Free Republic

Volkswagen has been thinking about bringing a compact pickup truck to the U.S., and it might want to hurry up. Custom car body outfit Smyth Performance has unveiled a conversion kit to turn a VW New Beetle into a pickup and it’s already the Massachusetts company’s best seller. According to Motor 1, the first 100 kits were sold out during a pre-order period at $2,990 a pop. It's compatible with the New Beetle that went out of production in 2011 and features an aluminum step side bed with a retro flair that suits the car’s styling. Smyth calls them "utes", using...

Since Berie and Alexandria consider themselves 'National Socialists', they could be called 'Nazis'. That is what 'Nazi' is short for: "National Socialists". Definition of the Term Nazi 1. a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, which controlled Germany from 1933 to 1945 under Adolf Hitler and advocated totalitarian government, territorial expansion, anti-Semitism, and Aryan supremacy, all these leading directly to World War II and the Holocaust. 2. ( often lowercase ) a person elsewhere who holds similar views.3. ( often lowercase ) Sometimes Offensive . a person who is fanatically dedicated to or seeks to regulate a specified...

The United Auto Workers gained a partial and unconventional recognition from Volkswagen AG after proving to the company that it represents at least 45 percent of workers at the company’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a company spokesman said on Monday. The union on Monday said membership at its Local 42 in Chattanooga “exceeds a majority of workers at the plant.” It is the first time the UAW has been recognized at a foreign-owned auto assembly plant in the South, but it is short of the UAW’s goal of attaining exclusive bargaining rights for all of the plant’s 1,500 blue-collar workers....

Volkswagen plans to pick Mexico as the site for an engine plant to serve its assembly plant in that country and the automaker’s Chattanooga factory, according to a report. Automotive News reported Tuesday an announcement could come as soon as today. Last month, Frank Fischer, chief executive of VW's operations in Chattanooga, told the Times Free Press he didn't expect the engine plant to come to the city. “We said, ‘Please do it,’” Fischer said in August. “We were supporting it.” But VW officials were looking at manufacturing capacity and consumer demand in locating the plant, he said. Mexico had...

I wonder how many people Obama killed yesterday. Arguably, it was in the tens of thousands. With one stroke of the presidential pen, surrounded by lackeys on short leashes, he designed the automobile of the future. No more will Detroit make cars according to people’s tastes, needs and market demand. Now, we will have Obama cars. And why not. Hitler designed cars, why should our Fuehrer be denied the pleasure? Without congressional approval, without explaining it to the people, without trying to build public support, Caesar has declared that vehicles will get more gas mileage and give off less carbon...

There is a debate beginning in Canada over whether or not to uphold a ban on a European car commercial. I would like to know the American perspective.

FRANKFURT, 28 Oct (Reuters) - Volkswagen (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) briefly became the world's biggest company by market value on Tuesday, as short sellers continued to pile into the stock on weekend news Porsche had bought up much of VW's remaining free float. Shares in the German car maker hit an intraday high of 1,005.01 euros, valuing the company at 296.06 billion euros ($370.4 billion) based on ordinary stock, more than that of worl'd number one company Exxon Mobil Corp's (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) $343 billion market value at Monday's closing price. http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSLS14365720081028?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0 for the rest

We've all heard the expression "when it rains it pours." Deep words, right? What the unnamed and unseen sage doesn't tell you, though, is that when it pours in Michigan it's probably part of a monsoon in the heart of a deep jungle type rainy season. And it's probably going to keep raining for a long long time. So grab a tree and hold on tight or else you might get blown away. Case in point... Reports started swirling late yesterday and are all over the papers this morning that Volkswagen and Audi are almost certainly, now, going to announce...

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...

Sometimes there is nothing like a nice escapist puff piece in a lifestyle magazine to occasion a total reality check. In this case an unassuming article in American Express' October Travel and Leisure. ARTnews editor Carly Berwick was simply trying to cover the new "Autostadt" themepark in Wolfsburg, Germany, home of Volkswagon. Owned by VW, the Autostadt is sort of an Epcot Center devoted to the car and in particular Volkswagen products including Audi and Lamborghini. Germans who want to buy VW cars can pick one up at the Autostadt and save the usual dealer delivery fee, and get a...

To listen to automakers snipe about tightening fuel economy standards, you'd think it impossible to squeeze more miles from a barrel of Extract of Arabia. This, of course, is not the case, particularly if you design a vehicle expressly to drive far and drink little. Forget power, space, and speed: Volkswagen AG's latest idea-on-wheels does not address the requirements of the average American family driver. What it can do is travel more than 100 kilometers on a single liter of fuel. Translation: 235 miles per gallon. The car's designers combined highly tuned aerodynamics, exotic materials, and a 0.3-liter diesel engine...