Here’s the new Touareg spotted in Delhi by reader Lakshay Mohan Gupta earlier this week.

The new Touareg is nothing new to IAB readers as right from April last year we’ve been talking about it. For some reason Volkswagen chose not to launch it at the Auto Expo. The price of the new model with the V6 diesel engine is expected to start just above 42 lakh rupees.

Our friends at many Volkswagen dealerships tell us that they’ve suggested the company to price the five-seat Touareg attractively as alternatives from other German SUVs have brand power that can’t be matched.

The CBU-route Touareg uses a 3-liter V6 turbodiesel engine that produces 240bhp/550Nm.

Volkswagen will launch the new Touareg very soon as select members from the media were recently invited to test the off-road capabilities of the vehicle.

2011 Volkswagen Touareg video from Delhi

They first covered cars on the streets with VW Up! car covers. They then mounted an example scaling a building in France. This campaign shows the compactness of the vehicle in a manner never seen before.

If they had used the rugged-looking Cross Up!, customers may have believed its gradability is 90%, thankfully the marketeers were quick to sense that possibility and used a three-door model.

Aren’t these Germans are ready to go to any heights to get your attention?

[Source - MarketingFAQ.net]

However, the VW Up! is only available with a petrol motor which may work against its favor as Indian auto market is dominated by diesel cars.

However, VW has confirmed that the Up! will get a diesel engine very soon. This is not the normal TDI that we find in the Polo and Fabia.

In fact, it’s a whole new engine developed specifically with fuel efficiency in mind. Essentially, it’s a compact twin-cylinder TDI turbodiesel engine, displacing 800cc and delivering 47hp/121Nm developed for the Concept XL1.

The Concept XL1 was showcased at the 2012 New Delhi Auto Expo. VW claims that the Concept XL1 can squeeze 110 km from a single liter of fuel. This magical figure is obtained thanks to a twin-cylinder turbodiesel engine paired with an electric motor and seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and an overall weight of just 765 kg.

VW plans to put the XL1 in production by 2013. It will not be an economy car or mass produced as its built using superlight, supercostly materials. It’s more of a showpiece like the Bugatti Veyron except its on the other end of the spectrum.

However, the XL1 will donate its engine to the VW UP! which you might be able to book from your nearest VW dealer.

And don’t expect the Up! to give you 110km/liter!

[Source: MotorAuthority.com]

Shanghai-VW has cloned the latest generation Passat, made it smaller and is introducing it as the Volkswagen Lavida in the Chinese market. Everything from the car’s daylight opening, tail light, kink on the C-Pillar to the car’s headlights are similar to the Passat (NMS).  Volkswagen has many tie-ups with local Chinese auto makers but the latest Lavida’s development used very few inputs from Wolfsburg.

Ford has presented the B-Max five-seat MPV on the internet. The public will see it in flesh for the first time at next month’s Geneva Motor Show. The B-Max is the MPV counterpart of the EcoSport SUV. It will make it to India by mid-decade with a longer wheelbase. The bodywork, front-end and rear are likely to stay similar on the extended wheelbase version.

Renault is finalizing last minute details on the fourth generation B-Segment Clio as it gets ready to present the vehicle in October’s Paris Motor Show. The new Clio will be the most stylish of generations as Renault is trying to connect emotionally with its would-be buyers. A 900cc, turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine is said to be the driving force on the Clio 4. Isn’t that engine ideal for the Indian market as Nissan could also benefit from it?

Yes, we are talking about the MQB platform from VW which will underpin pretty much everything the VW group has to offer.

The MQB or Modular Transverse Matrix platform will unify all the products that fall under the VW group. The platform is so important for VW that they call it – “the backbone of light and safe cars.” It is an extremely flexible platform that can be stretched, or shortened to fit anything from a Golf to a Passat.

