2006 Volkswagen Jetta Tdi Sedan 4-door 1.9l Diesel 1 Owner on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Recharge Wrap-up: Zero takes electric motorcycles to cop expos, Chevy Volt powers dealership's Internet

Zero Motorcycles will be at three law enforcement conferences this month, including COPSWEST Training and Expo, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Law Enforcement Vehicle Test and Emergency Vehicle Product Expo and International Association of Chiefs of Police Expo. Zero will display its recently debuted 2015 line of electric motorcycles at the events including the new FXP, a police-duty version of it FX "Stealthfighter." Zero also offers the MMX, SP and DSP for police and military use. Learn more about the events in the press release below. Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn told European regulators that more stringent emissions standards too soon will be a major problem for automakers. He says that such moves could prove "fatal" for an auto industry that is still working to develop cleaner vehicles. "Every gram of CO2 that we save in our European fleet costs our group almost 100 million euros," says Winterkorn, "100 million that we have to invest in advance, without knowing when these investments pay off." He says that already creating emissions targets beyond those set for 2020 could harm European automakers competing globally. Read more at Automotive News Europe. When a Detroit Chevrolet dealership lost its Internet connection, it turned to one of its Chevy Volts for a temporary fix. After the regular connection at Buff Whelan Chevrolet went down, it plugged in a Volt showroom model equipped with 4G LTE, and used its connection to resume business. The car can handle up to seven connected devices, so the team used a Malibu to connect the rest of its computers. When a customer asked why the Volt was on, the team explained the whole situation, leading to one impressed customer. Read more at Automotive News. Zero Motorcycles To Attend Law Enforcement Conferences 2015 Police and Authority Motorcycles to Appear at IACP SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Oct. 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Zero Motorcycles, the global leader in the electric motorcycle industry, announced today that it is attending three leading law enforcement conferences in October: - COPSWEST Training and Expo. October 6-9, 2014. Long Beach, California. - Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Law Enforcement Vehicle Test and Emergency Vehicle Product Expo. October 16, 2014. Fontana, California. - IACP Conference and Expo. October 25-28, 2014. Orlando, Florida. "These events provide a great opportunity to present our patrol motorcycles and accessories.

Volkswagen looking to acquire Proton, Lotus?

Let's say you're an automaker bent on world domination looking to grow your sales. That's going to have you looking at Asian markets, because that's where some of the biggest growth has been, and that's exactly what Volkswagen is doing as it considers making another run at Malaysia's Proton.
Reuters reports that Volkswagen is interested in at least a partial stake, if not a controlling interest in Lotus-parent Proton as a way to continue a production presence in the region without having to build its own factory.
Volkswagen already builds the Passat in a DRB-HICOM facility in Pekan, Malaysia, and plans are in place to build the Jetta and Polo there, as well. With both southeast Asia and its relationship with Proton figuring so importantly in Volkswagen's plans for expansion, buying into Proton can help ensure stability. Volkswagen is being tight-lipped about the whole idea, but CEO Martin Winterkorn did recently say, "it's our clear goal to continue the successful (expansion) course of past years with great dynamics and stability," which sounds an awful lot like deals are on the table to smooth the path to further growth.

Why this could be the perfect time for Apple to make a car play

While the automotive and technology worlds have been pouring billions into autonomous vehicles (AVs) and preparing to bring them to market soon as shared robo-taxis, Apple has mostly sat on the sidelines. Of course, Apple is the last company to ever make its intentions known, and the super-secret tech cult giant hasn't been totally out of the AV game based on the clues that have slipped out of its Cupertino, Calif., citadel over the past few years. Related: Apple self-driving cars are real — one was just in an accident News first broke in 2015 that it had assembled an automotive development team, in part by poaching high-profile talent from car companies, to work on a top-secret self-driving vehicle project code-named Titan. (Thank you very much, Nissan.) Apple also subsequently broke cover by making inquiries into using a Northern California AV testing facility and receiving a permit to test AVs on public roads in California. But then as the AV race started to heat up in the last few years, Apple reportedly began scaling back its car activities by downsizing team Titan. More recently, Apple's car project has shown signs of life with the hiring a high-level engineer away from Waymo and luring one Tesla's top engineers and a former employee back to Apple. It also inked a deal with Volkswagen to provide a technology platform and software to convert the automaker's new T6 Transporter vans into autonomous shuttles for employees at tech company's new campus. That is a far cry from giving rides to Wal-Mart shoppers, like Waymo is doing as part of its AV testing in Phoenix. But this could be the perfect time for Apple to enter the AV market now that ride-sharing is reaching critical mass and automakers and others are planning to deploy fleets of robo-taxis. Apple could easily establish a niche as a high-end ride-sharing service – and charge a premium – given its cult-like brand loyalty and design savvy. The growth of car subscription models could also play in Apple's favor since is already has many people hooked on paying for phones in monthly installments – and eager to upgrade when a new and better model becomes available. To achieve this, some believe Apple will fulfill co-founder and CEO Steve Job's dream of building a car. And as the world's first and only $1 trillion company it's sitting on a mountain of cash that certainly gives it the means. But other tech darlings like Tesla and Google have discovered how difficult it can be to build cars at scale.