Don't Underestimate the Force: VW's 2012 Super Bowl Ad Teaser

The undisputed winner of last year's Super Bowl ad war was Volkswagen and its little Darth Vader spot, which has garnered some 49 million views on the German automaker's YouTube channel alone since last February. So why change a winning formula?

While Volkswagen is keeping its plans firmly under wraps for now, the company did publish a teaser spot that shows a pack of dogs barking in the tune of the Star Wars Imperial March.

The Germans also tell us to "keep an eye out" for the 2012 Super Bowl game day commercial as "it will all make sense". You can peep the...bark side of the force in the video trailer after the break.

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Volkswagen's 256HP Golf R gets its Own iPad App

The marketing buffs over at Volkswagen have gone to work to promote the newly launched in the U.S. Golf R with the release of a dedicated iPad application called the “Golf R Drivers Forever”.

The app covers the history of both the regular Golf and Golf R models in the States and includes a variety of photos and videos, a brochure with tech specs, a 360-degree view of the car and even an interview with designer Chip Foose on the VW brand and the Golf.

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Volkswagen Drops New Photos and Videos of its Facelifted CC

On the occasion of the European press launch of the facelifted CC in Southern France this week, Volkswagen released a fresh batch of pictures and videos of its mid-size model.

The CC, which made its world premiere at the Los Angeles Auto Show last November, will first go on sale in Germany and Luxembourg in the beginning of February, followed by the rest of Europe at the end of the same month, and then globally, including America, Russia and Asia in spring 2012.

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You Can't Beat Gravity: VW Gol Rolls Down a Steep Road and Crashes

You may be able to put up a fight, but in the end, gravity will always take you back from where you started – especially if you don't take the necessary safety measures…

Three men were trying to push a three-door Volkswagen Gol, which looks like it's an Alfa Romeo Arna - but we could be completely wrong, so feel free to enlighten us in the comments section below- up on a very steep road, purportedly in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte.

We don't know if someone was actually in the car and the brakes failed or if the three men wrongly assumed that they could handle it themselves (probably the latter as in the beginning of the video, the man in the green shirt looks like he's turning the wheel from the outside), but the result is the same as the hatchback escaped and rolled down the road crashing into a parked vehicle.

Roll down the jump to watch the video.

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VW E-Bugster Study Zooms into the Detroit Auto Show

If you liked Volkswagen's approach with the new Beetle then chances are you're going to give a thumbs up to the E-Bugster study that made its world premiere at the Detroit Auto Show this week.

Wider, lower and sportier looking that the regular Beetle, the concept's name blends the words "E" (for electric), "Bug" and "speedster". It's closest relative is the similarly styled Ragster study back from 2005.

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Volkswagen Brings All 6 Generations of the Golf GTI to the Track

The year is almost up yet Volkswagen continues to celebrate its much vaunted Golf GTI's 35th birthday. Over the year we saw the Germans release the production Golf GTI Edition 35 as well as numerous concepts including a Cabriolet at the Wörthersee meeting in Austria.

Now, just before 2011 comes to an end, Volkswagen's UK division released a video showing all six generations of the Golf GTI on the racetrack and which we presume, is a preview for something a little more exciting as there's not much action going on in this clip.

You won't be missing on much, but if you're still interested, you can watch the video after the break.

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VW to Return to Super Bowl with New 60-Second Ad on the 2012 Beetle

There's no doubt that this year's Super Bowl XLV played host to some original commercials but the one ad that stood out more than the rest was "The Force" from Volkswagen, the official YouTube version of which has garnered over 45 million views since it aired on February 2.

Volkswagen actually aired one more commercial during the game, the “Black Beetle”, which has been seen by more than 5 million viewers on the German firm's channel.

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New VW Up! Commercial Reminds us of Big Things that went Extinct

"The future belongs to the small," says Volkswagen and to prove its point, the German automaker came out with a new commercial for the recently launched Up! city car.

The advert takes us on a quick journey through history showing us numerous "big things" that eventually went extinct, from dinosaurs to 1940s swimsuits and from 1970s sideburns to 1990s lexicons.

The spot is smart, to the point and reaches the Up!'s youthful target audience. Hop over the jump to check it out.

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Ad Watch: Volkswagen Tiguan and the Parking Duel

No matter where you live, searching for a parking space is a frustrating experience and can often lead to a confrontation with another driver vying for the same spot.

Recently, advertising agency DDB Argentina took this modern day problem and morphed it into a clever car commercial title "Volkswagen Tiguan: The Duel" to showcase the compact SUV's hands free parking system.

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VW Signs WRC's Hottest New Driver, Sebastien Ogier, for its 2013 Assault [with Video]

We all know that when the Volkswagen Group puts something in its mind, it will achieve it no matter what: the Bugatti Veyron is a perfect example.

Now that VW has decided to enter the FIA World Rally Championship with the new Polo R WRC, it wants to make sure that it will be competitive from the first race. Consequently, it will enter the championship in 2013, having a full year to test its new car.

