1000, Bruce was an energizing soul of car culture until the very end, living and celebrat

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Magazine

6 winter driving tips from VW pro driver Tanner Foust

  Tanner Foust has some words of wisdom for any Volkswagen owner driving during the cold-weather months: “Respect the conditions.” As a professional racing driver for Volkswagen, and a stunt driver for film and television, he’s in a position to know. Among his many accomplishments, Tanner is a three-time U.S. champion in the sport of Rallycross and a two-time winner of the Formula Drift championship. He’s mastered the art of controlling cars through all types of slippery condition

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Enthusiast Event

The Volkswagen 2021 Enthusiast Fleet kicks off with the Blue Lagoon Jetta GLI concept

Volkswagen unveiled its first of several enthusiast concept vehicles for 2021 – a Jetta GLI that revives the spirit of the rare Mk4 Blue Lagoon GLI. The Jetta GLI has been a sportier iteration of the Jetta since 1984, offering performance that approached that of the Golf GTI with all the cargo-hauling benefits of a sedan. In 2002, Volkswagen released the GTI 337, a special edition vehicle with only 1,500 models produced. Outfitted with 18-inch BBS RC wheels, RECARO seats and a Votex body

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Vehicles

Why American drivers prefer monochrome vehicles – and why that might change soon

If you drove down an American street and looked only at the new vehicles, you might be forgiven for thinking you’re in a black-and-white movie. Last year, U.S. car buyers chose white more often than any other color, followed closely by silver and black, according to experts in automotive paints. That’s been the trend for a decade, part of a longer evolution toward muted shades in automotive exteriors stretching back 70 years. It’s one that Volkswagen experts see as likely to continue – wi

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Innovation

How Volkswagen Automotive Cloud will help shape the connected car of tomorrow

Seattle may not be known as a hotbed for the U.S. automotive industry, but that’s changing, thanks to the increasing importance of cloud computing for connected and autonomous vehicles. In recent years, Seattle’s nickname of “Cloud City” has not only referred to the weather, but for the industry built around some of the best cloud companies and experts in the world. That’s why Volkswagen Group chose the city to help shape the future of connected vehicles with the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud.

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Vehicles

How owning an electric vehicle can save money over the long haul

Electric vehicles like the Volkswagen ID.4 offer a lot of benefits to their owners, such as zero tailpipe-emission driving and home charging. But there’s often been questions about the cost of EVs, as battery technology remains slightly more expensive than combustion engines. The truth is that while some of those differences exist, the cost of owning an EV has fallen in recent years. With Volkswagen building a global platform to support dozens of EV models worldwide, the ID.4 can offer all th

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Vehicles

#TBT: The Volkswagen Cabriolet, the ‘80s definition of fun in the sun

Once upon a time on American roads, convertibles were an everyday sight. From the ‘50s through the late ‘70s, convertible models were often the fun, stylish choice, even if life with a fabric-topped vehicle was sometimes a bit louder and less rain-proof than having a steel roof over your head. The original Beetle Convertible was a huge part of that trend, with 332,000 sold worldwide. As a result, when the Beetle was replaced by the first-generation Golf — known as the Rabbit in the United Sta

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Vehicles

Visit these five museums to see rare and vintage Volkswagens

Automotive museums across the U.S. have helped preserve some of the world’s rarest Volkswagens and feature everything — from a never-been-titled 1974 Karmann Ghia to a 1966 Volkswagen Type 2 Bus that is a piece of civil rights history. With expansive collections available to the public, anyone can admire these classic cars. Whether these five museums are pit stops or your destination, their collections of vintage Volkswagens are not to be missed. 1. LeMay – America’s Car Museum | Tacom

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Company

Join us in the electric future, and drive bigger for the planet

Today, we reveal the first electric SUV for Volkswagen in America – the ID.4 EV. While it’s new to you, it’s something we’ve been working on for a few years now, and we’re proud to finally share it with the world. But it’s not just the launch of a car – it’s our biggest step yet on our new path to change the future of driving. Our past has fueled our future and changed the way we operate as a company. It’s made us even more committed to a more sustainable future, one in which we plan to reduc

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Community

#TBT: The Volkswagen ‘Beach Bomb,’ the world’s most valuable Hot Wheels

Bruce Pascal was seven years old when Hot Wheels first hit stores in 1968. “It’s hard to explain the craze today, but Hot Wheels was huge. All of my friends were saving up to buy all the Hot Wheels they could,” he said. Hot Wheels soon became the number one toy for boys, and Pascal spent his childhood racing and collecting the die-cast cars. When he grew up, Pascal put his Hot Wheels in a cigar box at his mother’s house, where they collected dust for almost 30 years. His passion for classi

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Company

Why battery power will drive the future of transportation

Chances are you might have at least two lithium-ion batteries on your body right now – one on your wrist, and one in the phone in your pocket. You may have multiple more if you’re holding a car key fob or have a pacemaker or any other electronic device. But do you know how those batteries actually work? For a technology at the heart of modern life, batteries remain something of a mystery. While humans have used batteries for hundreds of years, it’s only within the past decade that the scie

