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Lansing, MI - The slug bug community is in the midst of the biggest controversy the game has ever seen since the "no slug backs" rule was introduced in 1978. The issue? Whether to include the new Volkswagen Beetles as sluggable cars. Many players see this as an opportunity to introduce a whole new generation of 'Slug-Buggers' to the game, while others contend that the integrity of the game is at stake. Purists of the game have argued since the new Beetle's introduction that the it should not be sluggable. We caught up with Jason Smithers at Slug-Bug-a-rama 2000. He...

check out this VW video using terrorism as a selling point. Its quite funny. I dont recall seeing this elsewhere.

This may take a while to download and play but it is so funny.Runs faster if you saqve it off to your PC and play it ohterwise it may be a little jerky in motion.Terrorist in a VW

Volkswagen filed criminal charges yesterday over a professionally made commercial making rounds on the Internet that features a suicide car-bomber whose attack is stymied when he blows himself up while his VW Polo remains intact. Commercial features suicide car-bomber stymied by 'tough' VW Polo. As WorldNetDaily reported, Volkswagen and its advertising agency DDB London claim the so-called viral ad is unauthorized. Company spokesman Hartwig von Sass said yesterday VW lodged a criminal complaint with prosecutors in Brunswick, Germany, but did not specify a perpetrator, according to Reuters. "This is an attack on Volkswagen's good name," he said of the ad....

VW lodged a criminal complaint with prosecutors in Brunswick, Germany, but did not specify a perpetrator, Company spokesman Hartwig von Sass told Reuters. "This is an attack on Volkswagen's good name," he said of the ad, which he called cynical and criminal. Under German law, it is possible to file charges against persons unknown and prosecutors and police are obliged to try to track down the perpetrators. The VW spokesman told Reuters the complaint was about "all crimes that could be considered in this regard." A report earlier this week on the Website of the British newspaper The Guardian said...

I saw this on "Iraq The Model" and thought y'all might enjoy it too.VW suicide bomber

Volkswagen is at the centre of a global row after a disturbing film featuring a Palestinian suicide bomber in a Polo car flew around the world on the internet. Watch the VW 'suicide bomber' Polo ad Volkswagen said last night it was outraged by the spoof advert, which became the fifth most talked about item on internet weblogs. The mystery deepened after MediaGuardian.co.uk tracked down the makers of the film, who revealed that some distinctively professional techniques had been used: it had been shot on 35mm film, not something an amateur would usually do, and cost £40,000, not a sum...

A provocative video clip released on the Internet showing a suicide bomber behind the wheel of a Volkswagen left viewers wondering if it was a car commercial or a hoax. The spot shows a man who appears to be of Middle Eastern descent getting into a Volkswagen Polo — a smaller version of the Golf that is sold in Europe — and driving down a street in an unidentifiable city. The man, who is wearing a checkered scarf of the same pattern as the keffiyeh headdress late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat wore, stops in front of a restaurant and...

Volkswagen might consider building an auto plant in the USA, the German automaker's chief said Wednesday. But a decision, which could come by the end of the decade, would be contingent on the company's plants in Mexico and Brazil reaching capacity, Chairman Bernd Pischetsrieder said. VW hasn't had a U.S. plant since 1988, when it shuttered its factory in Westmoreland County, Pa. Pischetsrieder, in an interview with USA TODAY at the Los Angeles Auto Show, also revealed that VW is considering whether to import into the USA a car smaller than the compact Jetta. It joins Ford, Mercedes, BMW and...

VW may open U.S. plant Weak dollar, losses in U.S. operations forcing German automaker to look at possible U.S. plant. December 3, 2004: 12:00 PM EST FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Continued depreciation in the dollar is forcing Europe's largest automaker Volkswagen to consider building VW and Audi brand cars in the United States, the company's sales and marketing head said. "We are thinking about manufacturing those models there that for the most part are also sold in the U.S.," Georg Flandorfer told German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview published on Friday, adding that the planned Audi Q7 sports utility...

