VW Golf First Drives

The 911 Of Hot Hatches Takes The Compact Game To New Levels North American car buyers get a bit of a slap in the face when it comes to delivery schedules for new the Volkswagen Golf and pumped-up GTI models. We'll just repeat the old chestnut: It's worth the wait... even though it still stinks. This time around, Western Europe is taking deliveries of the ...

The Golf VI's Last Hurrah Is Pure Niche This was in the heart of the ultra-chic Côte d'Azur during winter. The car to be tested was the not-for-North America 2013 Volkswagen Golf R Cabriolet. Prevailing weather conditions here this time of year are bizarrely pleasant, as though a dome of Swarovski crystal has been placed over the entire region to ...

This Little VW Just Went Premium The fortunes of Volkswagen in the United States are moving steadily upward in direct correlation to how serious Wolfsburg has become about our market, a market it frankly neglected badly for about three full decades. The era of neglect is over now and the Germans are focusing especially hard on North American drivers who ...

Wolfsburg Questions Its Own Wisdom With EV Golf Yes, we know. "2014" sounds so impressively future-y, doesn't it? When we're testing a car and the R&D people involved look at us and say it won't be on the market until 2014, our eyes dilate, too. "Wow," we say to ourselves while keeping a straight face in front of the mega-powerful board member, ...

A Hotter GTI Is Hatched

For Volkswagen of America, it doesn't get more brot-und-butter than the Jetta. Forced into the shadow of the best-selling Golf, VW Germany's refrain was "Sell more Golfs!" To which VoA would steadfastly reply, "Americans don't want hatchbacks!" This went on for over two decades until the corporate mothership finally recognized that its compact sedan was ...

Outside of North America, the Golf has been Volkswagen's bread-and-butter model for more than three decades, making the diminutive hatch one of the best selling global vehicles since its mid-Seventies launch as the Beetle's successor. But in the States, it's a totally different story. Except for a few brief periods when fuel prices spiked, the ...

Performance Icon. That two-word phrase is bandied about so often there's hardly any meaning left in its 15 letters. After all, if a Porsche 911 is rightly referred to as a performance icon, can we call a Honda Civic Si the same? And are we talking any old 911/Civic Si, or just certain years and models? For instance, there is no doubt that the B13 Nissan ...