2005 Volkswagen LT Reviews

Volkswagen has changed the name of its seven-seat SUV. But the new Tayron follows the same formula as the previous Tiguan Allspace, offering a family-friendly cabin and an engaging driving experience. But Volkswagen will need more than a name change to stay relevant in the increasingly competitive family SUV contest.

VW's next-gen EV onslaught to be led by this T-Cross-sized electric small SUV

The rise of smart electric cars could see us fall into a future where we have to pay for nearly every function – even turning the vehicle on.Computers have been an integral part of vehicles since the 1980s, when engine management systems and electronics became more sophisticated, but it was always a car first and mainly mechanical with software added. In the past 10 years, however, we’ve seen computers become the architecture around which the car is built and aptly referred to as software defined vehicles (SDVs).Sure, that seems a natural part of the evolution of vehicles which have always been on a path of continual advancement from performance, efficiency and safety to comfort, convenience and entertainment. What could go wrong?The problem is that with cars essentially becoming just large electronic devices with many functions provided with software that’s updated over the air, the carmakers may choose to charge you for the use of them, or switch those functions off remotely if you don't pay up.It’s no different from your phone or TV and because you’re fine with paying for your Netflix and Spotify subscription, it stands to reason you’ll be okay with paying a subscription fee for car functions. Things such as heated seats, a head-up display, proximity unlocking, even the amount of power the motor makes. A most extreme scenario is failure to pay a bill resulting in the car itself not being able to be started. The safety implications of this are obvious and concerning at the very least.That last one seems unlikely but don’t underestimate the potential carmakers see in monetising vehicle functions. Electric vehicles have much fewer moving parts that need replacing, or fixing or maintaining than internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and manufacturers stand to lose billions of dollars they’ve made in the past servicing ICE cars. Subscription fees will be one of the ways they’ll keep that cash flow going.Some car companies are already charging for features through subscriptions. Tesla currently offers extra features such as live traffic updates, dash cam and music streaming through its subscription model. BMW offers heated seats among other features through subscription, and Toyota has made its remote start function available this way on some models. Mercedes-Benz provides traffic and sat-nav updates using subscription, and Volkswagen will increase the power output of its ID.3 electric hatch from 150kW to 170kW for a monthly or annual fee. Chinese carmakers haven’t embraced the subscription model yet in Australia, despite many of the brands such as BYD, Geely and Zeekr having increasingly software-defined these vehicles.This could be because the competitiveness of the Australian market is forcing the new carmakers into a price war where the value for money of Chinese EVs is all important in attracting buyers to what are still unfamiliar brands. But given enough time the brands will establish themselves locally and be in a position to almost certainly charge subscriptions for what they used to offer for the price of the car.As vehicles become even more software-orientated, we could see brands compete on the basis of technology in the form of entertainment and comfort features to performance and handling, even the physical features of the car which could change the colour or shades of the car through intelligent body panels, as we’ve seen in concepts such as the BMW iX Flow at motor shows over the past few years.New Chinese brand Nio has just confirmed its coming to Australia and overseas it offers subscription services to vehicle functions including the EV battery itself. Buyers can purchase the Nio electric vehicle without the battery and then pay a regular fee that allows them to swap to a larger battery for a greater range if they want, but it’ll cost them a bit more.Nio scored particularly well in a recent report from research company Gartner, which ranked car manufacturers based on the value added to their vehicles through software. Nine categories ranging from electrification, vehicle architecture and autonomy to connectivity, the user experience, and even how tech-savvy the executive team of the company are were rated.The big winners this year were Tesla, Nio and Xiaomi, with all three being headed by technology leaders who focused on monetising and adding value to their products. Mazda, Nissan and Toyota came in at the bottom of the rankings. These three established companies who helped define the modern motoring would be being left behind by carmakers whose software defines their vehicles. Will consumers actually pay for features that were once part of the costs of the vehicle? Would you? Well, if you could see the number of silly apps I subscribe to on my phone, the answer is probably yes. But maybe subscriptions could lead to cars that are even more affordable - a blank slate that allows a really low entry price with no pressure to add any features unless you wanted to. Oh wait, that’s exactly how the carmakers will sell it to us…

The good news for customers is bad news for businesses. As more and more car brands, especially those from China, arrive in the Australian market and offer cheaper models than the existing ‘legacy’ brands, it makes life harder to offer competitive models.