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Consumer Reports Questions if VW's Press Cars are the Same as the Ones Found in Dealerships

Credibility is like virginity: once you lose it, you never get it back. Therefore, motoring journalists try to be as objective as possible (well, most of them, anyway) and report all their findings, good or bad alike when they take a car for a test drive.

However, Consumer Reports [CR], asks a rather intriguing question concerning this issue: are the press cars driven by motoring journalists the same as the ones bought by the public?

It's true that, despite quality control, two cars of the exact same make, model and specification that roll out of the same plant may differ in certain aspects such as fit and finish or actual engine output by a few ponies, but those differences are most of the times imperceptible to the human eye.

Earlier this summer, Volkswagen gave Consumer Reports a 2012 Passat from its press fleet for a first drive. CR's Jon Linkov noticed at the time that, unlike the Jetta, the U.S.-built 2012 Passat sedan's trunk hinges were dressed up in plastic.

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Watch a High-End Technician Try to Install a Subwoofer on a VW Golf Cabrio

We could be wrong but a car audio installer holding a hammer and wearing a speedo with a tool belt wrapped around his waist, white socks and fancy flip-flops from the days when Richard Nixon was in presidency, doesn't seem like the kind of guy you'd let anywhere near you vehicle (or your house for that matter), let alone try to connect a subwoofer.

Still, if you have your doubts, you can hop over the jump and watch this craftsman in some hammer-time action.

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Spicy VW Beetle R Concept Makes its U.S. Debut at the 2011 LA Auto Show [Updated Gallery +Video]

Officially, it’s just a concept, but the wording on VW’s press release hints at a production version of the Beetle R that was first shown at the 64th IAA in Frankfurt before it made its North American debut today at the LA Auto Show.

Developed by Volkswagen R GmbH - that is, the same people responsible for the Scirocco R and Golf R models, the Beetle R is said to show “the potential for an ever sportier version of the Beetle”.

The company also claims that the 200HP turbocharged 2.0-liter of the Beetle Turbo “could offer even more performance, similar to that of the Golf R and Scirocco R”.

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Video: Road Rage Quickly Escalates to a Boxing Match but Ends with a…Handshake! [NSFW]

"Road rage" is described as any display of aggression by a driver of any type of vehicle against another motorist because of something that happened on the road.

And while most drivers will experience road rage in some form or another in their driving history, in most cases, these incidents leave only verbal insults ringing in their ears.

But once in a while, you get that crazy driver that will launch a physical attack and then…all hell breaks loose. And that's exactly what happened during this incident, which according to one of our readers, took place in the U.S. Ottawa, Canada.

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VW Releases New Beetle Apple App that Interacts with Billboards

Mobile apps are becoming increasingly popular these days as tools to market products and services. This has not escaped the attention of automakers and their respective advertising and marketing divisions, which try to create apps to draw the attention of consumers.

Following the recently launched FT-86 app by Toyota, Volkswagen of Canada has also released its own interactive app to promote the new 2012 Beetle named "VWJuicedUp".

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Video: Volkswagen Unleashes Guerilla Campaign for Small Up! City Car

To demonstrate how important size is when it comes to parking in modern day cities, Volkswagen launched a new guerilla campaign for its new Up! city car right outside the Frankfurt Motor Show hall.

In the early hours of the morning, the German company's marketing team covered a line of cars in textiles featuring a life-size print of the new Up!.

You can watch the video right after the break.

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VW Accessories Commercial Welcomes the New Beetle to the 21st Century

Volkswagen's new/old approach to the second generation of the New Beetle (not counting the original Bug), continues with this latest commercial that promotes the available customization options from its Accessories division.

The setup is fairly futuristic with the owner of the 21st century Beetle fiddling around with a virtual configurator that features a laser-like interface to build the car of his dreams.

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Volkswagen Zubehör: Business Class (and Accessories) for All

In an attempt to sell more Zubehör (accessories) to its international customer base, Volkswagen’s German arm created a web campaign based around the concept of “Business class for all”.

The TV ad, which you can watch in full below, features a woman dressed in 1960s air hostess stewardess flight attendant attire and a host of accessories now available for the 2012 Volkswagen Passat.

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Video: Man Sets Guinness World Record for Tightest Parallel Parking

Under the supervision of an official Guinness World Records [GWR] adjudicator, German driver Ronny Wechselberger, also known as "Ronny C-Rock" (be careful with the spelling here…), set a new record earlier this year for the world's tightest parallel parking.

Mr. C-Rock was able to slide his VW Polo with the help of the handbrake into a parking space measuring just 26 cm’s (10.24 inches) longer than that of his vehicle. Even though the record was set in April 2, 2011, the Guinness World Records officials released the video today.

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VW Demonstrates its Handsfree Auto Pilot in Action [Video]

Back in June, Volkswagen revealed its Temporary Automated Pilot (TAP) system at the HAVEit (Highly Automated Vehicle for Intelligent Transport) event in the city of Boras in Sweden.

TAP can assume control of the car using all its active safety systems without any intervention of the driver, who simply monitors the situation.

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