The New Concepts

The Concept D is VW's design study for its next luxury class flagship car, which is aiming to attract business customers and buyers of sporting luxury cars.. This luxury saloon will be built in Volkswagen's brand new transparent factory in the centre of Dresden, the capital of the state of Saxony, from the beginning of the next millennium.

The car will likely feature a V10 direct injection diesel two banks of five cylinder giving an engine capacity of 5.0 litres. The proposed Bi-Turbo TDi engine gives an output of 313 bhp at 4000 rpm. This massive engine powers all four wheels via a Tiptronic automatic gearbox.
The car has been styled by VW Germany's top design team to give the car a sleek professional, yet sporty look to attract the sort of high flying business customers who also want a luxury car with obvious performance underpinnings. Amongst its many top of the range features are: air conditioning, stereo system, navigation system and the reversing camera, which is integrated into the VW symbol on the boot lid.
The concept D represents Volkswagen Group’s diversification into the luxury market, while VW continues to produce mass market cars with its renowned engineering, the Concept D is definitely one for the board room boys (and girls).

Another concept from Volkswagen is the W12 concept car, (above) a first for Volkswagen, being a pure performance sports car. Called the W12, because it has a compact 12 cylinder / 5.6 litre engine, it is essentially two 6 cylinder engines with a shared crankcase in a 'W' layout, producing 420 bhp at 5800 rpm.
The engine is positioned just in front of the rear axle and drives all four wheels via the Volkswagen Syncro six speed gearbox. The body is a monocoque construction with scissor-type upward swinging doors.
As far as Volkswagen are concerned this is a major departure from their peoples car image, this is certainly a car for the few.

All Volkswagen Group communications and photos reproduced with permission of Volkswagen UK

VW Clocks Up 511,000 Miles

Cab driver Brian Sanders is halfway to his first million - in miles travelled in his trusty VW. Brian has driven his J-registered dark red 1992 VW Caravelle people carrier 511,000 miles - further than a trip to the moon and back - in just six years. He has worn out three clutches and a gearbox, but the original engine is still going strong. Proud Brian, 56, said "By all accounts she's clocked up more miles than any other VW on the road in Britain. She's been my pride and joy for six years and she's never once let me down. The engine sounds as sweet now as it ever did." His main route is taking holiday-makers between Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and Manchester Airport, has taken good care of his vehicle since he paid £14,000 for it. He said "The gap between services is only 5,000 miles and sometimes I do that in 10 days, but I've never missed taking her in to be checked over. I've gone through five service manuals, and in return she's just run and run." Brian, who started driving after being made redundant from his job as a colliery under-manager, added: "I just fell in love with the Caravelle when I saw her parked on the dealer's forecourt. The way she's running now, I reckon she'll reach a million miles without any problem at all."

Source: ltv-vwc.org.uk