TDI Graveyards

                In the wake of Volkswagen’s Dieselgate emission scandal, VW stopped selling the TDI’s and has now started buying back TDI’s as well. There will be hundreds of thousands of VW’s bought back and fixed by the time the dust settles.

                While this is a massive fix, there is logistically a concern on what to do with all the vehicles. There are hundreds of thousands of are in limbo right now, they can’t be driven and they haven’t been fixed. The big question is where you store all these vehicles. Well there are three main places where VW is storing these TDIs. Hundreds of those cars now sit in the abandoned parking lot of the Pontiac Silverdome, former home of the Detroit Lions. On the west coast they are baking in the San Bernardino, California sun at a decommissioned Air Force base and are sitting in a port in Baltimore on the east coast.

                The waiting game right now is going on as VW waits to see if they can get the EPA and California Air Resources Board to approve fixes for the cheating cars, or if the company will be forced to send the vehicles to the salvage yard. There is no word of if more of these VW regional grave yards will pop up around the country.

Once a buyback transaction is complete, Volkswagen will remove the vehicle from the dealership and store it at a regional facility. These vehicles will be held until it is determined whether an approved emissions modification becomes available.

-Volkswagen Statement

               Once, Volkswagen TDIs were such good, efficient, torquey, handsome and (mostly) reliable vehicles. They were beloved by owners and enthusiasts alike. If you haven’t figured out what you are going to do with your TDI, make sure to check out your options or contact us now to hear your options.

                

The New VW Tiguan

                In the wake of the VW emissions scandal and with the ever falling gasoline prices , Volkswagen released a stretched version of their popular Tiguan crossover at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

                Volkswagen’s new stretched out Tiguan is a direct response to consumers’ interest moving towards crossovers, sports-utility vehicles and pickup trucks amid the low gas prices. VW dealers are adding two vehicles to their lineup because of those demands, the Atlas being one of those and the other being the stretched out Tiguan. The new Tiguan will have third row seating, adding two more seats to the popular crossover.

"I truly believe that this auto show marks a real turning point for Volkswagen in the United States, based on an upcoming strong product momentum with vehicles that are truly tailored to what American buyers want,"

–VW North America CEO Hinrich J. Woebcken

                Nearly 11 inches longer and with 57% more cargo space, the Tiguan is much bigger than its predecessor, by auto industry standards. The vehicle will get optional safety systems that are spreading quickly throughout the industry, such as forward-collision warning, pedestrian monitoring, blind-spot detection and lane-departure warnings. The vehicle will get a 2-liter turbocharged direct-injection engine with 184 horsepower, paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission. The front-wheel-drive version of the 2018 model-year Tiguan will get third-row seats as standard, while it will be optional on all-wheel-drive vehicles.

                The New Tiguan will be here in 2018 and the Atlas following shortly. No prices have been revealed for either of the new SUVs. While we wait, Check out the rest of our great Volkswagen vehicles and contact us today to set up a test drive.

Autonomus VW

               

The Volkswagen Groups has a plan in place that by 2025 they will have 30 battery-powered cars. They forecast that by that time, they will have sold between 2 and 3 million EV vehicles accounting for 25% of its total global sales. Along with the EV line, VW is  releasing a line of vehicles that will be fully autonomous.

                The first vehicle that VW premiered in its ID concept line was a Golf-sized hatchback, which they first let the public get a look at in September in Paris. The second is going to be talked about much more, and it is going to be in the image of the ever popular VW Microbus. VW will unveil the concept in January at the Detroit auto show. The plan at VW is to challenge Uber and its new Moia Mobility services division.

               

                The Microbus concept has two electric motors and has all-wheel drive. The steering wheel retracts into the dashboard when activated via a touch sensitive pad to launch the self-driving functions. While the drive sits back and relaxes, laser scanners, ultrasonic and radar sensors and cameras monitor other road users and the surroundings. The VW Microbus will have a roomy interior, long range and will be able to drive fully autonomously.

VW unveiled the Moia digital business division earlier this month. The division’s CEO. Ole Harms, said Moia’s focus is to launch a shuttle service operating in cities that will be hailed by a smart phone app. Moia’s fleets will use existing VW Group models such as the VW Transporter minibus but these will be eventually replaced by a new electric vehicle with six to eight seats, Harms said.

Check out our inventory and contact us to take a test drive today.

                

VW Arteon- The Future of VW

Volkswagen Group, in the wake of Diesel Gate, is poised to make themselves the worldwide leader in electric cars by the year 2025.The German car giant has shifted its focus towards the future, a future of electric vehicles.

VW has started the process of moving towards the all-electric age, and that starts with updating their aging lineup. VW has already teased an elongated four-door sedan that will be the cornerstone of the company’s style evolution. And this next year at the Geneva Motor Show, Volkswagen will debut the Arteon. The Arteon will be a four-door fastback and be positioned above the Passat making it the largest and likely most expensive car in the model in the brand’s lineup. And it’s expected to hit the U.S. market in 2018.

The main obstacle that VW needs to overcome is the fact that sales are down in the U.S. for large sedans and mid-size cars. Large sedans sales are down 14.1% this year and mid-size is down 12.2%. Those sales have gone towards sport utility vehicles as Americans have moved away from sedans amid low gas prices.

VW’s electric initiative is a step in the right direction for the German automaker after the last year of negative press and the Volkswagen Arteon is the start of the future. Check out our inventory and contact us to schedule a test for your new VW today.

