You can watch it in the video that follows after the jump.
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For the Volkswagen brand (we're talking about VW alone not the VW Group), 2012 started on slightly a positive note as the company reported worldwide passenger car sales of 419,200 units in January, which represents a 0.1 percent increase over the same month last year.
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The news comes from British car magazine Autoexpress that claims Volkswagen will introduce the production version of the Golf GTI Cabrio at next month's Geneva Motor Show.
If true, it could be the last version of the sixth generation Golf before Volkswagen lifts the covers off the new model at the Paris Motor Show this fall.
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The diesel engine can be mated to either a six-speed manual gearbox or VW’s dual-clutch DSG six-speed automatic, with the German automaker predicting a fuel economy of 29 mpg city and 39 mpg highway.
That's a significant improvement over the base 170HP 2.5-liter gasoline engine that returns an estimated 22 mpg city and 31 mpg highway with a five-speed manual, and 22 mpg city and 29 mpg highway with the optional six-speed auto.
For 2012, the Wolfsburg-based company has released two new sleds that are currently available for order exclusively from its official German website.
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The MQB is by far the most important platform architecture in the group, as it will be used in the next generations of the Volkswagen Polo, Beetle, Golf, Scirocco, Jetta, Tiguan, Touran, Sharan, Passat, and CC, as well as the soon-to-be revealed Audi A3, and all the other derivatives from Seat and Skoda.
A key feature of the platform is its flexibility in terms of wheelbase length, track width, wheel size and seating positions. Other dimensions such as the distance between the pedals to the wheel center are always the same and provide a unified front-end system.
The German company aired today the extended 75-second long spot online with the 60-second version of the ad running in the second quarter of the Big Game on February 5.
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The plan, however, was put on hold after lawsuits followed in the U.S. and Germany by Porsche shareholders who claimed that the latter had attained a debt of €10 billion (US$13 billion) in acquiring the majority of VW’s common stock.
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The German firm will assemble the T5 models in Indonesia for the local market together with the importer Garuda Mataram Motor.
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In European trim, the £31,000+ Golf R gets a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four with 270-horses and is capable of reaching a top speed of 155mph (250km/h) while completing the 0-62mph sprint in 5.7 seconds.
According to the preliminary police report, the officer was out testing the Golf R along with a fellow officer in an unmarked Audi, when he lost control of the Volkswagen at a roundabout in Wharfside Way, Trafford Park. The crash was so severe that the 40-year old police officer had be cut from the wreck by firefighters.
The man suffered some back injuries and was hospitalized but has now been released.
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In China, while the overall top sellers continue to be commercial microvans, the bestselling passenger model for 2011 was the Buick Excelle with 254,000 units, according to data provided by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
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The 2012 Monte Carlo rally started on January 17 with a ceremony north of Monaco, in the city of Valence. The real action, which consisted of 430 kilometers (267 miles) spread over 18 special stages, begun three days later, on January 20.
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The new addition to VW's New Small Family, which is the internal name for the model series, keeps the same 2.42 m (95.3-in.) long wheelbase and 251-liter boot as the three-door model.
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Earlier this month, the Volkswagen Group announced that it sold a total of 8.16 million vehicles, up 14.3 percent compared to the previous year, which puts the German automaker in second spot - or so we thought.
You see, today, Volkswagen is questioning GM's numbers and of course its crown as the bestselling automotive group in the world. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the German company argues that unlike GM, it's numbers don't include sales of its affiliates such as MAN SE and Scania AB, in which VW has majority-ownership stakes.
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Volkswagen delivered 484,547 units of the Golf in 2011, down 1.6% over the previous year. The German company also took second spot with the Polo that sold 356,490 cars, up 0.5%, while the Ford Fiesta with 348,465 sales (-13.3%), the Opel / Vauxhall Corsa with 313,325 units (-1.7%) and the Renault Clio with 294,172 (-13.1%) complete the Top 5.
We should note that all Top 10 best-sellers came from either German (7 models) or French (3 models) brands.
JATO Dynamics says that outside the top ten, certain models performed much better than their predecessors did including Peugeot’s new 508, which saw its sales rise almost three times achieved by its predecessor, the 407, in 2010, the new Ford C-Max/Grand C-Max, Citroën C4, BMW X3 and Kia Sportage.
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While Volkswagen is keeping its plans firmly under wraps for now, the company did publish a teaser spot that shows a pack of dogs barking in the tune of the Star Wars Imperial March.
The Germans also tell us to "keep an eye out" for the 2012 Super Bowl game day commercial as "it will all make sense". You can peep the...bark side of the force in the video trailer after the break.
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And what more important than the presentation of the next generation of the Volkswagen Golf, which according to a report from German car magazine Auto Motor und Sport, has been confirmed for the Parisian event.
What we know about the seventh iteration of Volkswagen's Golf series is that it will ride on the German group's new "Modularer Querbaukasten" or MQB platform and that it will be slightly longer and wider than the current version.
The app covers the history of both the regular Golf and Golf R models in the States and includes a variety of photos and videos, a brochure with tech specs, a 360-degree view of the car and even an interview with designer Chip Foose on the VW brand and the Golf.
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Those looking for a cheaper way to get their hands on a new Porsche, however, will be disappointed. Porsche CEO Matthias Muller told German news daily Wirtschafts Woche that the company has no plans to introduce a smaller roadster, refuting rumors about a new entry-level model that would slot below the Boxster.
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The CC, which made its world premiere at the Los Angeles Auto Show last November, will first go on sale in Germany and Luxembourg in the beginning of February, followed by the rest of Europe at the end of the same month, and then globally, including America, Russia and Asia in spring 2012.
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