Volkswagen ID Buzz Reviews

America wants to see a station wagon comeback, but it won't be as easy as it sounds.

It’s not breaking news that Chinese car makers are putting the more established brands to the test in almost every segment of the new car market… but there is an exception.

A major European brand has signalled intent for its China-built cars to go global.

Car companies typically focus on selling vehicles customers want to buy. But Volkswagen openly admits its newest model is unlikely to be a big seller.

Volkswagen has dropped plans to build an electric version of its Amarok ute.

Volkswagen has conceded defeat in the fight against Ford’s Ranger Raptor.Just weeks away from revealing the details of the second-generation Walkinshaw collaboration on the Amarok ute Volkswagen Australia commercial vehicles boss Nathan Johnson has played down the notion that it will ‘attack’ Ford’s performance ute hero.“We're just trying to enhance the Volkswagen Amarok appeal in terms of what we're doing,” Johnson told CarsGuide. “We're not trying to go and say that we're gonna attack Raptor. Raptor works in its own space and we'd be silly to kind of just say that we're coming after Raptor because Raptor is such a part of the Australian psyche, everyone wants one.“We've gotta play to our own tune here and work what we think will work for Amarok. And I think we've got a pretty good package that's coming.”Volkswagen Australia first partnered with Walkinshaw for the so-called ‘W Series’ Amaroks in the final years of the previous generation ute. While there was always a plan to continue, the two parties haven’t rushed the development of this new iteration, spending more than two years developing the new hero model for the Amarok line-up.“ It's taken a while from face value because we spoke about it quite early on,” Johnson said. “Because to be quite honest with you, the day that we launched Amarok, the first question I had in an interview as a product manager was ‘when is the Walkinshaw Amarok coming?’”While he ruled out a direct challenger to the Ranger Raptor, Johnson was adamant that the long development time will result in a vehicle that is unique in the market and will have its own appeal.“ I think it's a very different scenario ,” he said. “The previous Amarok we were coming to the end of production and it was very different in terms of how we worked on that car and how we pushed it.“This one was very different in terms of, we'd only started production. We're taking a very different approach to this car in terms of the previous one we had to obviously… compromise on a few things that we really wanted to do with our car. With the time period we had and we could have made some decisions to move down different routes, but it probably would've compromised the end product and so forth. So we made the decision not to.“Whereas this time around we've got time, we've got time on our hands and we've been working with Walkinshaw a long time on this to make sure that we can assess everything and make sure that we are working with the right partners, developing all the different bits, the components of the car, and then actually doing a really strong testing program.”Volkswagen reportedly finalised the design of the new Walkinshaw Amarok earlier this year, in April, and has been testing since then.

A new safety report has rated some popular used cars.Monash University’s Accident Research Centre Used Car Safety Ratings for 2025 have been revealed, with 23 new vehicles added to the handbook that covers vehicles built between 1982 and 2023.Top picks of the newly added vehicles were the 2013-22 Ford Transit van, 2014-21 BMW 2 Series, 2019-23 Mazda CX-30, 2017-23 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross and 2018-23 Subaru Forester.The report revealed the average risk of being killed or seriously injured across all road users involved in a crash is 34 per cent lower in a vehicle manufactured from 2022 onwards, compared to 20 years ago. The ratings report looked at crash data analysing more than 9.5 million vehicles and 2.6 million road users in Australia and New Zealand between 1987 and 2022. It rated 561 vehicle models that were built between 1982 and 2023 looking at factors such as crash location, driver age and the number of vehicles involved. It measured safety through an overall rating with three categories: driver safety, other road user safety and crash avoidance. All are ranked out of five.Certain vehicles received a ‘Safer Pick’, where they scored five stars for overall and driver protection, with at least four stars for other road user safety and crash avoidance. Almost all 'Safer Pick' vehicles are available second-hand for under $25,000 and more than half priced below $10,000, according to Monash University.The report made particular note of the high risk attached to ute crashes, with only one ute achieving a five-star overall rating, and 70 per cent one or two stars.Some of this real-world data does not line up with ANCAP safety ratings. The Ford Mustang, manufactured from 2015-2022, received a two-star rating, which was later upgraded to three-stars with ANCAP. Yet, it achieved a near all-excellent rating in real-world crashes, according to the data.The full data set is available here.

Volkswagen has a long history of success in the commercial van market, but in recent years it has slipped well-behind the competition. A radically different new Transporter (built with the help of Ford) has now arrived to try and turn that around. We drive the new Volkswagen Transporter to find out if it has what it takes to beat the Toyota HiAce, Ford Transit Custom and the rest.

A computer chip company bust-up threatens to send global auto supply chains for cars back to the COVID-19-era with extensive manufacturer delays. According to Reuters, computer chip maker Nexperia NV, is embroiled in a standoff involving the Chinese and Dutch governments, which has seen exports of its finished products banned. Nexperia is an important supplier of basic chips used in cars, it manufactures them in large volumes in Germany, before being packaged and distributed from China to the wider car industry. China has now banned the export of finished chips.China’s ban was in response to the Dutch government’s decision to seize control of Nexperia in late September, which is a subsidiary of Chinese-owned Wingtech. The Dutch government took the decision after it got wind of Nexperia potentially transferring ownership of some of its technology to Chinese parent company Wingtech in response to US restrictions. Nexperia became at risk of being impacted by a new US rule extending export control restrictions for certain companies. Wingtech was added to this new US restriction list, and because the company owns 100 per cent of Nexperia, they also fall onto the restriction list. Nexperia reported a net profit of $331 million in 2024, highlighting its value to the car manufacturing supply chain. While there are alternatives available to Nexperia chips, car manufacturers' significant dependence on them means there will likely be a lag in transition. Earlier this month, US-based Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO John Bozzella, which represents General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen and Hyundai said Nexperia’s shutdown would quickly hamstring production. “If the shipment of automotive chips doesn’t resume quickly, it’s going to disrupt auto production in the US and many other countries and have a spillover effect in other industries," he said according to Reuters. The good news is that negotiations are ongoing and the dispute could be resolved within the next few days.The growing Chinese car industry is also reliant on Nexperia chips, giving incentive for all parties to end the standoff according to Netherlands’ Economy Minister Vincent Karremans. “We have a mutually dependent relationship,” he said in an interview on Dutch television show Buitenhof. Karremans will personally meet with the Chinese minister responsible soon to attempt to resolve the industry-threatening dispute.

Back in 1995, the most popular SUV in Australia was the then-new and pioneering Toyota RAV4, way down at number 43. How things have changed, with SUVs sat at seven of the top-10 spots, and then (mostly diesel-powered) ladder-frame-chassis utes making up the difference. Here are 10 reasons why Australia’s (and the world’s) SUV obsession have made motoring worse than in past decades for people who love cars.