New Volkswagen Polo Sedan: Jetta's Little Brother Revealed

You're looking at the all-new four-door sedan version of the latest Volkswagen Polo that was officially revealed today in a world premiere in Moscow. The new Polo Saloon extends the German firm's range of sedans into the small car segment and will be built on a completely new assembly line at Volkswagen AG's plant in Kaluga, Russia.

VW says that the Polo Saloon is the first car in the history of the brand to have been developed specially for the Russian market, bearing in mind its specific climate and street conditions.

Among other things, this translates to the use of more robust paints and chrome parts that are highly resistant to aggressive agents, and a suspension geared to bad roads.

In Russia, the Polo sedan will be offered with a new 1.6-litre Otto engine producing 105-horsepower. It can be combined with either a 5-gear manual gearbox or a 6-gear automatic gearbox with sequential shift function (Tiptronic).

It will be available in three trim levels - Trendline, Comfortline and the range-topping Highline that comes with standard side air-bags and ESP.

The company did not release any more details on the car nor did it say if and when it will be available in other markets outside Russia.

VW Develops Customer Magazine as an App for Apple's iPad

Volkswagen is the latest automaker to jump into the bandwagon of Apple's iPad by developing a digital customer magazine as an app specially for the tablet computer. The magazine goes by the name DAS, which stands for "Digital Automotive Space". It will be published quarterly in five languages and will be accessible throughout Europe.

"DAS is an important building block in Volkswagen's digital marketing strategy and gives us the opportunity for an interactive dialog with our customers," says Luca de Meo, Head of Marketing at VW. "Our goal is to transmit the fascination of the brand and its products in a new digital dimension, creating a global experience."

For those of you that don't own or don't plan to buy an iPad, VW said that it will also publish an internet version of the DAS that will be available from the end of June.

Volkswagen Group Buys 90.1% of Italdesign Giugiaro

Ending days of rumors, the Volkswagen Group announced Tuesday it was buying a 90.1 per cent stake in Italian design firm and Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A. as part of its global expansion plan, without, however, giving out any information on the financial aspects of the deal.

The German automaker said that the shares are being acquired by AUDI's Italian subsidiary Lamborghini Holding S.p.A., while the Giuigiaro family will keep a 9.9 per cent stake in the Italian company that generates sales of over €100 million (US$122 million) and has a workforce of some 800 employees.

"The Volkswagen Group will be continuing its model initiative over the coming years and will benefit from the capacity and competence of Italdesign. The company will therefore be making an important contribution to our 2018 global growth strategy," said VW CEO Martin Winterkorn.

Italdesign's Giorgetto Giugiaro said: "Becoming part of the Volkswagen Group means revaluating ourselves and our strength. Entering Volkswagen means to open up a promising perspective for the company."

Founded in Turin by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani in 1968, the Italian styling house has created many vehicles models for the VW Group including the Golf I and concepts for important models such as the first Volkswagen Passat, Scirocco and the Audi 80.

Italdesign has also worked on a series of models for the Fiat Group including the Fiat Punto and Grande Punto and Alfa Romeo 156 /159 and Brera.

It remains to be seen if Italdesign Giugiaro will continue to work on projects for other automakers in the future or if the company will concentrate on the VW Group's portfolio.