Auto World: 2008

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Monday, August 11, 2008

Monday, July 14, 2008

Smile? Me? Yeah, right.. While I liked the Mercedes Museum and the old Volkswagen Museum, this automotive Disney Land wasn't for me.

I love Beetles and Buses and Ghias etc due to their styling, awkward mechanics like the air-cooled engine, Cal Look and Resto Cal etc. I'm not into modern cars no matter what the brand is (except perhaps Porsche) and Volkswagen or Audi today are like German Toyota, so not really interesting. As Volkswagen factory very rarely backed motor sport it lacks the same racing heritage Porsche and Mercedes may have (Auto-Union did but that was pre-war stuff and before the merger anyway). And the other brands the corporation had more recently acquired, I don't know.. I didn't simply find enough interesting stuff per acre (yeah, it's large) in AutoStadt.

Autostadt is a happy place, you can stay at nice Carlton-Ritz hotel, spend a nice day in the theme park (or at the old museum), have a nice meal or coffee and it hides the Wolfsburg City, which isn't attractive like many of the other German cities are. No need to go out to the City when all you need to your visit is nicely tucked in same area (bit like the Casinos in Las Vegas).

Nicest place to visit in Autostadt was the ZeitHaus displaying vintage cars and automotive milestones from various brands. Also some of the most presentable vintage Volkswagens had been moved there from the old museum.

More photos of the recently spotted R-Klasse test prototype emerge on the internet

Motor Authority has managed to snap new spy photos of the intriguing R-Klasse test prototype, that was recently caught by spy photographers in the USA. This time, 2 of the 4 photos are concentrated on revealing some important details of the car's front end, which will suffer major look changes:definitely, new headlights and a new radiator grille, which will follow the latest Mercedes-Benz design language. In the interior, a new steering wheel, borrowed from the M-Klasse facelift, has been installed;also, the updated COMAND APS infotainment system is expected to be offered.

As the journalists state, this R-Klasse test car will become reality in the middle of 2009. So, finally, the mystery has been broken:we are not talking about a completely new generation of the GST, but about a substantial facelift. It's a logical strategy and maybe it will somehow raise sale numbers for the model, which, up to the moment, have been a catastrophy.

Stiftung AutoMuseum Volkswagen

Actually my first time in Volkswagen Museum in Wolfsburg. No surprises here since the museum has been around for long time, featured in all magazines etc. Quite many of the cars have incorrect parts (eg. German law had required indicators instead of semaphores at some point) for that particular model year or aren't even restored, but still I liked the place a lot. It looked and felt like a Museum for Volkswagen should feel like.