Volkswagen has simultaneously debuted the new Beetle this week both at the New York AND Chinese auto shows, in probably the biggest coup yet for the fast, fast-growing Shanghai show.

Already, the world loves it. The Beetle’s like that: everyone knows it, even if they are impassive to cars. By the looks of it, everyone loves it now, too, in a way they 1998 New Beetle could never quite manage.

If you can’t quite put your finger on it, Volkswagen gave a helping hand a few weeks before the shows. It didn’t show the full car – but DID show one of those crafty outline sketches so beloved of German-brand car designers.

(The idea is to define a car in as few a strokes as possible. Porsche were the first ones to do this, from memory, but now many’s the launch where the key side graphics of the car in question are shown on lanyards, press kits and press conference notepads.)

Thus, by the power of some very basic Photoshop manipulation, see the gallery below for why the new New Beetle is so cool, and the old New Beetle is so dowdy…

What’s interesting is how the outline sketch doesn’t show off the Beetle’s bold wheelarches. Surely these are just as much of a trademark as the side profile itself? Or, does Volkswagen reckon the REAL defining elements of the Beetle really can be paired back to just two lines?

I knew I’d love it from this sketch alone, though. The higher and flatter (and More Euro NCAP-friendly) front is nicer, and the flatter roofline plus more bug-like rear windowline is much more like a Beetle should be, to me. It’s a refinement of the original, rather than just scaling up the first one, cartoon-like, for modern times. A more sophisticated reinterpretation that I think works really well.

However, if any car design and car stylist experts wish to comment on the art and science behind the success of the new New Beetle, please be my guest!

Volkswagen has saved the home to one of its most famous cars.

Fittingly, it’s with the car that later saved the brand when the Beetle was substituted from the mainstream. Yes, the Golf.

As of March 18, production restarted at Volkswagen’s Osnabruck plant in Lower Saxony. This has only been a Volkswagen facility since 2009, mind: before then, it was the Karmann plant, which used to produce models such as the Mercedes SLK and Spyker C8 Spyder on a contract basis.

Volkswagen, of course, has worked with the Karmann chaps in the past, and not just on the Karmann Ghia. It’s made the Beetle Cabrio, Golfs Mk1 and Mk3 Convertible, Sciroccos I and II, Type 34 and the sublime Volkswagen Corrado. Quite a VW-centric history (and that’s before you throw in Porsches 912, 914 and 968).

Karmann, though, went into administration in April 2009, due to falling demand. Many of its contractors were taking the cabrio or coupe-convertible models Karmann specialised in back in-house.

Volkswagen revealed it had made an offer to buy its old pal Karmann in October – sealing the deal the following month (with rival roof maker Valmet taking on some of the CC-building facilities). And now, production has restarted… with a new Cabriolet version of the Golf.

1250 jobs have been saved, and 1800 people will be employed there by the end of the year. ‘Many past joint projects unite us with the colleagues here,’ said Bernd Wehlauer, Deputy Chairman of the Volkswagen Group Works Council.

It’s a lovely story, that is set to grow: In the future, Osnabruck is also going to serve as an ‘overflow’ plant for the Porsche Boxster and Porsche Cayman. This used to be served by Valmet in Sweden, but that deal ends next year when Valmet starts making the Fisker Karma (indeed, it’s already started production).

Osnabruck’s total capacity? 100,000. That’s a lot. What else does VW have planned for Osnabruck, then? That’s the really intriguing part: time will tell…

+ VW Passat 2011: A Flickr road test

+ Volkswagen Golf dials in extra speed

+ The perils of practice on a press car

It is now common to experience the same engine in a multitude of cars.

The VW Group 1.9 TDI was my first experience of omnipresence, but thanks to intra-brand deals, there are now a huge selection of powertrains shared by different brands.

Fiat Powertrain has just celebrated a landmark for one of them – the 4 millionth 1.3 MultiJet has just been produced. The 1248cc turbodiesel has been around since 2003, and I first experienced it in the Fiat Idea.

