And the train of Volkswagen Touareg tuners continues to grow. The latest to join the German SUV’s tuning fan club is Hofele-Design with its new Royal GT 470. The upgrade package is comprehensive and includes modifications to the exterior, interior as well as the chassis and the available V6 diesel. The tuning shop’s aero kit comprises of a new front apron with integrated LEDs on both corners, matching wheel arch extensions, side skirts and a rear apron housing a diffuser and a choice of two different sets of exhaust tail pipe designs. A hood scoop, Hofele-Design’s bespoke front grille and 20- or 22-inch alloy wheels complete the changes.
Global vehicle sales by the Volkswagen passenger car brand rose 12.2 percent to a record-high of 2.09 million units in the first five months of the year, compared to 1.86 million the same period in 2010. More than a third of those vehicles were delivered in China, which has become the Volkswagen brand’s largest single market. In the period from January to the end of May, VW sold 714,200 cars in the country, recording a 15.3 percent increase.
In its never-ending quest for global domination, the VW Group signed an agreement with the GAZ Group to assemble Volkswagen and Skoda models under contract at the Russian automaker’s in Nizhny Novgorod. The two companies had already concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding joint automobile production in Russia in February 2011 with a planned production volume of 110,000 vehicles per year. Under the deal, GAZ will build the Volkswagen Jetta compact sedan, Skoda Octavia and Skoda Yeti crossover models for the Russian market, with the first vehicles to start rolling off the production line by the end of 2012.
The new 2012 Beetle isn’t scheduled to arrive in U.S. dealerships before the beginning of September, but Volkswagen is attempting to draw attention to its new Vehicle Pre-Order (VPO) program with the launch of a limited run version of the latest Bug called the Black Turbo Edition. 
As the name suggests, the first 2012 Beetle available for pre-order is based on the 2.0L TSI model fitted with a turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine pumping out 200-horsepower and 207 lb-ft. of torque, coupled to a standard dual-clutch automatic transmission.
We have no doubt that this year belongs to the new 2012 Volkswagen Beetle when it comes to tuning mainstream cars. Just wait and see once the first production models begin arriving in the market this fall. For those of you that can’t linger until September, here’s a first example of a tuned 2012 Beetle. 
The 2012 Beetle RS Stage 1 is the creation of the Volkswagen-loving crew at VWvortex who were given a pre-production model by the German firm to work on. Since the vehicle came with no registration and license plates, the team decided to skip on the engine modes for now and concentrate on the styling aspect of the tune, which as you may have already guessed by now, was inspired by the Porsche 911 GT3RS.
With the help of the Volkswagen Group, Skoda has turned out to be quite an important player in the automotive industry. The Czech automaker delivered more than 760,000 cars last year and aims to double its annual sales to 1.5 million by 2018. But it’s not only about sales as Skoda’s German parent company is also planning to further boost the Czech brand’s image. In celebration of the 10 year anniversary of the vRS (in the UK, simply RS for the rest of Europe) performance badge, Skoda will compete in the famous Bonneville Speed Week in August (13-20) with a specially modified Octavia vRS saloon. Skoda’s goal is to break the magic 200mph (320+ km/h) barrier for the first time in the company’s history.
German car magazine Auto Bild and weekly Der Spiegel reported Thursday that General Motors is once again considering the sale of its Opel and Vauxhall units. The reports were dismissed as pure speculation by the Detroit automaker as well as a German state with an Opel factory, which called the news “nonsense”. 
According to the news reports, GM allegedly was no longer in need of Opel’s know-how in manufacturing small cars as well as low emission and fuel efficient powerplants and that it could replace the German brand with its South Korean GM Chevrolet unit, formerly known as Daewoo.
A recently released study by research-based consulting firm Reputation Institute, found that BMW is considered the world’s most reputable company in the automotive sector and fourth overall behind Google, Apple and the Walt Disney Company. German automakers in general performed well in the study with Daimler, owner of Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and Smart, ranking 7th overall, while Volkswagen finished in 10th place, followed by Honda (29), Toyota (60), Nissan (61) and Suzuki (63).
Well, the question and the answer have already been given to you in the title, so let us elaborate for a moment. A UK-based car insurance price comparison website called “Confused.com” conducted a study to find out which vehicle make and model had the highest accident rates in Britain in the last five years. The company notes that the statistics you’re about to read show only a snapshot of accident-related claims made by owners of a particular make and model of vehicle. 
According to the results, the Honda FR-V, a compact 6-seater minivan marketed in Europe and Japan from 2004 to 2009, topped the list with 2,529 owners of the model making 466 accident claims in the past five years, which is equal to a claim rate of 18.4 per cent, or close to one in five.
