Recently, VW re-badged the Dodge Caravans and it didn't go well. Nobody bought it and VW wound up with a surplus for two years before stopping it. VW rarely places their badge on different cars, the only other one I can think of is the VW Taro in West Germany which was a Toyota pick-up.

In the late 1990's in Germany, I rented a Ford Galaxy van. It was a re-badged Volkswagen Sharan. The VW could not go to Prague while the Ford could. "VW's are nice cars which frequently get stolen." It didn't matter to the car rental place if the two were the same. I don't think VW has ever put its badge on a Ford car.

Years ago in Argentina, I saw a similarly named Ford Galaxy, but it was a re-badged VW Corsar sedan (VW Quantum in U.S. or Passat in Germany). No relation to the Ford Galaxy van in Europe except for the name.

Yes, I'm a car nut, now you know how much I know about cars.

That being said, I doubt VW will be using Ford parts in their VW's. Reading the article, I think VW is going to build electric cars.

 

I had a VW Quantum man that car was crap!

 

I knew the VW Corsar because my uncle had one, definitely not the most reliable car around. I lived in México D.F. briefly and he stuck me with that crappy car while he drove around in the new Ford Mondeo.

That was when I had a lot more respect for Ford and decided to look at the F-150 when it came out. Never looked back!

 

I think the neatest (and most expensive) car that VW ever produced was the Phaeton. The platform was used at VW to eat the R&D for Bentley. The Phaeton was available with V8 and W12 powerplants, as well as their V10 diesel motor.
It was a cheap way to get the quietness and comfort of a Bently....albeit at Mercedes level pricing.

Wiki excerpt about Piëch's list of requirements for the Phaeton included:
One of them was that the Phaeton should be capable of being driven all day at 300 kilometres per hour (186 mph) with an exterior temperature of 50 °C (122 °F) whilst maintaining the interior temperature at 22 °C (72 °F).[9] Piëch requested this even though the Phaeton's top speed was electronically limited to 250 kilometres per hour (155.3 mph)

It's an interesting vehicle. So is the V10 diesel Toureg, which required the body to be removed for any engine work.

I suppose my point is that VW does some strange things sometimes...

 

There was V-10 TDI here in the U.S.? Way back in 1995, I rented a V-10 Phaeton and was impressed. Although I did hit 265 km/h according to the speedometer, I think the speed was overestimated. I also did 278 km/h in an Audi A8 with the V-8 TDI although I was told it was limited at 255 km/h. I couldn't verify the accuracy.

I thought about buying one but the resale value was a real nightmare. After all, you don't slap a VW label on an exotic, that was the biggest mistake!

Did the Audi A8 also have to undergo the similar rigorous testing?

 

I'm not sure if anyone was able to buy the diesel Phaeton here in the US. You could get the V10 diesel Toureg here new, now only used.

 

Maybe they will do something all the ones sitting in the parking lot of Pike's Peak International Raceway. They've been there a couple of years. You can still see them on google maps: PPIR VW mess

 

The cars are there because of Dieselgate. I don't think any are new, but if it was a diesel, it might wind up there. Some think all will eventually be destroyed or sold for scrap. Ouch.

 

I spoke to a guy who bought a Porsche diesel Cayenne that was caught up in dieselgate. Thousands off the MSRP with an extended warranty as well. I see an effort to block sales of all those vehicles by some enviro group. How enviro friendly is it to scrap thousands of cars because of this issue?

 

I'd be surprised if that occurred in California. My understanding was that the 2.0 TDI's couldn't be made compliant while others required a simple software update. In fact, some refused to get the software update because they were getting great gas mileage. After the update, gas mileage dropped significantly.

 

 

Moving to general automotive.