Since then, it’s been in all shapes and sizes: I’ve driven it in:

• Vauxhall Astra
• Fiat Panda
• Fiat Grande Punto
• Vauxhall Corsa
• Vauxhall Meriva
• Vauxhall Tigra
• Suzuki Swift

It’s been in much more besides. So, what’s it like? What are traits that are common to all versions? Well, characteristics that seem to be inbuilt include:

1 Cold start clatter

No matter what it’s in, the clatter this engine makes when its cold will shock – even in the relative big-car refinement of the Astra.

2 Smoothness

… extremely smooth. Japanese engineers obsess about not feeling any engine vibration through the steering wheel, even at idle. This is why they hate diesel. This is why they’ll find this one a little bit more acceptable.

3 Low gearing

A relative lack of torque means it has to be low geared: fall off boost and it will be left lagging, particularly in larger heavier cars. That’s why it’s rarely granted a six-speed gearbox, and why it always spins away at 2500rpm-plus on the motorway. Thankfully, it’s…

4 Reliance on turbo

because it’s so small in cc, the turbo has to do all the work. You notice it when changing gear – until the turbo wakes up again, there’s a pronounced lull in momentum.

5 Revability

Because it’s so smooth, it makes it the most rev-happy diesel I’ve tried. Low inertia and brilliantly balanced, it thrives on its low gearing and happily charges to the redline. So long as you don’t mind the noise: that’s why you turn up the stereo.

Other 1.3 MultiJet facts? Apparently, it was the first MultiJet engine to go into worldwide production, and was Engine of the Year in 2005. It’s built in Poland and, since 2008, also in India.

The 4 millionth 1.3 MultiJet is going to France, within a Fiat 500; could really have been in anything, though, such is the breadth of its installations

But why 1.3, I have always asked. 1248cc means, technically, it is a 1.2. It’s undoubtedly marketing that led to it being upgraded to a 1.3.

The least they could have done was be honest, like Ford, and call it 1.25…

God is in the details, and how VW engineers know this.

The 2011 VW Passat is a masterpiece of detail engineering – taking the base of the existing Passat and honing it to the nth degree, rather than throwing it out and replacing it in its entirety.

Some would say this is VW smartly saving a buck or two. I would say it’s VW granting its engineers free reign to do what they do best – pour over the details and obsess over the intricacies.

The 2011 VW Passat is the perfect example of this. It’s familiar to the old one, but just that bit better, in every area. Many of these have been covered in great detail elsewhere, which is why I’m taking a different approach.

Find out, thus, what little intricacies impressed me on the 2011 VW Passat, via my VW Passat Flickr Road Test…

+ Volkswagen Golf dials in extra speed

+ Security threat for VW-conquest Renault drivers

+ Skoda inspired by Volkswagen Golf

The Volkswagen Golf Bluemotion has a speedometer that reads up to 160mph.

Slightly optimistic, that: the official top speed is 118mph. It still would have earned me top rankings in the ‘who’s dad has the fastest car’ league, though.

But now, look at the Golf GTI dial set. Same dials, same layout, same colourscheme – but, lo: the speedo’s sporting a different scale, with slightly smaller numbers. That’s because it reads up to 180mph, befitting the GTI’s extra potency.

There’s more, too. The Golf R is obviously different, thanks to its gorgeous blue needles. Notice something else, though? Yup, the speedo scale is even more condensed – because it reads up to a full 200mph.

The story of progressively faster Golfs, in a family of three instrument packs. And it’s not a precedent VW’s setting here with the Golf 6, ether: it’s always used different scales for Golfs of increasing potency.

The Golf 2, for instance, came with a 120mph speedo scale as standard. In the GTI 8v, it crept up to 140mph. And the gorgeous Mk2 16v? You’ve got it – 160mph was its prize.

In a way, then, the Golf Bluemotion is, in the dial stakes, taking up where the 16v Golf 2 left off.