The T-Cross is changing VW’s Game

VW is coming out with a new convertible, but it’s not a Beetle or a CC, it happens to be VW’s new crossover the T-Cross.  And there aren’t many crossover convertibles on the market, in fact, there’s only one and that the T-Cross.

               

The T-Cross is VW’s first step in their effort to bring more subcompact crossovers to the market.  The new VW crossover points the future of VW in a new direction, with its sleek new body panels, headlights that literally blend into the grill and invisible air vents that are hidden into dash features. The new VW is also doing away with all interior switchgear, the physical controls gear shifter and window switches, as everything else controlled by touch-sensitive buttons on the two massive touch screens. 

               

The infotainment system is also quite impressive; on-screen information can be moved around much like your smartphone. The T-Cross also employs a system called the Predictive Driving Profile, which ties into the cars navigation system and is capable of controlling the cars adaptive dampers and drivetrain to identify terrain and adjust on the fly.

In the wake of VW’s Dieselgate, they have figured out the full economy with the T-Cross. The T-Cross has 1.0-liter gas engine, putting out just 108 horsepower. And while the T-Cross won’t win a sprint with a 10.3 0-60, it will win the marathon, having a staggering 47-mpg! The T-Cross has a 500 mile range, while only having a 10.6-gallon fuel tank.

While we are still waiting on a release date and pricing for the VW T-Cross, you can still check out our other great VW Inventory and contact us now to schedule an appointment to get your VW today!

VW is bringing the US an electric car

For the last year, Volkswagen has been trying to recover from their diesel-emissions cheating scandal, and now they are planning for their future, electric cars. The company plans to introduce as many as 30 electric models spread across all their brands by 2025. And now it appears that some of those VW branded models will be built in North American, according to Volkswagen Group of America CEO Hinrich Woebcken. 

“VW is evaluating its plants in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Puebla, Mexico, as production sites for an electric car that will launch in 2020”,

Woebcken said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Woebcken indicated that the decision was based on anticipated electric-car demand in the U.S. VW going forward with building an electric car in North America is going to go a long way in rebuilding their public image and re-establish its green credentials. The plant in Tennessee opened in 2011, as part of VWs major expansion push into the U.S.

VW currently builds at their Tennessee plant the mid-size sedan the Passat. They are planning on building their new three-row crossover at the beginning of next year. The bulk of VWs that are for the U.S. market are built in the Mexican plant. Currently the Jetta, Golf, and Beetle are the main production pieces there. The second generation Tiguan is also slated to be produced there as well. The redesigned Tiguan was unveiled last fall at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show and is scheduled to go on sale in the U.S. next year.

Currently the only all-electric car that VW has available in the U.S. is the e-Golf , which is imported from Germany. The new Tiguan may get a plug-in powertrain option somewhere down the road. Only certain VW dealers are given the option to sell the all-electric vehicles, those dealers are in states that are deemed friendly to electric cars. Those states are: California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia.

For the model earmarked for North American production in 2020, Volkswagen is likely to deploy the new MEB platform for compact electric cars that it announced last year. Beyond models based on this platform, VW also has three luxury models planned for European production. They include an Audi crossover likely to be called Q6 e-tron, a Porsche sport sedan based on the Mission E concept from the 2015 Frankfurt show, and an all-electric version of the Volkswagen Phaeton luxury sedan.

Contact us to see our great VW inventory!

Volkswagen/Audi Diesel Emissions Settlement Program

     On September 18^th 2015, news broke about Volkswagen’s emissions tests being faked on many of VW and Audi’s TDI vehicles. It was found that Volkswagen had intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate certain emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing. The programming caused the vehicles' carbon output to meet US standards during regulatory testing but emit more carbon in real-world driving. Volkswagen put this programming in about eleven million cars worldwide and in 500,000 in the United States, during model years 2009 through 2015.

      And finally settlements have been reached and the plan is in order to make it right with owners of VW’s here in the U.S. pending judges approval.

If the proposed Settlements are approved by the Judge, then Volkswagen has agreed to:

·        Buy back, terminate leases or provide approved emissions modifications for nearly 475,000 2.0-liter TDI diesel cars in the United States;

·        Provide cash payments to owners/lessees;

·        Pay for environmental remediation; and

·        Promote zero emissions vehicle technology

      So you can choose to sell or terminate your lease back to car back to Volkswagen plus cash or VW will make the modifications to your car to improve emissions plus cash. So needless to say, VW is giving you cash for their deceitfulness.

The following 2.0-liter TDI engine vehicles are included and may be eligible.

·        VW Beetle  2013-2015

·        VW Golf      2010-2015

·        VW Jetta     2009-2015

·        VW Passat  2012-2015

·        Audi A3       2010-2013, 2015

What are the next steps?

    

      If the Judge grants preliminary approval, notice will be mailed to owners and lessees announcing the specific terms of the Settlements.  At that time, owners/lessees will learn about their rights to exclude themselves, object, or comment on the Settlements as well as the options available to buyback or modify their car, or terminate their lease.

     Volkswagen is working on an emission modification for each of the cars listed above. EPA will need to approve any emissions modification before this option becomes available.

If I am a former owner or lessee, am I eligible to participate in the proposed Settlements?

      If you owned an eligible vehicle on or before September 18, 2015 and sold it before June 28, 2016, you may be eligible to participate. Likewise, if you were leasing an eligible vehicle as of September 18, 2015, you may be eligible to participate.

For more information please visit our website or contact us for questions.