We just got our hands on the official pricing list for the all-new 2012 Volkswagen Beetle. US customers can bring home the latest iteration of the retro-penned “people’s car” for as little as $18,995 which increases to $19,765 (about €13,540) if you add VW’s $770 destination charge, for the base model fitted with the 170HP 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine. When linked to a five-speed manual gearbox, the 2.5L returns an estimated 22 mpg city and 31 mpg highway, while the optional six-speed automatic offers EPA fuel economy ratings of 22 mpg city and 29 mpg highway. 
Standard features on the 2.5L model include a split folding rear seat, aux-in for portable audio players, a leather steering wheel, 17-inch alloys, and an eight-speaker audio system. For those seeking more power, VW offers the 2.0L TSI Beetle with 200-horses and 207 lb-ft of peak torque, which is priced from $23,395 or $24,165 (around €16,550) if you include destination charges. It is offered with a standard six-speed manual or an optional DSG dual-clutch automatic transmission, with the latter delivering offers an EPA fuel economy rating of 30 mpg on the highway and 22 mpg city.
Revealed at the Geneva Motor Show this past March, the new generation of Volkswagen’s fuel-efficient Passat BlueMotion is available to order now in the United Kingdom, with first examples scheduled to hit showrooms towards the end of July. The BlueMotion version of the seventh-generation Passat (not to be confused with the US model), itself launched in Europe in January, is offered in both sedan and Estate formats with prices starting at £19,875 and £21,180 respectively.
Having brought you all the automotive-related news from the 2011 Wörthersee Tour including the Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet in GTI and R formats, the 503HP Audi A1 and the Skoda Fabia RS2000 Convertible, now it is time for us to share with you something related but far more spicier if you catch our drift… 
Yes, that is right; we are talking about a photo gallery of the booth professionals and ladies who made their presence felt in full force at the world’s largest annual Volkswagen Group meeting, which took place in Austria from June 1 to 4. Hop over the break to get a taste of what you missed at Lake Wörthersee in our photo set that includes more than 70 images.
For the past thirty year, tens of thousands of enthusiasts of Volkswagen Group cars assemble on the shores of Lake Worthersee in Austria to participate in the largest festival of its kind in the world. Over the years, Volkswagen and the other brands of the German group including Audi, Seat and Skoda, have used the show to unveil special concepts, new models and studies that hint at future production versions or accessories. 
At this year’s event (June 1 to 4, 2011), the VW Group prepared several vehicles for the festival including the production VW Golf GTI 35 Edition with 235HP, the VW Golf Cabriolet GTI and R concepts, the wild 503HP Audi A1 Clubsport Quattro study, and the Skoda Fabia RS 2000 Convertible prototype. As you may have noticed, the company didn’t show much love for its Seat brand which was left to display its current lineup.
Before budget airlines and the Channel Tunnel, the faster way to get from Britain to France was by hovercraft. The largest of these was the SNR4, a 300-ton behemoth capable of carrying 380 passengers and 40 cars at a speed of 70 mph (113 km/h). In the 1950s and ‘60s, magazines like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics were predicting a future where we’d all be cruising around in affordable, personal hovercrafts. Sadly, it was not to be. Now, some 11 years after the last SNR4 was retired, 21-year-old industrial design graduate Yuhan Zhang has resurrected the personal hovercraft in the form of her Volkswagen Aqua study.
Roman Jagatić is the latest addition to our ever-growing list of readers-turned-into spy photographers. Roman stumbled upon this strange looking Volkswagen-Skoda hybrid prototype parked at a gas station in Munich, Germany. The test car appears to combine a modified body of a Skoda Octavia with a Volkswagen front end. 
While we do not have a definite answer to what it may be, possible scenarios include a test car for a new Skoda Octavia and a prototype for a Volkswagen-badged model for select markets outside Europe.
Yesterday, we brought you the first images of Volkswagen’s Golf GTI Cabriolet study but today we have live photos from the car’s world premiere at the Wörthersee meeting in Austria along with official information on the concept. 
The hotted-up convertible is based on the standard Golf GTI with power coming from the same 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine delivering 210-horsepower and 280 Nm (207-lbs/ft) of peak torque at 1.800 rpm.
Volkswagen says the open-air model’s performance matches that of the closed-top GTI with a 0-100km/h (62mph) sprint time of 7 seconds and a top speed of around 240km/h (149 mph).
If there’s one thing die-hard Volkswagen fans visiting this week’s annual Wörthersee Tour in Austria aren’t going to complain about, is the lack of Golf concepts. We have already shown you the Golf GTI Cabriolet and Golf R Cabriolet and now we bring you two more studies based on the flagship Golf R hatchback. The two Golf R Color concepts were first shown at the Geneva Salon this past March and were created to demonstrate the numerous customization possibilities.
Not that the Skoda Fabia RS 2000 Concept needed any help to draw the attention of automotive fans at the Wörthersee show, but the Volkswagen Group was t enough to bring some very pretty faces (and bodies…) to the Czech firm’s stand. You can get a better look at the car and the girls in whichever order you prefer in our high resolution photo gallery right after the jump.