And, neatly tying up it all? Yes, thanks to www.golftiforum.co.uk, a Mk2 160mph dial conversion that sports a Golf 6 R-style blue floodlight colourscheme.

VW details: see why there’s such a cult following?

It’s the little details that car geeks delight in, and there are few family hatchbacks more packed with them than the Volkswagen Golf.

I may (ahem…) have mentioned I rate my long-term Golf Bluemotion highly. Hard not to, I so willingly sing from the clouds. Not when it’s packed with details like this…

Being a cooking eco Golf, it comes sans climate control. Instead, heating stratification is entirely manual. I turn knobs and press buttons, rather than press buttons and let computers automatically do the hard work.

But, not quite. See, I’m not the biggest fan of continuous air con. It dries the air and wastes fuel – neither of which is ideal for this Nivea-loving green geek.

Using air con does, however, help clear condensation more quickly. Essential stuff in the wintertime, particularly when using de-icer on the outside (did you know spraying it to clear one side actually increases condensation on the other?).

So, for those unaware of this, and to make life easier for those who do, is a Volkswagen detail to delight in. Running with a/c off? Turning the stratification dial full to windscreen automatically turns the a/c on. Switch it away again? It goes off. Utter genius.

Yes, it sounds incredibly minor, but it’s details like this that show just how delightfully well thought out the Golf actually is. See this in action and you have absolute confidence in the shape of the seats, the profile of the torque curve and the weighting of the clutch pedal. It’s all been poured over, refined, perfected, over 6 generations.

The Golf isn’t the only car that’s enjoyed such a long and successful lineage, of course. But it is an example of a car that’s benefited, not suffered, because of it. Volkswagen has used the gathered intelligence to make each subsequent one better, rather than rest on its laurels and recycle the same old/same old.

A Golf may apparently be a Golf, no matter what its generation, but each one still packs plenty to please the geeks. Real car fans will appreciate it for demonstrating their fetish on a higher plane. It’s details like this that Volkswagen must never lose.

Conquest customers are every car maker’s dream buyer. Not only is it a sale for them, it’s a sale their rivals are not getting – a double win, of sorts.

Be warned though, if you’re a lifelong VW Group stalwart, who’s switched over to Renault after being seduced by the incredible damping development present in every recent model.

Because, you may just be unwittingly gifting thieves an open door.

Check out the image above: on the left, is a VW flip key. On the right is one of Renault’s new VW-mimicking flip keys, more satisfying than the eminently losable keycard, and more than up to VW build standards.

The same, then? No – and herein lies the risk for those unaware conquest Renault drivers.

Check out the other side of the VW key. Top button? Locks the car. After a day or so, you’ll be doing it by feel, without looking. The learned response muscles do so well, in action.

Compare, though, to the Renault key. Same feel, same trip of buttons, same location… but, no, not quite!

There, see, the top button UNLOCKS the car. If those muscles don’t relearn, then, reflexes will be gifting robbers the contents of your glovebox and more besides.

Customers will learn this, eventually, I guess. For motoring journos, though, it’s a different matter.

Cue airport car parks at launch time, dotted with Renaults offering easy pickings to fans of half-eaten Ginsters, fuel receipts and Starburst grab-bags.

Next event, I will be checking…

SKODA has just launched the Superb estate to the UK press, prior to its on-sale date this Friday (26 February 2010).

Much delight from me on a brief launch visit – particularly with the value, the space, the rear legroom, the prices, the lush ride and the sublime 1.8 TSI engine.

For under £19k, it’s an utter, utter bargain. If I had a growing family, I would have one – full stop.

During the drive, though, I was amazed to find yet more to love. (If you know me, or visit here on occasion, you’ll know I’m not kidding, either).

Yes. The Skoda Superb estate has an oil temperature readout. Just like on a VW Golf GTD.

Almost as good as that, the dials do a fancy full sweep when you turn the ignition key. Just like on a VW Golf R.

