Volkswagen Enthusiasm In America

Text from Volkswagen of America. In fact, historians will quickly point out that tuners of VW vehicles have been an essential element in the growth of the enormous automotive enthusiast aftermarket since the earliest days of SEMA. Later, when the kit car market exploded, most of the faux sports cars were built around VW Beetle floorpans. When Volkswagen switched to front-engine, front-drive cars in the mid 1970s, the new wasserpumpers immediately became favorites not only with tuners in Europe but with a small, hardcore group of enthusiasts in America. Today the GTI badge has come to represent VW’s best qualities, and it’s still often used as the basis for a racing sedan or rally car. Volkswagen worldwide has, of course, been very active in motorsports for decades. Instead of spending millions of dollars on an exotic F1 car or a World Rally Championship program, though, it concentrated on supporting the competitors in grassroots motorsports and in series which prepared drivers for the big leagues of racing.

The best known of these series was the Robert Bosch/Volkswagen Super Vee Championship. Spanning 20 years from 1971 until 1990, its success was supported by the longest-running commercial sponsorship in U.S. From 1978 on, the Super Vee single-seater race cars were powered by slightly modified 1.6-liter four-cylinder engines - the same ones that powered production Rabbits, Golfs and Sciroccos of the day. The series proved to be a great training ground for numerous professional drivers, including Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Geoff Brabham and Arie Lyundyk. During the same period, the Rabbit/Bilstein Cup series for stock VW Rabbits became another crowd pleaser at race tracks across the country. It was closely fought racing, especially when the Rabbits ran on oval tracks, and spectators often compared the intensity of Rabbit/Bilstein racing to stock car battles. Volkswagen’s first official appearance at the SEMA Show demonstrates the company’s efforts to strengthen this rich, long history of performance enthusiasm. Founded in 1955, Volkswagen of America, Inc. is headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany. Volkswagen is one of the world’s largest producers of passenger cars and Europe’s largest automaker. Volkswagen of America and its affiliates employ approximately 3,000 people in the United States and are responsible for the sale and service of Audi, Bentley, and Volkswagen products through retail networks comprising in total more than 900 independent U.S. Volkswagen AG. "DSG" is a trademark of Volkswagen AG. All other trademarks used in this document are the property of their respective owners.

The Macan is still the best-driving car of its type, even with this smaller, less powerful engine. Its steering has a lovely weight and just the right rate of response for a car of this size and bulk. That’s because those suspension tweaks have yielded genuinely hot hatch-bothering grip. It’s allied to the four-wheel drive, which isn’t flummoxed by slippery conditions, and which easily and evenly distributes power to where it’s needed. Traction is superb and the way the system shuffles the motive force around helps agility. It’s a Macan trait, and the Jag can’t match this car’s handling ability. On the firmest suspension setting roll is nicely contained, but the ride does take on a less composed edge. The middle mode is a better bet for sporty driving, while the default comfort setting means the Macan glides more over the road. On optional 20-inch alloys you do feel thumps and bumps, but they’re still nicely dealt with and body movement is well curtailed. It still feels more dynamic than the Jag, even if it sometimes sacrifices a little of the bigger F-Pace’s ride comfort.

There should be no worries about performance. The 2.0-litre engine isn’t the most musical, but it delivers the goods. The Porsche covers 0-60mph in 6.1 seconds, a full two seconds quicker than the Jag. A smaller footprint means the Macan isn’t quite as roomy inside, and nor is its boot as big. However, with 500 litres on offer, there’s still plenty of luggage space - enough for a family’s bags. A powered tailgate is standard. The rear of the cabin is more cramped than the Jaguar’s, but this is relative and there’s still adequate room in the back. Tall people will feel a little tightly squeezed, while the Porsche’s more tapered roofline means headroom isn’t quite as good as in the boxier F-Pace, but this difference isn’t too pronounced. Visibility is good, even over the shoulder, and the raised seating position makes the car easy to drive. Porsche didn’t feature in our latest Driver Power satisfaction survey, but its reputation for reliability stems from its success in endurance racing.

Its road cars should be just as dependable, and because the mechanicals are similar to the previous Macan’s, this bodes well. Safety isn’t quite as strong as the Jag’s. Autonomous braking is packaged with the £1,802 optional Traffic Jam Assist adaptive cruise, and while lane-departure warning and eight airbags are standard, lane-keep assist and blind-spot warning cost £413 each. A five-star Euro NCAP rating from 2014 still stands, although the test wasn’t quite as strict as it is now. The Porsche brand has very strong residuals - our experts predict the Macan will retain 20 per cent more than the F-Pace, at 62.6 per cent. This means it’ll shed £17,314 after three years or 36,000 miles, and so will be worth £29,030. This compares with an estimated residual value of 42.4 per cent for the F-Pace, which is expected to lose more, at £26,504, and therefore be worth £19,526. Budget plenty for servicing, insurance and road tax on these premium vehicles; both incur the VED surcharge, so will cost £450 a year to tax.