The Volkswagen Polo name will live on, rather than be sidelined by the incoming production version of the brand’s ID.2all concept car.

Volkswagen SUV buyers with $60k to spend will soon have the freedom to choose between internal combustion, fully electric and plug-in hybrid variants.

Volkswagen’s new-generation T-Roc small SUV has made its world debut showing off its new shape, tech and powertrains ahead of its arrival in Australia.The T-Roc may be small but it's Volkswagen’s biggest selling car in Australia behind the Amarok ute. The small SUV is getting larger, though. This second generation T-Roc has grown 12cm longer in length, but it’s still a compact 4373mm end to end, which VW said translated to more cabin room and a bigger boot at an impressive 475 litres.As you’d expect of any new-gen model the exterior has been overhauled with the T-Roc now looking like a mini version of the Tiguan mid-sized SUV.Inside the T-Roc’s cabin has stepped further into more premium-looking territory with soft materials and ambient lighting,  which Volkswagen said added a ‘lounge-like atmosphere”. New cabin tech includes a larger 13-inch media screen and an optional head up display. What you can’t see is the MQB evo platform the new T-Roc is built on — the same architecture the Tiguan uses. The platform gives the new T-Roc some advanced tech capabilities including autonomous lane changing and improved self parking with remote smart phone control.New powertrains accompany the new T-Roc’s arrival with 1.5-litre turbo petrol mild hybrid variants in two states of tune — 85kW and 110kW — for front-wheel drive versions.A more powerful 2.0-litre mild hybrid will join the line-up at a later date, and will be fitted to all-wheel drive R variants. A T-Roc R is confirmed, too, and it will retain its crown as the angriest and quickest in the range with the most amount of grunt. You won't find any purely electric variants here, with Volkswagen keeping EVs for its I.D. range of vehicles. That said this generation of the T-Roc could be the last combustion powered version.New colours for the T-Roc range include Canary Yellow, Celestial Blue metallic, Flamed Red metallic, and Grenadilla Black metallic. The new-gen T-Roc launches in Europe this November, and CarsGuide has reached out to Volkswagen Australia to confirm timing and prices for a local launch here.Australian pricing and specifications will no doubt be announced closer to the new T-Roc’s arrival here, but expect it to be more expensive than the current version's $38,990 starting point.

Volkswagen is reportedly planning to lob the five-cylinder engine from sibling brand Audi’s RS3 into its halo hot hatch, the VW Golf R.The plan involves the 25th anniversary of the VW Golf R being marked with a special edition powered by the Audi RS3’s turbocharged 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine, Autocar reports.The UK outlet says the RS3-powered Golf R should arrive in 2027, though hasn’t quoted a source. It’s expected the five-pot hot hatch will be the most powerful Golf yet.This means it would need to outgun the current Golf R that makes 245kW thanks to a wicked-up version of Volkswagen’s omnipresent EA888 turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine.In the RS3, Audi’s EA855 five-cylinder makes 294kW of power and 500Nm of torque, but Autocar has previously been told by former Managing Director of Audi Sport Sebastian Grams there’s more to be wrung out of the engine.If it comes to fruition, it won’t be the first time VW has slotted a bigger engine into the Golf.During the model’s third generation in the 1990s, the Golf VR6 became somewhat of an oddity in the hot hatch world with a six-cylinder engine living under the bonnet. The Mk3 VR6’s engine, a 2.8-litre narrow-V that straddled the line between V6 and inline-six, was followed by a 3.2-litre version of the engine in the fourth-generation Golf’s R32 variant in 2002.It’s the Mk4 Golf R32 that Volkswagen will be marking 25 years since with the introduction of its five-cylinder Golf R in 2027.

Volkswagen has published its first official teaser image of the forthcoming next-generation T-Roc small SUV ahead of its expected reveal at this year’s Munich motor show in September.

Overnight reports out of Germany are pointing to Volkswagen retiring its long-serving full-size, luxury SUV, the Touareg at the end of the current, third-generation model’s life in 2026.