2001 Glx 4 Motion 2.8l V6 30v Automatic Awd Sedan No Reserve on 2040-cars

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VW readying new VR6 with forced induction

Volkswagen built a stonking, narrow-angle V6 in the 1980s and 1990s that was found in three different generations of the Golf (their performance iterations, obviously), three generations of the Passat, the New Beetle, the Corrado and the Touareg, among other VWs, a spate of Audis, Seats, a Skoda, and even the Porsche Cayenne. It was a sad day when it was announced that it'd be put out to pasture.
Rejoice, though, fans of the venerable VR6, because Volkswagen has a new, modern variant in the works that, according to AutoWeek, features direct injection and can easily be fitted with forced induction. In fact, AW mentions Volkswagen insiders that claim this unit will spawn a production version of the twin-turbo V6 shown on the Design Vision GTI from this year's Wörthersee festival. That unit produced an epic 503 horsepower and 413 pound-feet of torque.
Don't expect a production unit with that level of power (although it would make a hardy RS4 powerplant), though. In reality, AutoWeek is suspecting anywhere from 340 to 450 horsepower from the new mill. When it arrives at an undisclosed date in the future, it'll likely be found in the Passat and Passat CC as well as the production version of the CrossBlue.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.

More automakers working to turn your smartphone into a shareable digital car key

The smartphone killed the phone book, audio player, the pocket digital camera, handheld GPS devices and voice recorders. Now that addictive, transistor-filled candy bar is coming for your car keys. The Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) announced that it's unveiled Digital Key Release 1.0 Specification for its member companies, which is the first step in standardizing protocols. As of now, the potential is there for drivers to download a digital key that can lock and unlock the car, start it, and transfer the key to another operator in order to share the car. The CCC's aim is to save development costs, stave off a glut of similar-yet-competing technologies, and create keys that reflect the expanded use cases for cars, i.e., car-sharing services and to-your-car delivery. Next year's Release 2.0 Specification will standardize an authentication protocol between the phone and the vehicle — how a digital key is generated on a secure server and transmitted to the car and the device — and "promise more interoperability between cars and mobile devices." The CCC says that "NFC distance bounding and a direct link to the secure element of the device" will assure security. We take that to mean the phone will need to be in direct contact with the vehicle, at least to open the door. Carmakers and suppliers have been working on digital keys for years now, and the ecosystem for individual owners to open individual cars is growing. Audi showed off its Mobile Key at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, and now calls it Audi Connect Key, but we haven't seen much of it in the field. That same year, Volvo said it expected to sell cars with digital keys only by 2017, which clearly didn't happen. Last year, the head of sales at BMW asked, "Honestly, how many people really need [keys]? They never take it out of their pocket, so why do I need to carry it around?" Even though a digital key offers an owner more convenience and long-distance control over their vehicle, car sharing is the target — and that can even include traditional rental cars. In 2013, Continental began testing a digital key in France, aimed at integrating and simplifying the electric-car-sharing business; everything from finding a free vehicle to driving it and charging it could be done on a phone. A key could be programmed with the driver's information, so that any car the driver gets in will be automatically updated with that driver's preferences, say for audio or seating position.