2011 Vw Touareg Lux Vr6 Navigation Leather Heated Seats Awd Power Tailgate Black on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Former Porsche CEO Wiedeking indicted over VW takeover bid

Do you recall the failed efforts by Porsche to take over Volkswagen? According to a Bloomberg report, former Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking (above) and ex-CFO Holger Haerter have finally been charged with market manipulation over the exercising of options as part of the German sportscar manufacturer's ill-fated attempt to take over the much larger VW. That failed bid eventually resulted in the reverse coming true - VW swallowing Porsche.
The charges leveled by Stuttgart prosecutors come after a three-year investigation centered around allegations that Porsche execs made a concerted effort to increase the company's share in VW to 75 percent in preparation for a hostile takeover. Porsche had previously told its investors on at least five occasions that it had no intention to buy VW.
Portions of the investigation have subsided, according to prosecutors, citing an inability to prove certain improprieties with a "necessary degree of certainty." The number of charges is down to 5 from a previous 14 counts regarding "information-based market manipulation."

2nd annual Automobile Advertising of the Year Awards revealed

There was some absolutely fantastic auto advertising in 2014, ranging from funny to inspiring. Marking the best of it from the past year, the Second Annual One Show Automobile Advertising of the Year Awards were announced during the 2015 Detroit Auto Show (full disclosure: Autoblog was among the award's sponsors, and Editor-in-Chief Sharon Carty was a voter). Unlike previously, there were no brands with dominance over the list this time. Presented by The One Club, the awards have an international scope and hand out honors in a variety of categories. In the Broadcast TV group, there were three winners this year. First, there was The Scripted Life from Audi for the Q3 about breaking out of life's monotony. Also, Dad's Sixth Sense from Hyundai marketed the safety features in the Genesis. Finally, Unbreakable Drivers showed manly men being tested for the Toyota Hilux in Australia. The Online Video prize went to the fantastic The Epic Split spot from Volvo Trucks starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. The best Interactive ad was the Honda video titled The Other Side for the Civic Type R, and the Experiential Advertising nod was for the Volkswagen Eyes on the Road clip that showed the dangers of texting and driving to a theater full of moviegoers in Hong Kong. Finally, the Public Choice Award went to the BMW commercial called Hello Future using the words of sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke for the i8. In the award not for videos, Jeep won the Print/Outdoor category for its Upside Down campaign. Check the ads out below, which show different animals when upside down. Also, look farther down for all of the winning videos and read their full announcements. View 3 Photos Automobile Advertising of the Year Winners Announced New York, NY (January 13, 2015) – The One Club (www.oneclub.org), producers of the prestigious One Show Awards and Creative Week, today announced the winners for the 2nd Annual One Show Automobile Advertising of the Year Awards. In partnership with the North American International Auto Show (www.naias.com) in Detroit, The One Club today unveiled the best automotive ads from around the world in five categories: broadcast TV, online video, interactive, experiential advertising, and print & outdoor. Winners will be presented on-stage at a special event during the NAIAS Press Preview on Tuesday, January 13, 2015, at the Cobo Center in Detroit at 4:55 p.m. The event is sponsored by AOL's Autoblog.

2015 Volkswagen Touareg [w/video]

The second-generation Volkswagen Touareg has been in production since 2010, and is therefore staring down the last part of its model cycle. To keep buyers interested, the company has undertaken a refresh of its upscale midsize SUV. As is typical of these things, the changes include some exterior and interior rejuvenation, as well as increased content levels and a slight uptick in price. The basics of the styling changes are pretty straightforward. The 2015 Touareg can be pretty easily spotted versus the outgoing model by way of its four-bar chrome grille, a cleaner headlight design, bigger VW badge and a completely new lower front clip. (I got one photo of the old and new models side-by-side for my Twitter followers before we rolled out on the drive.) There's also a thin strip of chrome that runs around the bodywork, standard LED taillights and a selection of three new wheel styles and five new paint colors. Inside, I found it harder to spot the changes, old to new. The Touareg's switchgear has been updated and there's a new frame for the infotainment display, but there's no piece that stands out and says "new model year!" Powertrains and mechanical bits all carryover from the 2014 Touareg, too. But there were a few functional changes to the vehicle, primarily in the new Driver's Assistance Package, for me to take note of as I took a lap of my favorite Ann Arbor, MI driving route. Drive Notes Let me start with the newest news then, the Driver Assistance pack. Volkswagen will sell you this suite of safety gear on either the mid-level Lux or the top-end Executive trims, for $2,500. The package included adaptive cruse cruise control, "Front Assist" for emergency braking situations, lane-keep assist and blind spot monitoring. If the contents of that package don't strike you as revolutionary, you're not alone. Some or all of the technologies that are new to the Touareg have been around other showrooms – and other VW family products – for quite a while. Still, they're nice to have as options. All of the driver assistance features that I was able to test worked as advertised, too. The adaptive cruise uses cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors, so it isn't likely to be impacted by inclement weather, which is nice. I also appreciate that the lane-keep assist (which offers the driver a haptic buzz to the steering wheel when straying out of the lane) can be turned off, or turned down in terms of intensity and reaction time.