August 30, 2017August 29, 2017 by tgriffith

Volkswagen Caters to Modern-Day Hippies with ID Buzz

It’s finally happening.

Some 60 years after the Volkswagen Microbus became a symbol of peace, love, and happiness in the United States, a new version will land on dealer floors aimed at the modern, and somewhat affluent, hippie.

The ID Buzz has been a concept floating around the blog-o-sphere for at least six months, and now VW has confirmed that it will indeed go into production. However, it won’t happen until after a smaller electric compact car, simply called the ID, goes on sale by 2020. Continue reading >>>

May 31, 2017May 30, 2017 by Matt Smith

Clearing the Air: TDI Aside, VW Still Builds Great Cars

Years ago, a good friend was in the market for a car, and despite trying my best to sell her on a Honda Fit, she was smitten with one particular Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen, which she’d eventually buy and name Gretta. As much as I tried to sway her to the little Honda (It’s great in the city! Fantastic fuel economy! Honda reliability!), I was always greeted with the same answer, spoken in her best German accent: “But Matt… Das Auto!” Continue reading >>>

April 19, 2017April 19, 2017 by tgriffith

Volkswagen’s Punishment Will Electrify America

As part of a settlement with the federal government over its diesel emissions scandal, Volkswagen will help electrify the United States of America by building charging stations and investing $2 billion in electric transportation over the next decade.

And you thought the company would get off with a slap on the wrist.

The federal government saw an opportunity to turn the scandal into something positive and ordered VW to contribute to the next generation of transportation. This could be exactly the kind of jumpstart that electric cars need, because it could conceivably allow EVs to embark on cross-country road trips without fear of running out of electrons somewhere in the middle of Wyoming.

Not that Wyoming will get a lot of attention in the project. California, not surprisingly, will benefit from some pretty major investment. The Golden State currently has more EV drivers than any other, which explains the high concentration of investment there.

In response to the court order, Volkswagen created a subsidiary called Electrify America, which will make four $500 million investments separated by 30-month periods over the next 10 years. Continue reading >>>

March 15, 2017March 15, 2017 by tgriffith

Volkswagen Says It’s “Back on Track”—Would You Agree?

A scandal the size of the one Volkswagen is coming out of would be enough to topple many automotive companies in existence today. With billions of dollars in fines, recall, and repair costs, in addition to criminal charges from the U.S. government, the company took a direct shot to the heart of its brand that left appalled customers clamoring for answers.

Volkswagen could very well have dropped to its knees and succumbed to its injuries. Being the largest automaker in the world, though, has certain perks, and surviving catastrophe is apparently one of them.

The story of VW’s emissions cheating broke in September 2015. Just three months into 2017, the company’s chairman has declared that the automaker is “back on track.”

That statement came just days after VW pleaded guilty to three felonies in a U.S. District Court. How is that “back on track,” exactly? Continue reading >>>

February 28, 2017February 28, 2017 by Matt Smith

Lyft Expands While Uber Reels

Put aside Chance the Rapper’s Grammy win and in-song references to the name-brand ride-hailing app, and the past 30 days haven’t been a great for Uber. This past month, the San Francisco-based tech giant suffered one publicist’s worst nightmare after another, and its competitors are taking notice. While the company nearly synonymous with ride-hailing spends more and more time improving its image, cross-town rival Lyft announced yet another expansion, setting up operations in 94 additional cities since the start of 2017. Continue reading >>>

December 6, 2016December 5, 2016 by Matt Smith

Paris Joins Three Major Cities to Ban Diesel by 2025

At the C40 meeting in Mexico City last week, Paris’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, met with the mayors of Mexico City, Madrid, and Athens, where they agreed to ban diesel cars and trucks from their cities by the year 2025. Although cities like Tokyo have implemented bans in the past, seeing this mandate implemented in traditionally diesel-friendly countries may come as a surprise to automakers that have invested heavily in diesel technology.

September 12, 2016September 12, 2016 by tgriffith

Pleading Guilty: Criminal Charges in Volkswagen Scandal Begin

Here’s a charge most people hope they never have to face in federal court: Conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.

The first Volkswagen engineer to be formally charged entered a guilty plea Friday for his role in the automaker’s diesel emissions scandal. His plea has uncovered new information regarding ten years of deceit and coverups by the German automaker.

We now know that, since the very beginning of Volkswagen’s “clean diesel” program, the company intentionally developed and installed a “defeat device” on roughly 500,000 cars in the United States so that they could appear to pass U.S. emissions tests. We also know that engineers lied in attempts to cover up the existence of the device once U.S. investigators became suspicious.

September 6, 2016 by Matt Smith

Audi Boosts Investment in Formula E

To touch on a subject not normally covered by CarGurus, Audi has announced its expanded involvement in the all-electric Formula E racing series, furthering its support of Team ABT Schaeffler before fielding a full-works team in 2017. Motor racing is an exceptionally expensive business, and with perhaps the exception of Ferrari’s involvement in Formula 1, no manufacturer can simply dabble in the game—there has to be some sort of return on the investment.

August 23, 2016August 22, 2016 by Matt Smith

VW Makes Amends with Diesel Owners, But Isn’t It Forgetting Someone?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever responded to a friend’s complaint by saying, “Doesn’t this seem like a first-world problem?” Are you reading this in your cubicle, hand raised, feeling slightly foolish? All right—put your hand down. Here’s the thing with so-called “first-world problems”: despite their overall insignificance, they’re still real problems. Sure, we wouldn’t rank problems like “the only grocery store in my neighborhood is Whole Foods” alongside “educational inequality is a national epidemic” or “the extreme partisanship infecting the American political process is stunting the possibility of effective change,” but if the only grocery store in your neighborhood is Whole Foods, then the inevitability of spending half your paycheck on (amazing) bananas and homemade hummus could, in fact, very well be a serious personal inconvenience.

August 17, 2016August 16, 2016 by tgriffith

Volkswagen’s Worldwide Sales Up, But Criminal Charges Could Loom

It’s been almost one year since news broke of Volkswagen’s diesel emissions scandal. At the time, we wondered how deep this scandal would go and if VW’s TDI plans were irreparable.

So far, Volkswagen has shown no interest in bringing its TDI line back to the U.S., but seems to have been doing just fine without it. Last month CNN said,

Global sales of Volkswagen cars and trucks have eked out about a 1% gain in the first five months of the year, despite the scandal. May sales gains were even stronger, a sign that the automaker is starting to put the diesel scandal behind it. Its U.S. sales have been down 7% in the first half of the year, although the United States accounts for only about 5% of its global sales.

Volkswagen’s outlook isn’t all rosy, though. This week investigators with the U.S. Department of Justice have found evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the case.