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If VW defaults on loans it may sell Bentley or Lamborghini

If something goes catastrophically wrong with Volkswagen Group's recent $21 billion loan, brands like Bentley or Lamborghini could hit the auction block. According to two insiders to Reuters, the beleaguered German automaker agrees with its creditors to sell assets if the company somehow can't pay back the debt in a year. One of these anonymous people claimed the company hasn't yet deliberated over what to sell. However, the sources were willing to speculate that the power engineering portion of Man could be among the first to go. "Volkswagen may also consider divesting luxury car brands Bentley and Lamborghini or motor bike brand Ducati, although these units don't really move the needle," an insider said to Reuters. VW Group negotiated with the banks earlier this week to get the massive loan. The cash is necessary as a buffer in case the automaker doesn't have enough money on hand to repair vehicles or settle upcoming fines. VW would reportedly issue bonds in the spring to begin paying the debt. The company's bills will start racking up quickly in the new year. German authorities mandate a recall there in early 2016, and repair campaigns in the US for the 2.0- and 3.0-liter diesel engines are inevitable. There are also hundreds of class-action lawsuits to settle. The company needs to resolve its CO2 emissions scandal in Europe, too. In response to these financial threats, VW management created a cost-cutting plan to slash the research and development budget by $1.1 billion next year.

Watch Chris Harris in the electric VW ID.R waste a McLaren 720S

The Volkswagen ID.R doesn't have much in common with a McLaren 720S, other than the fact that they are both performance-crazed cars. One gets its power from batteries, the other from gas. One uses electric motors, the other a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8. One is a halo prototype vehicle, the other is a road-legal supercar available for purchase. So when Chris Harris and "Top Gear" decided to "race" the two against each other, it was more of a demonstration of the VW's unreal capabilities than any sort of real competitive faceoff. In episode five of Top Gear's 28th season, which just aired February 23, the trio of Harris, Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness welcomed Youtuber KSI on the show and ventured out on a luxury sports car road trip with an Aston Martin, Porsche, and Ferrari. Separately, Harris took to the track to test out Volkswagen's golden egg of the moment, the ID.R. As VW fully launches into its electric-vehicle push, the ID.R is meant to exhibit what battery-electric technology is capable of. With two electric motors, one on the front axle and one on the rear axle, the 2,425-pound ID.R has four-wheel drive and makes a claimed 670 horsepower. As Harris notes in the video, the ID.R. was not built for a specific regulation-bogged racing organization or competition, and thus, it's only held back by the rules of Mother Nature and Father Physics. Since the car's debut, it has been annihilating records around the world, including at Pike's Peak, Goodwood, the Nurburgring, and Heaven's Gate. Chris Harris didn't set any records in the ID.R., but he certainly showed how outrageous this machine is. The 710-horsepower 720S can go from zero mph to 62 mph in less than three seconds, and the ID.R has a sizable lead within that same time. Again, this wasn't an instance of test-and-conclude, it was a show of perspective. The ID.R is a race car, so even though the 720S is one of the best supercars in the world, it never stood a chance. See for yourself above. Related Video:    

VW's credit ratings could take a beating

In addition to a significant drop in its share price already, Volkswagen's diesel emissions scandal is continuing to have major financial repercussions on the German automaker. According to The Detroit News, credit rating agencies like Standard & Poor's and Moody's changed their forecasts on the company to negative, and Fitch has considered doing so, as well. Volkswagen appears to have the money to cover the costs of this ordeal, but the agencies question the effect that this has in the long term. "Moody's concern, however, is that Volkswagen's alleged breach of US environment rules and, especially, the process by which that breach occurred, will have an adverse effect on its reputation and credibility within the global passenger car markets," the company wrote in a note to investors, according to The Detroit News. VW has initially set aside $7.25 billion to fix things, but the potential shakeup of top executives has caused some investor uncertainty, too. The actual costs for VW to deal with this scandal are still unknown. In the US, the Department of Justice has begun a criminal investigation, and with other automakers the government has settled for $900 million against General Motors and $1.2 billion against Toyota. Attorneys general in 29 states have started looking deeper, according to The Detroit News, and regulators in Europe, South Korea, and Canada have commenced their own probes, as well. Related Video: