Volkswagen Golf 2010 News

The hot hatch hero is being previewed at the Paris motor show today as the regular seventh-generation Golf closes on showrooms.Carsguide drives the Golf for the first time next week and will have a drive report as the engine is cooling in Corsica.The GTi has been a huge star in Australia and the previous model created a waiting list that stretched for more than 18 months during the early part of its reign.The MK7 GTi is only being called a concept in Paris but it's a car that looks ready to go, based on leaked pictures on the eve of the show opening.Without official confirmation, it appears the GTi will have around 160 kiloWatts from a turbocharged 2-litre engine coupled to six-speed manual and DSG gearboxes.Visually, the car has big alloys, red brake callipers, twin tailpipes, a rear diffuser and small spoiler at the back of the roof.More detail as it comes to hand.

The first Volkswagen Golf GTI in 1976 had a kerb weight of 810kg, but over the past 36 years it has stacked on 570kg and now weighs in at 1380kg. The GTI of today is a far cry from the tiny pared three-door that spearheaded the nameplate. But Volkswagen is working on a limited edition that will retain all the technology but get 200kg closer to the lighter weight of its ancestor - and the extra agility promised with that. The Volkswagen Golf GTI Carbon will - logically, with that name - rely on carbon-fibre for the bonnet and roof, with the latter a strong laminate wrapping a steel core, according to a report by Autocar in the UK. Aluminium will also be put to work to lighten the rear floor pan, front bulkhead and windscreen frame - with the part-alloy platform destined to be used in future hybrid and electric versions of the Golf. The Golf GTI Carbon is likely to be powered by the same 165kW 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine tipped to be under the bonnet of the standard GTI in the coming Mk 7 line-up next year. 

The tweaked Cabrio shows there is still plenty of life in the existing Golf body... ...even though the all-new hatch is little more than a month away.

Volkswagen's Golf R races on a closed course as a driver competes against speed Rubik's cube specialist, Anthony Brooks. The VW driver of the Golf R has to complete one lap around track before Anthony Brooks solves his Rubik's cube one-handed.  

It's a mix of motor shows, motorsport, new-car arrivals and showroom selling silliness.  Already we've got news of new price leaders from Ford and Volkswagen, with a bottom line of $16,990 for the updated Thai-built Fiesta and a $21,990 Golf.But the real action this week is in Paris, where the world's carmakers are gathered for the biggest motor show of 2010. Detroit in January was reasonably solid, and Los Angeles in November promises to be optimistic, but the Paris Auto Salon is all about the ongoing recovery of the big brands and the design enthusiasm of the major European makes.Electric cars top the bill but there are also newcomers from Ferrari and Lamborghini and Maserati, all sorts of city runabouts, and technology that highlights the improvements we can expect over the next 10 years.  Carsguide has a full coverage of the show next week, with early news on www.carsguide.com.au, but by then we'll be into the build-up to The Big One at Bathurst.This year's Mount Panorama classic promises to be an all-action event and no-one is betting against a sentimental victory by veterans Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes. The pair have already won the traditional Bathurst 1000 curtain-raiser at Phillip Island and have everything they need to take the V8 Supercar grand final.But there are at least another six crews who are capable of fighting through the final hour, with James Courtney promising something special in his Jim Beam Falcon and two-time champion Jamie Whincup doing all he can to take maximum points in his fight for a third straight title with TeamVodafone.Just days after the Bathurst 1000 the motoring spotlight shifts to Sydney and the first running of the Australian International Motor Show.  The first truly national show is looking like a boomer, with all sorts of previews and new releases. The calendar is so crowded that Toyota will reveal its show star, the FT-86 sports coupe concept, on Monday of show week, a full five days before the public opening.Once the show is done the action gets back on track with the Gold Coast 600, a new-age V8 Supercar contest that promises to re-write the rules. Nineteen of the world's top drivers are coming to take guest spots with the the teams - including former world champion Jacques Villeneuve and transplanted Aussie stars Will Power, Ryan Briscoe and David Brabham - in an event that will revitalise what was previously the Gold Coast Indy event.While all this is happening, Mark Webber is out fighting for the world championship.  The long-time Formula One underdog finally has a winning car in 2010 and has been doing plenty of good stuff, even salvaging third place - and defending his title lead - in the Singapore Grand Prix despite a weekend he describes as the worst of the season.Webber is basing himself in Australia for the next few weeks, to make an easier time-zone transit to races in Korea and Japan, and is looking more and more like our first world champion since Alan Jones.