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Company

RSVP for an EV SUV with a $100 reservation for the Volkswagen ID.4 electric vehicle

In good times or bad, people need their vehicles. Over the past few months, Volkswagen of America has worked with dealers on a new shopping and buying experience so our customers can shop from home. Next month, Volkswagen will unveil its first electric SUV, the ID.4 — and a new system that allows customers to reserve their car. The Volkswagen reservation platform will make its debut on Sept. 23rd, immediately following the reveal of the all-new, zero-tailpipe emission Volkswagen ID.4 electric

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Company

How Volkswagen is helping diverse suppliers find their footing

Automakers may be fierce competitors on the showroom floors and production lines, but in one critical area they share a common goal: working to equip diverse suppliers to help build the future of electric mobility and autonomous cars. The Automotive Industry Group (AIG)—a coalition of industry competitors including Volkswagen Group of America—works to develop and train suppliers in advanced technologies so that minority-, women-, veteran- and LGBTQ+-owned businesses have a chance to compe

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Owners

#TBT: Volkswagens tie grandkids to their family legacies

Eric Shoemaker had no real interest in cars. As a designer and entrepreneur, he primarily took an interest in hobbies like woodworking, furniture restoration, and photography. Today, however, he not only owns a business with his wife Amanda that restores air-cooled German engine components, but his website (1967beetle.com) is a go-to resource for tech tips, classifieds, and Volkswagen stories from around the globe. And what he attributes as the catalyst for his newfound passion is a 1967 Bee

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Company

Volkswagen marks National Wildlife Day with Chattanooga preservation efforts

When Volkswagen built the Chattanooga plant, the company pledged to restore nearby wetlands in an effort to help protect local wildlife and preserve the natural environment. In the first several years after the plant’s opening, Volkswagen successfully restored over 40 acres of biodiverse wetland through regular testing, monitoring and studies. Today, the total wetland area spans over 88 acres and is home to 15 endangered animals, hundreds of species of wildlife, including 167 species of b

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Community

#TBT: One owner, 42 Volkswagen vehicles, endless memories

You always remember your first car. For Taylor Bryant, that first car – an old Beetle – drew the template of a life-long connection to Volkswagen that has grown to more than 40 vehicles over the years. “I’ve always liked European cars and had a soft spot for Volkswagens,” Bryant said. His affection for VW began as a kid in Charleston, South Carolina. Bryant would ride his bike to the local Volkswagen dealership and admire the latest models while chatting with technicians. Six years lat

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Community

How “van-lifers” embrace authentic and adventurous lifestyles

Over the past decade, a growing movement of van dwellers have ditched their cubicles for the open road, living out of their vehicles and documenting their journeys as they travel the world. It has become a lifestyle, online aesthetic and career — one both Kristen Bor and Linda Romero have embraced. When they met, Bor and Romero were studying for their master’s degrees in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California at Santa Barbara. The now full-time bloggers wen

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Chattanooga

#TBT: Volkswagen Chattanooga Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary of Volkswagen Academy

In the early 2000s, Volkswagen operated several successful apprenticeship programs in Germany and, because of its success abroad, the company decided to bring it stateside. The apprenticeship program, one of the core programs of the Volkswagen Academy, officially launched with the opening of the Chattanooga Plant in 2010 and has since trained over 100 apprentices. This year, as the program marked its 10th anniversary, 28 apprentices successfully completed the program and transitioned into

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Community

How to give your vehicle the detailing TLC it needs at home

When shelter-in-place orders took effect in cities across the U.S. this spring, a hobby renaissance began. Images of people comfort baking, knitting and puzzling flooded social media, along with car enthusiasts showing off their new DIY car detailing projects. “Our business was doing some doomsday planning as most small businesses were at the start of the pandemic, waiting for the wall to close in and it just never did,” said Jared Toops, General Manager and Director of E-Commerce at Car

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Accessories

Six popular Volkswagen car accessories for summer fun

In this pandemic summer, Americans have hit the roads to get away, with AAA predicting an estimated 683 million road trips from July to September. That has also driven many owners to buy accessories that they may have overlooked until now. Robert Gal, a senior manager of performance and accessories at Volkswagen, says the company has seen a “really big, year-over-year spike” in sales of its road trip-related accessories. Here’s a look at the Volkswagen accessories that have seen some of the l

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Company

Putting electric vehicle charging to a high-temp test

Whether in your phone, your watch or a next-generation electric vehicle, batteries can respond differently to temperature extremes. And when you’re about to build millions of electric vehicles worldwide, engineers want to research what could happen when plugging an EV into a 350-kW DC fast charger on the hottest days. That’s why Volkswagen Group has spent the past year building one of the most advanced EV charging test sites in the world at the Arizona Proving Grounds. The 50 charging station

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