Volkswagen Golf 2006 News

One of the headline acts will be the French star of recent independent crash tests - the Citroen C6 - which has been acclaimed as the safest car yet tested by the New Car Assessment program.The C6, set to go on sale in Australia by the middle of the year, is the fi rst car to earn the maximum four stars from Euro NCAP for its pedestrian safety rating, as well as a maximum fi ve stars for occupant protection.It's also won an award as the world's most beautiful large sedan.The C6 is offering two V6 engines - a 2.7-litre 150kW turbo diesel or a three-litre 155kW petrol engine; both drive the front wheels via a six-speed automatic gearbox.Alfa Romeo's 156 range brought the Italian brand back to the fore in Australia with fl air and passion. It's replacement, the 159, continues in that tradition. It will offer more modern drivetrains - and even a V6 with Australian roots - when it hits the market mid year.Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and the Alfa Romeo Styling Centre, the new car will come in both front and all-wheel drive versions, with the Q4 permanent four-wheel drive system using three diffs to split drive.The Alfa Romeo 159 is the first of a whole family of new Alfas due over the next two years, including the Brera.Lexus will be the fi rst car maker to offer a luxury hybrid model, with its GS petrol-electric hybrid offering plenty of performance with the thirst and emissions of a two-litre.The Toyota-owned luxury brand also has a hybrid version of the RX SUV but the company's stand in Adelaide will feature the RX350 - which sees the looks get a nip and tuck, with a new more-powerful and more fuel-effi cient engine beneath its sculpted snout.When Volkswagen went back to the factoryowned subsidiary, they announced high hopes of surpassing 20,000 units by now. They haven't got there yet but with more than 15,000 sales last year the German car maker is on the right track.The prestige segment will see the Passat return with a vengeance this year, with direct-injection two-litre petrol and turbo-diesel engines, or a V6 petrol engine, on offer in either sedan or wagon body style.The sales have had a boost from the new Golf and the newly-introduced (and keenly-priced) Jetta, giving the German car maker plenty of ammunition to work with.Peugeot will give Adelaide show-goers a look at its new 407 Coupe, a sleek, powerful and attractive 2+2 that will be offered in petrol and diesel models on sale in Australia as the show opens.The coupe will be offered with a three-litre 155kW/290Nm V6 petrol engine with either a sixspeed manual gearbox or new six-speed automatic transmission for $65,990 and $68,190 respectively.The sleek Pug will also be offered with a 2.7-litre V6 HDi twin-turbo diesel offering 150Kw and 440Nm with a six-speed automatic gearbox as standard. It will be priced at $72,500.Porsche chose to introduce the Australian motoring media to the Cayman S in the countryside surrounding Adelaide and its fi tting the German brand returns to the motor show this year with the same model.The Cayman S is more than a Boxster with a roof, sharing inlet systems and some other nice bits with the 911.The bulk of the DNA traces back to the midengined Boxster, which gives the two-seater Cayman the same basic powerplant - although slightly larger - plus the superb road manners and balance that has made the convertible a popular option among Porsche buyers.Chrysler has returned to the Australian market with plenty of enthusiasm and some interesting product, the latest and most powerful example of that statement being the 300C sedan.Soon to be followed by diesel and wagon variants, the V8 300C has serious visual impact and packs plenty of equipment to take on the big locally-built luxury sedans.The Chrysler has the added attraction of displacement on demand, which drops fourcylinders from use to save fuel when light throttle loads are required.

Seen as a crucial gap-filler for GM Holden's line-up and a head-to-head competitor with Ford's market-dominating Territory, the Captiva is a mid-sized machine, which will launch with a 3.2-litre Holden V6 engine.It is expected to be on sale in Australia in the second half of this year with diesel and four-cylinder engines on the horizon.Details of the local Captiva are still a little sketchy, but GM Holden confirms it will be available as a five- and seven-seater with an "active" (part-time) four-wheel-drive system, which feeds on-demand drive to rear wheels.GM Holden chairman Denny Mooney says there was extensive Australian input into the Captiva project that "covers the outside, inside and underneath to ensure it looks, feels and drives as a Holden should"."This has been a missing link in our product line-up," Mooney says.The Geneva show was the launching pad for new models ranging from production-ready family cars to exotic concepts.Saab stole a good deal of the limelight with its Aero X concept, which not only shows a new life in the Swedish manufacturer's design department but also highlights a new direction for green technology.Fitted with a BioPower turbo V6 engine that produces 298kW, it is being trumpeted as a hero car for the bio-fuel movement.The Aero X is also a looker and Saab has tapped its aircraft roots to add a fighter-style cockpit canopy which does away with doors, opening windows and even windscreen pillars. "It represents our vision of what a high-performance car from Saab could look like," says Anthony Lo, the director of advanced design for General Motors Europe. The Concept A on the VW stand is a good example of an idea getting very close to a production future.Rumours abound about a Golf-based small SUV under development at Volkswagen and the Concept A fits that scenario to a T. The concept combines a sleek coupe-style silhouette with the raised stance of an SUV.The drive train is VW's tried-and-tested 4MOTION system while the engine is at the cutting edge of the company's combined use of turbo and supercharger technology. A production schedule for the Concept A could become reality in months.Kia's sleek SUV concept, the Cee'd, is based on the company's C-segment passenger model which start production in Slovakia in December. European Design Centre chief designer Gregory Guillaume says the concept was "the starting point for the new design DNA for Kia". Cee'd incorporates a mixture of designs from the Sorento SUV to the small Picanto.On the more extreme end of the SUV scale sits niche Dutch manufacturer Spyker's D12 Super SUV. Powered by a W12 engine the Spyker retains the marque's trademark sportscar lines but sits on seriously puffed suspension. Staying in a luxury vein, Rolls Royce has again produced an "experimental" car in the 101EX. The car has been hand-built to "explore a potential design direction for a future coupe model".The 101EX uses the same lightweight aluminium construction that was developed for the Phantom, although the body is shorter by 240mm.Ferrari has unveiled its replacement for the 575M Maranello in the shape of the 599GTB. The Modena maestros have not spared the horses in the sleek-bodied 599 using the 485kW 6.0-litre V12 derived from the Enzo supercar powerplant and already in use in the 612. With its lightweight aluminium chassis and body, the 599 GTB promises to be an absolute rocket. It will be on sale in Europe about the middle of the year.GM has shown it hasn't given up on the idea of a successful soft-top model with the unveiling of the Opel GT. There is no indication of how far through the GM family the GT will spread but indications are that it will remain left-hand drive only.Mazda has revealed its Mazda3 MPS, following the success of its Mazda6 MPS and continuing on its promise to have a performance car in every model.Unlike its larger sibling, the 3MPS will not get an all-wheel drive platform, and will stay front-wheel drive. That should make the promised 186kW output an interesting test for Mazda's suspension engineers.It hasn't taken long for Alfa Romeo to follow up its Brera sedan with an even more delicious spider version of the car.The Brera Spider will be in production before the middle of the year.

