2009 Volkswagen Jetta Tdi Diesel Wagon Low Miles Ext 4yr Warranty on 2040-cars

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Yes, a family of 5 can live in a 1981 VW Westfalia van

Automakers and marketers trying to reach environmentally conscious consumers who desire the simple life basically have two strategies: promote electric vehicles that can be charged through green energy or sell a 30-year-old Volkswagen van on Craigslist. Nicolas Boullosa and Kirsten Dirksen opted for Plan B and turned a 1981 Volkswagen Westfalia camper into a "micro-living" experiment. The co-founders of the simple living website faircompanies packed up their van and three young children for a road trip through the Pacific Northwest. They even turned the adventure into a documentary called Summer of (Family) Love, which you can view below. It's two hours long, so maybe add this to your weekend viewing list. They limited themselves to one backpack per person into a camper that they purchased off Craigslist and named "Westy." They stuck to their original intention of cooking all their own meals off a propane stove, creating a new little home every night in a different location, mostly spaces outside RV parks. They met up with other enthusiasts of the "tiny house" community who live like nomads. They were able to interview a few of then and, "With each stop we picked up some new piece of wisdom about life's essentials," Dirksen wrote in the faircompanies blog. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. News Source: Faircompanies via Treehugger Green Volkswagen Green Culture Transportation Alternatives vw van westfalia

VW agrees to halt next-gen rally car development to help others stay in WRC

Volkswagen has petitioned the FIA to hold on to the current specifications for cars in the World Rally Championship, according to Autosport.com. The move is evidently an effort to keep as many competitors in the sport as possible, despite the fact that using the current spec racers may actually hurt Volkswagen's chances at winning. The three factory teams currently competing in the WRC are at the end of a three-year homologation cycle at the end of 2013, and new cars are expected to bow next year. But developing new racers could cost as much as $4.7 million.
That price tag would put M-Sport (which fields Ford racers) out of the WRC game for 2014 and would put Citroën participation in question as well. VW has already begun work on the next iteration of its Polo R WRC, and the hatch has nabbed four wins in six rounds this season. Now it appears that car won't bow until at least 2015. The FIA has officially agreed to freeze homologation of new WRC cars until the end of next season.

Take a listen to the Volkswagen ID 3 and Koenigsegg Jesko

What could better demonstrate our diametric vehicular future than sound clips of the Volkswagen ID 3 and the Koenigsegg Jesko? Battery-electric vehicles don't make enough noise on their own, so VW partnered with composer Leslie Mandoki for the legally-mandated Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) that warns pedestrians and cyclists of the EV's presence. Mandoki — a German-Hungarian who once played drums in a Euro disco band called Dschinghis Khan — was asked to come up with a sound for the ID 3 that VW said "defines its identity," "radiates safety and the promise of effortless mobility," and that "must also impress with its unique character." The definition of the ID 3's single-motor, 201-horsepower character is this: Occupants and people around the hatch can hear the sound as the car accelerates to 18.6 mph, and when reversing. At higher speeds, the sound of wind resistance and tire noise takes over. As our library of AVAS tones grows, it's clear that EVs will provide a soundscape as varied as that of internal combustion engines. Here, for instance, is the industrial thrum used as the Karma Revero GT's pedestrian warning: And here is the sci-fi soaring from the BMW Vision M Next, as composed by Hans Zimmer: At the other end of the aural chamber, we have the Koenigsegg Jesko. In this case, the composer is a 5.0-liter twin-turbo V8 running on a bio-ethanol E85 blend that's almost suitable for IndyCar, powering the engine up to 1,600 horsepower. Output on pump gas will be 'only' 1,281 hp. The Swedish automaker released a clip of the exhaust note of a car in progress inside the Angelhom factory. Here's what we can look forward to: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. All these sounds have a place at the table, even if we'd prefer Karma booked some time with a producer and an Autotune session. To paraphrase Sesame Street, though, one of these sounds is definitely not like the other.