Volkswagen Australia has confirmed it will draft in a new player to sit at the bottom of its Golf line-up and significantly undercut the current entry level model that starts off at $24,990.  Neither of these prices include on-road costs. The new bargain model, called the 77 TSI, will run a 1.2-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine producing 77kW and 175Nm of torque.  It slips in $3000 below the 90 TSI petrol turbo model and has much of the same equipment but misses out on cruise control, a multi-function steering wheel and also runs steel rims instead of alloy wheels. The new model might be cheaper but it will still have crucial safety gear including seven airbags and electronic stability control.  It runs a five-speed manual as the standard transmission, while a seven speed dual-clutch automatic is a $2500 option.  The 77 TSI is already sold in several European markets and is also popular in England, where small economical engines are the top sellers. VW has already introduced the 77 TSI engine with the Polo baby car and says it has received good feedback.  Volkswagen Australia managing director Anne Koeckler says the new entry level model will extend the appeal of the new model. "It allows us to target new customers who wanted to have a Golf but couldn't afford it," she says.  The Golf is the first volume pillar and to make sure it is the volume pillar into the future into the future we started the shift to get it in the sweet spot." The most popular Golf in the range is the 103 TDI turbo diesel model and Ms Koeckler that is not likely to change for some time. However she would not provide any estimation of the sales the new 77 TSI model could achieve. The new entry level Golf is a key part of VW Australia's plans to dramatically boost its sales in line with Volkswagen's plan to be the top selling brand in the world by 2018.  "We will not discuss our internal target," Ms Koeckler says. "You can assume we have the opportunity to double our volumes from where we are right now and go further. With all the new products that are coming next year we have a lot of opportunity." So far, VW Australia is planning on launching the Amaraok one-tonne ute, the next generation Passat and the new Touareg next year.  It will also introduce the super efficient Bluemotion Golf model and roll out fuel saving Bluemotion technology on some other models.

Government, especially, state government, regards us as cash cows to be milked dry with fees, insurance, registration and road infringement system cynically designed not to prevent transgressions, but to profit by them (all the while hypercritically admonishing us to drive "safely").City dwellers, forced to drive for the weeping inadequacy of public transport, spend years of their lives stationary in choking traffic. Their country cousins brave ruined roads, often without as much as a centre line.In NSW (forgive the state-centricity) a multi-billion dollar bureaucracy called the RTA goes so far as to stridently oppose any form of training for young drivers, instead thrusting the onus on unqualified friends or relatives to instil in callow kids.It also bans learners and P-platers from the safest cars known to humanity on the Orwellian premise that anything with forced induction is "high performance" and therefore unsafe. So it is the RTA withholds from the very drivers it says are most vulnerable cars that are – actively and passively – the safest cars yet devised because they are "unsafe"!No, Johnny, you can’t drive a 90kW Golf because that turbo charger makes it a fully sick road rocket, but you can go forth in a VB Commodore... (Hilariously, this inept and decadent cabal are also in charge of road building in the nation’s most populous state...)So it is that we're treated to sights such as I saw earlier this month on the M4, described on its website as a "key piece of transport infrastructure in Western Sydney".There she was: a green P-plater in a 20-year-old Corolla, sticking hard to the right-hand lane – despite the rapid succession of signs telling her to "keep left unless overtaking" – doing no more than 90km/h in a 110 zone, while a rapid succession of vehicles travelling up to the speed limit were forced inside. The last I saw, she was still there.Nice work Dad, or Mum, or cousin Narelle, or whatever clueless acquaintance has tutored her in the ways of the open road.Meanwhile, elsewhere, uniformed and armed tax collectors, as the Highway Patrol have become, were squatting behind a radar keeping the stream of revenue running and the RTA was rolling out the first of a series of mobile speed cameras.If the endless federal election proves anything, it's that the old certainties have disappeared.Politicians from the PM down enjoy their richly-salaried and entitled sinecures at our behest and it’s dawning upon even the most complacent, corpulent party animals – without actually naming the Member for Grayndler –they might have to do a bit work in their electorates.Don't be shy. Don't leave it to a pollster to ask you. Remind your local member that their career depends on your goodwill, that you own a car and you vote.