If you mention the words diesel and engine to most people they trigger memories of noisy trucks and buses that crawl down the road and belch black smoke from their tails. Or they think of an overweight four-wheel-drive heading into the outback. But times are changing - and fast - in the diesel world.A new generation of high-tech, clean-burning diesel engines is coming on fast in everything from compact cars to luxury limousines and new-age four-wheel-drives. And eventually there will also be diesel-electric hybrid vehicles in Australia.Take a walk around the motor show and you will see almost all themajor brands have a high-profile and high-tech diesel engine.They are coming thanks to cleaner fuels with a lower sulphur content, as well as developments on what are called common-rail and direct-injection diesels - which deliver fuel at higher pressures and with better control to boost combustion.Turbos also get huge gains from low-pressure turbocharging, so most of the hero motors are turbodiesels. The old days of glow plugs, which took ages to warm then fire the engine, are also gone.Carmakers are also attracted to the massive torque available from diesel engines, which means strong acceleration at low revs, and the fuel economy benefits, which have become more important as petrol prices have risen.Diesel power has become so impressive that Audi, which is looking to stretch its domination of the classic Le Mans 24-Hour race, has fitted a turbocharged diesel engine to the R10 racer it will use in France in June. The motor show will highlight the arrival of several leading-edge diesels.BMW has its first diesel sedan for Australia, the 530d. It is a genuineluxury car and comes with impressive performance of 160kW and 480Nm of torque, aswell as fuel consumption of just 7.5 litres per 100km. But BMW is also pushing harder and will have its X5 and X3 all-wheel-drive diesels as well as a 320d - a huge hit in Europe and potentially BMW's biggest-selling diesel car - along with a 120d for a preview at the show.The Volkswagen group is big on diesel and Audi has just introduced a fresh 2-litre diesel A4 and even plans tointroduce a high-performance 3-litre diesel in the A4 later this year, as well asconsidering a diesel version of its A8 limo.Not surprisingly, Audi's turbodiesel hero at the show is the giant new Q7 all-wheel-drive wagon, which will be availablein October with a diesel.Volkswagen will have its diesel twins, the latest Polo and Golf, along for the party at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre and intends to put diesel power into its upcoming Jetta and the new Beetle before the end of 2006.There is also a chance that Honda could preview the Accord Euro diesel it has developed for Europe.Even Jaguar has jumped on the diesel bandwagon, fitting a high-tech dieselengine to its luxurious S-Type sedan.The $101,950 S-Type diesel runs a 2.7-litre diesel with twin-turbochargers, whichbump power to 153kW, and has 435Nm of torque.Jaguar does not expect to sell too many but says that some customers will enjoythe new engine. "We know other luxury brands are doingthis but we are yet to see diesel onpeople's radar when they are shopping for a luxury brand above $50,000," says Jaguar spokesman Todd Hallenbeck.Still, the biggest problem for any car company is getting customers to take a taste test. The task for carmakers is to get customers to test drive the new dieselmodels."We know that anyone who drives one (an S-Type diesel) will want it," Hallenbeck says."We are not just talking about people with fuel economy in mind. We are talking about a $100,000 car here; these people can afford to buy any type of fuel they want."This diesel offers great performance, very, veryclean emissions and, by the way, it also returns fuel economy of 8 litresper 100km."Diesel power will also be coming from two of the pioneers in Australia, Peugeot and Mercedes-Benz, with the French company even doing a turbodiesel for the sleek 407 Coupe, which is its stand star.The two-door model is available with a 3-litre V6 petrol or the dieselengine.Mercedes-Benz has four new diesels this year in the latest R-Class, the compact B-Class, the mid-range E-Class wagon and its four-wheel-drive hero, the upcoming GL.