Does VW know what it’s doing? Will they ever get the pickup right? We covered this ongoing struggle before over the summer, and the results were not all that pleasing. Acting as if it has just come up with something totally revolutionary, VW’s new “Pickup Concept”, which premiered this fall in Hanover at a commercial vehicle show, is probably a few decades too late. Why is the usually uber-practical “car for the people” trying to reinvent the wheel? With foreign companies like Toyota, Nissan and Honda already successful with their tons of steel, and sometimes with way too much horsepower, what would possibly behoove VW to want to trot out a fully-designed truck now. Read the rest of this entry »

In the category of “Do We Really Need This?”, let us add the new line of Volkswagen pick-up trucks that were announced recently. That’s right. The same German automaker known for economical models such as the Rabbit and the iconic Beetle has managed to outdo itself in utter dopiness. This is about as bad as their idea that consumers would pay over $80K to buy the heavy, under-selling Phaeton, the once-flagship car for VW, until people realized it was just a fat, overstuffed Passat. The company, which has had some successes with the new streamlined Passat, including the launch this summer of the new Read the rest of this entry »