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Volkswagen NMC production guise caught in China

Chinese car site Autohome has what are said to be the first pictures of the Volkswagen New Midsize Coupe concept in production form. VW's NMC was just introduced at the Beijing Motor Show, while background chatter indicated it would go on sale in China, Autohome says that production version will be built at the Shanghai-Volkswagen plant in Ningbo, and the retail guise could be introduced at the Guangzhou Motor Show in November and go on sale that same month.
Assuming this is the production car, its main lines have made the jump from the concept but with less fine detailing, a silver hue and with conventional VW wheels it's lost a little bit of oomph. Still, a few checkmarks on the option sheet can fix most of that, the shape remains handsome and the 2.0-liter turbo underhood keeps performance peppy and mileage frugal enough. You can head to Autohome for a couple more photos of a sedan we'd be happy to make room for over here.

Volkswagen Tiguan tunes up for Frankfurt show

Volkswagen is in the phase of testing where it's simply beating the crap out of the next-generation Tiguan. The German manufacturer is conducting high-altitude towing tests in the Alps of mules wearing the production-ready body of its second-gen compact CUV. This is the first time we've seen the Tiguan in its production body, and despite the ample camouflage, the resemblance to not only the Passat sedan, but the Cross Coupe GTE and CrossBlue concepts, is clear. That's particularly true based on what we can see of the new Tiguan's grille and headlight treatment. In back, the Tiguan will adopt a more sporting roofline, particularly in the aggressive rake of the D-pillar. It's significantly different than the current car, and frankly, that's no bad thing. Expect the usual array of gas and diesel four cylinders with both front- and all-wheel drive on offer. On the high end, meanwhile, our spies claim a 300-horsepower R model could eventually be added to the range. Aside from its new look, future variants could see the crossover spawn both a long-wheelbase version and a coupe-like model. That said, we're wondering how a long-wheelbase Tiguan would fit into the VW range alongside the long-rumored, American-built, three-rower. According to our spies, though, neither one of those vehicles would arrive until well after the vehicle shown above debuts. As for when we can expect to see the second-gen Tiguan, our spies point to September's Frankfurt Motor Show. Be sure to check back then.

Porsche board members facing another ˆ1.8B lawsuit over VW takeover bid

Back in 2008, Porsche got the bright idea that it could take over Volkswagen in the midst of the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Ignoring that this was a catastrophic move for the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer that that eventually resulted in it nearly going bankrupt and eventually being taken over by the same company it sought to control, the aftermath has left Porsche Chairman Wolfgang Porsche and board member Ferdinand Piëch in the crosshairs of seven hedge funds that lost out during the takeover and are now seeking €1.8 billion - $2.43 billion US - in damages from the two execs, according to the BBC.
See, investors bet on Volkswagen's share price going down, partially because Porsche said it wasn't going to attempt a takeover. But Porsche was attempting to take over VW, having bought up nearly 75-percent of VW's publicly traded shares. When word broke that Porsche owned nearly three-quarters of VW (which indicated an imminent takeover attempt), rather than go down like the hedge funds bet it would, VW's share price skyrocketed to over 1,000 euros per share, according to Reuters.
Naturally, when you bet that a company's share price is going to drop and it in turn (temporarily) becomes the world's most valuable company, you lose a lot of money, unless you're able to buy up shares before prices jump too much. This led to a squeeze on the stock, which the hedge funds accuse Porsche and Piëch (who are both members of the Porsche family and supervisory board) of organizing.