It also has a rechargeable magnetic torch in the boot, that will shine a bright-white LED for 2 days non-stop. This isn’t like a VW Golf at all. But is just as car geek-pleasing.

I’d get me coat, naturally. But I lost it in the Superb’s 1865-litre boot. Ahem.

Golf R dials cool blue point

Oil be: It’s back

Colour lightens weird journo mood

VOLKSWAGEN made our jaws drop in the 90s with its blue and red dials.

The key to it was, yes, the blue background, rather than the red needles. Red needles? Pft. We’d had them for years – it was a proper old school sporting trick, up there with punched leather steering wheels. And shiny black bits for the dash. And strict adherence to primary colours for seat trims.

There’s reason to salute Austin Rover here, too. The Maestro bringing us illuminated needles made VW’s work of genius over a decade later all the more (ahem) illuminating.

By Lord, though, did the R32 cause my dropped jaw to fall off. Years after people had genuinely started buying VWs for the blue and red dials, VW gave us super-special dials for its superhatch. With, yes, BLUE needles! On an ice-white background! Rrrubrubrub!

And so they continue in the latest Golf R.

I had to photograph and film them. See, if I hadn’t done so, I would have to stare at them while driving, and would crash. Indeed, my dially preoccupation would be complete if I called up the oil temperature readout, too.

Details such as this make cars. Well, they do for me, anyhows.

Look out soon for my thoughts on the lights switch backlighting illumination of my new SEAT Exeo ST long-termer. I know, I know – you can’t wait. I promise you, it’ll come soon…

Volkswagen Golf R dials on YouTube

Oil be: It’s back

BMW orange instruments

VOLKSWAGEN is finally pensioning off its long-serving 1.9-litre TDI diesel.

The car that really gave the modern diesel credibility has had a good innings, but it’s now being put out to pasture, after driving (almost) billions of VW Group cars off the production lines.

It’s been around in the Golf since 1994, after production was slowly ramped up in the Audi 80. Coming to the Golf was big-time for this then-startling new powerplant; because, unlike its rivals, Volkswagen had mated 1896ccs of blown four-pot to direct injection.

Controversial, this was, at the time. Direct injection is noisier and rattlier than indirect, you see; every single driver who’s experienced the 1.9-litre’s characteristic rattle ever since will attest to that.

The benefits, foresaw canny old Volkswagen, come in more compact combustion chambers. These lose less heat to the surrounding coolant – which, VW reckoned at the time, equals a 15 percent efficiency saving.

It was punchy. 90hp at 4000rpm was superb for 1994 – particularly in the 1145kg Golf (yes! I had to double-check: 1145kg, for the ‘heavy, safe and solid’ MkIII Golf? Now, a Clio weighs more…). This saw it to 60mph in 11.5secs; fast enough to have Autocar & Motor asking when the GTi-bodykit version would arrive. (Seems they were ahead of their time, too).

But just as impressive was the 149lb/ft torque output, particularly as it came in at just 1900rpm. This, remember, was before the days of PD pump-jet injection; the 1.9-litre TDI’s trademark low-rev surge is an inherent trait, it seems. It’s a damn strong engine from the innards out.

OK, said Autocar & Motor, the tickover is ‘boisterous’, which may put some off. Back in those diesel-pensive days, it more than likely did. A £2k price premium over oil-burning French rivals didn’t help its cause, either. But, such it always is for VW.

This couldn’t dim the significance of a fine engine, though. Even its first mainstream installation saw it mark itself out as special. Evolution through the years, particularly in the MkIV Golf, underlined its place in history.

Will its replacement, the 1.6-litre TDI, be as venerable? Time will tell. For now, though, here’s a cup of oil to a diesel that I’ve seen, through car magazines, develop, delight and dominate. Classic Diesel, here’s your first-issue feature car…

Volkswagen Golf looks to history for GTD inspiration

Volkswagen Golf GTD photostream on Flickr

Audi lit the way in ’88