The difference is that Volkswagen's latest in-house hotrod job could easily have implications for the Golf GTi.Volkswagen was never going to build the W12 Golf but it could easily take the tweaks from the Golf GTi Excessive and apply them to a limited-edition hot-up model or a catalogue of fast parts. They include a set of flared guards and a free-flow exhaust system, but run much deeper on both the cosmetic and driving angles.The GTi Excessive was unveiled at the world's biggest annual gathering of Volkswagen fans at Worthersee in Austria. The show was held for the first time in 1982 and draws tens of thousands of Volkswagen enthusiasts.Apart from the GTi W12 concept the show has been used to preview the Scirocco GT24, since run at the Nurburgring 24-hour race, the Polo Worthersee '09 concept built as a tease for the upcoming Polo GTi production car.This time the GTi - which is about to be overtaken by the Golf R - is honed with the sort of equipment which will be easy for fans to apply to their own cars. There are firmer springs and dampers with a slightly wider track, thanks to offset wheels, a move which requires 30 millmetres flares at each corner.Uprated 370-millimetre front brake discs are fitted behind the 19-inch flow-formed BBS alloys, which are fitted with 235x35 ZR19 track-style tyres. The 2-litre TSI engine is left unchanged apart from a free-flow and marginally-lighter exhaust system, which improves power to 160 kiloWatts and lifts torque to 286 Newton-metres.Visually, the Excessive change runs to a deep front splitter and a pair of revised airdams either side of the grille.  There are sill extensions in gloss black, with a new diffuser and titanium-tipped exhaust pipes on the rear below a bigger wing above the rear window. Inside there are Excessive seats with integrated headrests, with brushed aluminium and gloss black trim highlights.

Even through Volkswagen has three blue-e-motion models on the way – the baby Up, Golf and Jetta – there are no plans yet to bring any of the cars down under.  Instead, Volkswagen is waiting for a sign from government about a commitment to plug-in infrastructure before it tries to build a workable business case for its electric cars."There is a need for this technology, but the car companies can only do so much," says Anke Koeckler, head of Volkswagen Group Australia.  "So far as I know the government is not working on the infrastructure for this green technology. We don't have any network. With these huge distances, (in Australia) it's not a car that people want."The first of the battery-powered Golfs was presented to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, just over a week ago as the lead-up to a trial with 500 cars.  It is a similar move to the ones already made by BMW Group, which is doing real-world development testing of both the Mini and 3-Series with electric battery power.Volkswagen will have a plug-in Up first and will follow with the Golf and Jetta in 2013 as it plans to lead the world in sustainable motoring by 2018 – as part of a broader plan to overtake Toyota as the world's number one carmaker by 2020.  In Germany, the government is already planning to have a million electric cars on the roads by 2020.Koeckler knows the strength of VW's electric commitment but is not making any promises for Australia, even for a one-off Golf visit to showcase the blue-e-motion technology.  "We are not going to do that. There are 500 cars for a test drive. But it's just for Germany so far," she says."This project has been just decided. This is the first one we have to make a big test drive.  It's a real car that's already in the market. The Up is not already in the market."

Owners of Volkswagen Golfs fitted with 118 TSI engines are being asked to have their engines checked out.  The problem also affects Jetta models using the same engine. Although not a recall, Volkswagen Australia this week issued a "service campaign" on 6690 locally delivered Golfs and Jettas fitted with the high-tech