I was reading Yoshi Shindo’s Passat story the other day and it really jumped off the page at me when he said he had “never been the greatest fan of VWs”. Not that there’s anything wrong with liking what you like. It just reminded me of something my boy Steve told me about the VW scene awhile back. He said (I’m paraphrasing): “There’s nothing new about aggressive offset and rolled fenders. VW guys have been doing that for over 30 years.” Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens!

From compact commuter cars and SUVs, to GTs and supercars, most in our “scene” have seen just about every imaginable car “upgraded”- with the possible exception (in my case) of Zach Dunn’s 2007 Volkswagen Passat. I must admit that I had yet to see one of these cars done right. And, since I seem to be in the mood for confession, I’m not going to lie, I’ve never been the greatest fan of VWs. However, the more I see of them (especially this one), the more they’re starting to grow on me. Zach’s 2007 Passat was the first I’d seen that had been slammed and enhanced with superior fitment – and that made all the difference in the world. Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens!

If this this real, this is the most amazing vehicle stunt I have ever seen, and a much better attempt than the Jeep half pipe flip blogged about earlier. To learn more about this stunt sponsored by Bridgestone, visit Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

Remember the movie Cannonball Run (back when Burt Reynolds had a full head of hair)? It was bad ass cars and madmen drivers on an all out road race across America’s highway system. Well, Beetleball has the same concept, only the bad ass cars have been replaced with air cooled Volkswagens. Good news for the drivers, it’s hard to get a Volkswagen to go fast enough to get thrown in jail. The Beetleball Long Beach to Las Vegas Endurance Rally was run October 3, 2009. Nobody was imprisoned but a few VW motors died trying. You can read coverage (now on Memorex) at Jalopnik.

The streets of Miami are filled with tons of high end, exotic cars. From South Beach to Star Island and Coral Gables to Downtown Miami, you can find Lamborghinis, Porsches, and Ferraris littering the streets – you literally see them parked on every street corner. The funny thing, though, is that while I constantly drive right past Lamborghinis with a bored look on my face, I almost jumped out of my seat when I saw this 1967 Volkswagen Single Cab (truck) cruising down the street. To be honest, I had never seen anything like it before. I just don’t see these types of cars every day!

When I saw this Volkswagen Single Cab driving down the street, I was already late to meet up with some friends from out of town who work for a big car magazine, but they would just have to wait a bit longer – this Single Cab had me buggin out because it has so much style. I just had to stop and shoot some photos! Check out the detailed photos and continue reading at MotorMavens.com.

I have loved the VW CC since I saw the first concept car renderings almost a year ago, and I figured this car would blow up in the tuning world. I figured that it had the right lines for a lowered VIP style car, and just today on a forum I frequent one of the guys posted pics of his VW CC dumped. What do you all think? Hot or Not?

Some people have said about the new Golf 6 that it’s more like the Golf 5.5, due to the similar looks to the outgoing model. However, aside from the exterior cosmetic tweaks, the new Golf is actually hiding most of its changes under the skin. So what better way to check it out than to use this cool draggable X-Ray? We also did a comparative video review to highlight the changes with the new model. Enjoy!

I sometimes have people tell me that I have a brake light or tail light out when I am parking in a busy parking lot. Granted it only happens when there is heavy snow, torrential rain, heavy drizzle or dense fog. Why? Because in these conditions I use my rear fog light.

Rear fog lights are not as common in the US as they are not required by law. In some states they are even illegal. The purpose of the rear fog light is quite simple: they make your car more visible to vehicles behind you when visibility is poor. When activated, one (or in some cases two) rearward red lights are constantly and brightly illuminated. If it is a single bulb, it will be on the left side of the car, and will look like a brake light is stuck on all the time. This is because the rear fog is illuminated much more brightly than standard marker lights.

Continue reading after the jump.

Currently only a few manufacturers equip their cars with rear fogs for the US market, including Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes, Range Rover, Saab, and Volvo. Not all models under those marques have them activated, and in some cases, they are becoming less common as new models are released. The only domestic automaker that equipped them in recent history was Oldsmobile in their second generation Aurora. In the case of the European marques, the rear fog is commonly integrated into the normal tail light lenses, and the Aurora had its rear fog lights integrated into the rear bumper. 

The biggest issue with having a rear fog light in the US is the fact that very few people actually know what one is. I can’t count how many times I have seen an Audi A4 driving with their rear fog turned on during a crystal clear night. I don’t know if these drivers actually know that the two fog light buttons in the dash are for front and rear, not left and right. What automaker would allow you to enable only the left or right fog light? 

One thing that is popular for European car enthusiasts is wiring up and activating their rear fog. In the case of VW, the spot for the rear fog is often not used, and all it takes to get it to operate is to cut out the blank in the tail light, and run a switched wire to the pin that goes to the corresponding bulb holder. Once done, the driver can turn on the intense red light during situations when driver visibility is low, or if you want to spook someone that is following too close behind you .

Hopefully those of you that didn’t know what a rear fog was before reading this will now be able to educate those who use them incorrectly, or know to use yours properly if your car comes with one from the factory.

It appears that more companies will be going small to help cope with increasing pressure to have affordable, fuel efficient vehicles. With fuel costs expected to go up again, and increasing pressure by states like California, more foreign automakers are looking to bring over more vehicles to raise their companies average fuel economy. We have seen this more and more recently with vehicles like the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, and the Nissan Versa selling relatively successfully.

In the European import circle, the hot topic going around recently stems from a post on Autoweek.com. From reading that article,  it appears that Volkswagen is looking to bring over its highly beloved Polo hatchback. This is good news for many of us in the US that consider the current Golf (sold here as the Rabbit) a bit too large and thirsty to fit the fuel sipping commuter job position. Many of us are hoping that VW will do this right the first time, and offer both a TDI and GTI version of this vehicle at a respectable price point!

I’m at a loss for this one. Whose spell-checker failed?