The biggest advantage of this platform is the uniform position of all motors (diesels, plug-in hybrids, electrics, gas engines) and transmissions. This will provide an unbelievable efficiency and flexibility to the VW group. Also, the company can now manufacturer VW, Skoda, Seat and Audi models on the same assembly line thus gaining massive economies of scale.

This platform will underpin almost 3.5 million small and mid-sized cars a year. Thus, VW plans to spend billions of dollars to upgrade its plants to the MQB platform. This will lower production costs 20 percent and cut assembly times 30 percent.

The MQB platform is a foundation for the next generation Polo, Vento, Jetta, Laura, Passat, Superb, etc. Almost 40 models in the VW group will use this platform in the coming years.

[Source: AutoExpress.co.uk]

The Jetta was launched with a TDI engine and so was the Passat. The latter had BlueMotion technologies that save fuel and reduce tail pipe emissions. However it is being reported in the media that VW India is also planning to launch the petrol version of both the cars very soon.

The Jetta with a TSI badge has been caught testing a number of times on the Pune roads. Our friends at BSMotoring claims that the German giant is planning to increase the market share of the Passat by launching the petrol variant in February.

It will be powered 1.8L TSI engine generating 160 bhp and 250 NM of peak torque. This motor is already present in Skoda Laura and Superb. Expect the sticker price to be a little less than 23 lakhs for the entry petrol variant.

The VW Jetta petrol with a 1.4 TSI motor is also due for launch very soon. VW India will club the two launches together.

[Source: BSMotoring.com]

It will be powered 1.8L TSI engine generating 160 bhp and 250 NM of peak torque. This motor is already present in Skoda Laura and Superb

The ‘Match’ models have traditionally meant more for less. They are popular in the UK and this year, VW is using the same concept in Germany. The Match edition can be bought on the Polo, Golf, Golf Plus (crossover), Golf Variant (station wagon), Jetta, Scirocco (premium hatchback), Sharan and Touran (MPV models) which saves Polo customers, believe it or not, 2.15 lakh rupees when the options are added individually!

On the Polo, the Match edition offers 15-inch Stratford alloy wheels, ‘Victory’ striped interiors, leather trimmed steering wheel, aluminium inserts on the dashboard, rain sensing wipers, park assist system, door mirrors finished in glossy black, chrome tipped front grille and ‘Match’ badges.

There are plenty of engine options to choose from. Customers can opt for the 1.2-litre 59 and 69bhp, 1.4 84bhp, 1.2 TSI 89 and 104bhp petrol engines, and 1.2-litre 74bhp, 1.6 89 and 104bhp TDI units. An LPG variant producing 81bhp is also listed.

If you are not satisfied with the equipment levels, Volkswagen offers much more as optional extras. The ‘Match Plus’ package includes 16-inch ‘Mistral’ alloy wheels, reading lights, make-up lights on the sun visors, sunroof, locking alloy wheel bold and space saver spare wheel.

The Match editions start at 9.45 lakh rupees (for the 1.2L 59bhp variant) and stretches till a whopping 12.69 lakh rupees for the top-end model with a 1.2 TSI engine paired to a DSG gearbox. Airbags and ABS are standard features on the German Polo.

[Source - PoloDriver.com]

The Golf has yet again proved that practicality tied together with fun can lead to impressive results. VW India has been spied testing the Golf in Pune but once told IAB that for its price, Indian customer is looking for a sedan.

Having won the highly prestigious World Car of the Year award, the 6th generation Polo notched up impressive numbers in 2011. 356,490 units of the new Polo were delivered to customers in Europe. Throughout 2011, the Polo was a constant feature in the ten best selling cars, categorized monthly, in Britain. Here in India the Polo and Vento proved to be a deadly combination with the duo notching up 74k+ units.

Volkswagen has more reasons to rejoice as a similar kind of event was observed in South Africa with the Polo Vivo (last generation model) which ended December as South Africa’s top-selling passenger car of the month. The Vivo took second place in November and selling it has been a very rewarding experience for VW South Africa since start of sales in March 2010.