2014 Volkswagen Jetta Tdi on 2040-cars

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Get ready to Camino-ize your fourth-generation VW Jetta with this kit

Inexpensive, small pickup trucks used to be everywhere in the US, whether they were from Japanese brands like Datsun or Toyota, the truly weird Subaru Brat or even from Europe with the Volkswagen Caddy based on the Golf. These days that market has completely disappeared, but if you're willing to pick up some tools to build your own, there's a company out there bringing the Caddy back as a kit for the Jetta.
Mark Smith knows a thing about building a vehicle at home. He has over two decades in the DIY-car business as a co-founder of Local Motors and the company that became Factory Five Racing. His latest venture is Smyth Performance and already offers a mid-engine, VW-based kit called the G3F. His new product, though, started as a fluke. "I just wanted a shop truck," said Smith to Autoblog. He already had a Ford F-450 but found that he was driving around with the bed empty most of the time. The result was a pickup truck based on the fourth-generation Jetta that he dubbed the Ute.
The kit retails for $3,500 and ships in three, big boxes, and it's designed to be built and painted in a weekend. Buyers get fiberglass exterior panels, a fiberglass rear window surround, sliding rear window, an aluminum reinforced bed with a tubular steel subframe, taillights, a fully functional steel tailgate, and other parts. In the end, you get a vehicle with a six-foot bed and a payload of around 700-750 pounds. The Ute maintains all of the factory suspension, fuel tank and emissions equipment and requires just a few cuts in the body to complete. "We did a modern Caddy," admits Smith.

Volkswagen breaks 40-year-old sales record in 2012

The last time Volkswagen moved this many vehicles in America in one year, Richard Nixon was still a President in good standing, Let It Be was a radio hit and each car wearing the VW badge boasted an air-cooled engine. That's right, with a grand total of 580,286 vehicles sold in the US last year, the VW Group has broken its own four-decades-old sales record by 2,899 vehicles.
Of that 580k total sold, 438k were Volkswagens and 139k were Audi products - increases of 35.1 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively, in year-over-year sales. The ultra-premium members of the VW group also fared well; Bentley delivered 2,315 vehicles for a 23.3-precent increase, and Lamborghini delivered 520 units for a 52.9-percent jump. Bugatti, we're told is "right on track."
Jetta (pictured) sales paced the marque with 170k models sold, and Passat also finished very strong with sales of 117k total. Tiguan also racked up its best year on file, with 31,731 models shifted.

Volkswagen caught testing hotter Golf R 400

We're getting closer, folks. Last we heard, Volkswagen gave its super-hot Golf R 400 the green light for production. And before that, we were told that if the car got the go-ahead, it would be offered in the United States. So here we are, with a fresh set of spy shots showing what we believe to be the R 400 out testing. Here's one dream that might just be coming true. The prototype seen here sports bigger brakes, different wheels, very low-profile tires, a front lip spoiler, and a wing around back – that last bit looks to be borrowed from the GTI Clubsport. It's not nearly as outrageous-looking as the original R 400 concept, but that's okay with us. Volkswagen's production hot hatches have always been pretty subtle. We love a good sleeper. Under the hood, expect a turbocharged powertrain tuned up to over 400 horsepower. It'll be mated to a dual-clutch transmission and 4Motion all-wheel drive – two parts of the current Golf R package that work very, very well. There's no telling exactly when we'll see the production Golf R 400, assuming it's actually, really, finally happening. All we can do now is wait. And salivate.