DETROIT -- Volkswagen of America Inc. will lose nearly $1.3 billion this year due to the weak dollar and its aging product lineup in the United States, according to Bernd Pischetsrieder, VW AG's chairman. Pischetsrieder disclosed the anticipated loss from the VW's U.S. operation in story published in an Italian newspaper, Il Sole. Steve Keyes, spokesman for VWoA, confirmed the anticipated 2004 financial loss. The number comes from VW CFO Hans Dieter Pötsch, Keyes says. The anticipated loss of $1.3 billion encompasses both the VW and Audi brand sales in North America. That represents a loss of about $2,878 per...

DETROIT (Reuters) - Volkswagen, the company long synonymous with the inexpensive Beetle, on Wednesday put a $94,600 price tag on ultra-luxury versions of its Phaeton sedan in the United States -- making it the highest-priced VW ever. Europe's largest carmaker began selling a 335-horsepower V8 version of the Phaeton last November at a price of $64,600. The 420-horsepower, 12-cylinder model, which VW touts as "the ultimate flagship of the Volkswagen brand," has only recently become available to U.S. car buyers. At a base price of nearly $95,000, the Phaeton W12 is the most expensive VW ever, Volkswagen's U.S. subsidiary acknowledged...

Diesel drought: Emissions law blocks sale of some VWs By MEREDITH GOAD, Portland Press Herald Writer Drivers wanted? In Maine these days, Volkswagen dealers have a new twist on that catchy commercial slogan: Cars wanted. Maine VW dealers won't be able to sell diesel versions of the Golf, Jetta, Passat and Touareg for the next three years because they don't meet California emissions standards. Maine adopted the California standards in 2000, but this is the first time a car has become unavailable for sale here because it was not California-certified. The restriction applies to new cars - those with less...

Drivers wanted? In Maine these days, Volkswagen dealers have a new twist on that catchy commercial slogan: Cars wanted. Maine VW dealers won't be able to sell diesel versions of the Golf, Jetta, Passat and Touareg for the next three years because they don't meet California emissions standards. Maine adopted the California standards in 2000, but this is the first time a car has become unavailable for sale here because it was not California-certified. The restriction applies to new cars - those with less than 7,500 miles on their odometers - that feature the turbo direct injection, or TDI, diesel...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- This communist nation's booming auto industry opened a new era as an exporter of premium-priced cars Friday when Volkswagen unveiled the first sedan made in China for sale to upscale Western drivers. Most foreign automakers setting up operations in China are focusing on a domestic market that is the fastest-growing in the world. For decades, the country has exported low-priced trucks, buses and other vehicles - mostly to developing countries. But so far, the economics of carmaking in the top ranks of the industry have worked against...

The $75,000 People's Car Allison Fass, 10.27.03 Bet you didn't know that VW stands for "very Wealthy." Class-piration VW is ramping up its image and prices. For the starting price of a basic Phaeton, car shoppers could buy 75 Beetles at the 1949 price. 2003 Phaeton $60,000 2003 Touareg $34,900 1998 New Beetle $15,200 1990 Passat $14,770 1980 Jetta $7,650 1955 Karmann Ghia $2,000 1949 Beetle $800 As Volkswagen of America was plotting the launch of its Phaeton luxury sedan 18 months ago, 50 or so people in New York and Los Angeles received dinner party invites from good friends....

10 Jul 2003 21:57 BST End of the road for iconic Beetle By Alistair Bell PUEBLA, Mexico (Reuters) - Conceived by Hitler but adopted by the hippie generation, the old-style Beetle has spluttered toward the sunset with the unveiling by Volkswagen of a final special edition of the much-loved car. The company will stop producing the classic old Beetles on July 30 at its plant in the central Mexican city of Puebla, the only factory in the world still making the "Bug". With more than 21 million units sold, Volkswagen boasts the Beetle is the most popular car ever made...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. BERLIN (AP) -- Volkswagen said Friday it will stop making the original rear-engine Beetle later this year, bringing the curtain down on the nearly 70-year history of the classic "bug." Production of the last old Beetles at the VW plant in Puebla, Mexico, will "end this summer," spokesman Fred Baerbock said, adding that an exact date was not set. He said there had been sinking demand for the original model, manufactured only in Puebla since 1978. The first version of what would become known as the Beetle was developed in 1934...

Curtain to Fall on VW Beetle, Icon of Flower Power Fri June 6, 2003 09:09 PM ET FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) - The original Volkswagen Beetle, the ubiquitous German car born in the Nazi drive for a "people's car" and later an icon of the hippie revolution, will roll off a production line for the last time this summer. Europe's largest auto maker Volkswagen said Friday the last of its factories still producing the bulky little car -- in Puebla, Mexico -- would close its assembly line after nearly 50 years. In the model's 70-year history, 22 million air-cooled Beetles were...

Wall Street Journal, 14 September 1998 p. A32 Don't Blame VW for Nazi Crimes Manager's Journal By Eric Peters Last week Volkswagen announced that it is establishing a $12 million fund to pay reparations to Nazi-era slave laborers. This "humanitarian relief" effort, as the auto maker characterized it, isn't likely to stave off a pair of lawsuits by survivors who toiled in VW 0 factories during World War H. But what is the legal or moral justification for holding Volkswagen's current employees, officers and stockholders responsible for wartime deeds of 50-plus years ago? Two weeks ago Elly Gross, a 69-year-old...

<p>Dresden, Germany, March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest carmaker, said first quarter earnings will be ``significantly lower,'' sending the shares to the lowest in more than six years.</p> <p>Profit this quarter won't match the 627 million-euro ($693 million) net income of the year-ago period and full-year earnings before interest and tax will fall unless markets grow, Chief Executive Bernd Pischetsrieder told journalists.</p>

According to the German news magazine “Stern”, Volkswagen (VW) CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder thinks the fuel cell is no alternative for today’s internal combustion engine. “Instead we should concentrate on developing new synthetic fuels, which exhausts don’t need any catalyst or scoot filter”, so Pischetsrieder. Currently, VW is involved in research activities to develop these new fuels, which could be a substitute for diesel and normal petrol. Theoretically the new “Synfuel” could be on the market by next year, if costs are coming down and government taxation is right. VW has developed a special car with very low fuel consumption which...

German execs fear boycott over Iraq February 24, 2003 MUNICH -- German auto executives are keeping a wary eye on the United States, fearing a boycott over the German government's opposition to war with Iraq. Bernd Gottschalk, head of the VDA, the German car industry association, is apprehensive about discord between Berlin and Washington. "Although our relationships to the customers in America have grown for many years and can stand a lot, we should not put them at risk carelessly," Gottschalk says. Despite German fears, most U.S. consumers have shown no inclination to boycott anything. "We have talked to dealers...

Volkswagen of America Inc. on Friday offered the first official glimpse at the convertible version of its New Beetle. Volkswagen hasn't yet released pricing for the convertible Beetle, but it features the same rounded looks as its hardtop siblings, but with a fabric roof, and uses the same four-cylinder engines. Volkswagen has sold more than 320,000 New Beetle sedans in the United States since the car's 1998 North American launch. Built at the company's Puebla, Mexico, assembly plant, the Beetle convertible is expected to arrive in dealerships by the end of the year.

Volkswagen Chairman Dr. Ferdinand Piech arrived at this week's annual VW shareholders meeting in a remarkable little car.VW's new 'One Liter' concept car is designed to burn less than one liter of fuel over 100 kilometers.On Sunday's three hour drive from VW's Wolfsburg headquarters to Hamburg, it did that and more, averaging 0.89 liters per 100km (239 miles per gallon) in traffic.Yes, it's already licensed for use on public roads, comes complete with airbags, anti-lock brakes and other modern comforts--and can cruise at 75 mph all day.Perhaps most suprising, given that the car's novel direct-injection single cylinder engine makes only...