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Adventures in lazy badge engineering | Autoblog Podcast #505

On this week's podcast, Mike Austin joins David Gluckman to look back at some of the less labor-intensive badge engineering the industry has seen over the years. They also recap what they've all been driving lately, and the episode wraps up with Spend My Money buying advice to help you, our dear listeners. Also, in honor of episode 505, here is a picture of a Peugeot 505. The rundown is below. Remember, if you have a car-related question you'd like us to answer or you want buying advice of your very own, send a message or a voice memo to podcast at autoblog dot com. (If you record audio of a question with your phone and get it to us, you could hear your very own voice on the podcast. Neat, right?) And if you have other questions or comments, please send those too. Autoblog Podcast #505 The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics and stories we mention Kia Sportage Kia Niro Volkswagen Golf Audi A4 Used cars! Rundown Intro - 00:00 What we're driving - 01:31 Badge-engineering fun - 20:54 Spend My Money - 33:41 Total Duration: 1:07:57 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Feedback Email – Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show on iTunes Podcasts Audi Kia Volkswagen Crossover Hatchback SUV Wagon Sedan kia sportage kia niro

VW beams in Star Trek stars to promote e-Golf EV

Volkswagen just set its e-mobility commercial phasers on stunning. The German automaker has cast Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame (i.e., actors William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy) in a new advertisement for its growing stable of electric vehicles. Even though it's in German, we think you can get the idea. VW went Hollywood and cast the two veteran actors in a futuristic-themed 45-second ad, which sees Shatner cruise up in the e-Golf (with a toothy Trek-fan kid in tow) while Nimoy rocks the XL1 and the Trek theme blares in the background. Forget for a moment that the kid in the commercial wasn't even born when Shatner started pitching for Priceline, let alone the original Trek series and just enjoy the wholesome good humor of Shatner saying that the electric powertrain is just like the one in a spaceship. If you've got any familiarity with Spock, you should be able to understand his punch line, too. Of course, if you'd rather your German vehicle advertisements were set in the Star Wars universe, we recommend clicking here. VW will bring the e-Golf to the states in November at a price of $35,445, about $6,500 higher than the Nissan Leaf's starting pricetag. You can see the new ad and a number of related behind-the-scenes videos (in English) below. Our Quick Spin of the E-up! are available here. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

VW fix would have cost $335 per vehicle

Since the Volkswagen diesel kerfuffle began, Bosch, the world's largest auto supplier, has been hooked up to a bullhorn trying to make sure everyone knows its side of the story. Bosch supplied VW with the engine management testing software, including delivery and metering modules, that VW then used to skirt emissions laws in the US. Bosch told VW in 2007 that it was illegal to use the software in cars it planned to sell yet VW did it anyway, according to reports coming out in German newspapers Bild am Sonntag and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. That first warning came two years after VW started developing the small-displacement diesel, around the time that the two men pushing its development, then-brand chief Wolfgang Bernhard and engineer Rudolf Krebs, were telling their superiors that the engine needed AdBlue urea injection to pass US emissions. VW cost controllers wouldn't approve the AdBlue solution because it would add 300 euros ($335 US) to the cost of the vehicle. Bernhard and Krebs left the same year that Bosch advised VW about the software, two years before the engine went into production. That's when things get cloudy. A report in Automotive News says that when Martin Winterkorn took over in 2007 as head of the VW Group and brand, he asked Ulrich Hackenberg and Wolfgang Hatz to keep working on the engine, and "[the] engine then ended up in VW Group diesels" with that problematic software still intact. No one has yet pointed any fingers at this latter chain of command, but like a game of Clue, right now they're the professors in the library holding the candlesticks. Warnings didn't only come from the supplier: Frankfurter says VW's initial investigation has found that an engineer issued the same caution to the company in 2011. Neither Bosch nor VW would comment on the reports.