GTi

2012 VW Golf R: Less fun than the GTI

During a drive program in the Santa Cruz mountains, I had the chance to drive the 2012 Volkswagen Golf R and GTI, if not back-to-back, at least on the same day. The Golf R proved a speedy, sure-footed little hatchback, but ultimately I had more fun in the GTI.

On paper, the Golf R looks great: 256 horsepower and 243 pound-feet of torque from its turbocharged, direct-injection, 2-liter, four-cylinder engine, all-wheel drive for added cornering grip, and a six-speed manual, the only transmission available, setting the tone for driver engagement.

With 56 more horsepower than the GTI, I expected the Golf R to show a lot of lag from a larger turbo.… Read more

CNET Roadside Assistance 034: Can cold weather freeze your car speakers? (podcast)

Can cold weather ruin your car speakers? More of your insights into self-driving cars, recommendations for cheap cars that are fun to drive, and our plans to review the VW GTI.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 34 SHOW NOTES

Stop-motion Suzuki builds itself (video)

Building a car is no easy feat. Creating a time-lapse video of the building of a car adds an element of complexity. However, creating a cohesive stop-motion video documenting the in-garage assembly of a rallying Suzuki Swift GTi over the course of many months, while cool, is downright insane.

Fortunately, Michal Bakiewicz is insane. He's done just that and published his video to YouTube. Check the video out below to see (or rather, not see) Michal in action.

Is the hatch making a comeback?

Today, a Ford press release crossed my desk with an interesting tidbit about the sales figures for its new Ford Fiesta. It turns out that the majority of buyers have chosen the five-door hatchback body style over the more conventional four-door model. Apparently, someone at Ford thought this was newsworthy, but for me, it was sort of a no-brainer: the five-door was always the better car in my eyes. But that got me to thinking, "What is it with Americans and hatchbacks?"

We're big fans of hatchbacks here at CNET Car Tech, particularly those of the hot … Read more

Volkswagen Rabbit runs on vegetable oil?

As we've seen a little bit of this week, old school Volkswagen Rabbit owners can get creative in terms of maintaining their bunny cars. In today's video we observe a Rabbit owner who describes how he runs his bunny on vegetable oil. Really? Let's see...

The narrator walks us through the two-tank setup running in waste vegetable oil along with the diesel fuel that this VW Rabbit is designed to take. The narrator does an excellent job in describing step by step how the process works and all the car parts involved in making this process happen. … Read more

The Volkswagen Rabbit Thunder Bunny

So far this week we've featured a few of the ways that Volkswagen Rabbit fanatics have upgraded this cult automobile. But let's suppose that you don't have the time, money or know-how to enhance your Rabbit...thankfully VW has already done (some of the) work for you in the form of the VW Rabbit Thunder Bunny. But you're probably not going to be able to locate a Thunder Bunny on your local VW sales floor, as unfortunately Volkswagen dropped the Rabbit name once again in favor of the Golf for the most recent model year.

While … Read more

A VW Rabbit gets independent throttle bodies

So as we saw in Monday's video blog, there are some car owners who not only love their Volkswagen Rabbits, but also want to update and upgrade their European bunnies. Well here's another adventurous Rabbit owner who sought to give his cottontail a power boost under the hood and did so with a little help from some independent throttle bodies.

For those of you not familiar, a throttle body controls the air intake into the engine in correlation to the pressure put on the accelerator. And this VW Rabbit gets blessed with a few Suzuki GSXR 650 throttle … Read more

This Week: Updating the Volkswagen Rabbit

I'm sure many of you observed or enjoyed the Easter holiday weekend with your families, and that those of you with kids may have been paid a visit to your home or local park by the Easter Bunny. While your young ones are probably big fans of this holiday creature, there are quite a few car geeks out there who are big fans of another kind of bunny--one that has four wheels and no fuzzy cottontail. In case you need me to spell it out, I'm talking about the little ol' Volkswagen Rabbit--a vehicle that has been rechristened … Read more

Top racing game for iPhone

Real Racing GTI is essentially a free, Volkswagen-sponsored preview of the popular racing game Real Racing. Real Racing GTI prominently features (not surprisingly) the new Volkswagen GTI, in six different colors, complete with Volkswagen ads on the track and a "showroom" in which you can check out a video and interior shots of the car.

As with the full version of the game, the gameplay and first-person interface are exceptionally good, striking just the right balance between an arcade driving game and a full-on racing sim. You can choose between five different methods for controlling your car, switching … Read more

Car Tech Live Podcast 142: Honda hybrids, Infiniti EVs and punishing driving while texting

Honda talks about bigger hybrids, Cash for Clunkers might have been a huge boondoggle, Infiniti will get an electric car, should DWT be punished harder than DUI? And we take you for a ride in the frustratingly fun Scion xB.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 142 SHOW NOTES

• Should DWT being punished more severely than DUI?

• CNET drives the new 2010 VW GTI

• CNET review of the 2010 Scion xB

• World distance record claimed for driving an electric car on a single charge

• Wacky driving robot being developed at MIT… Read more