1935-1949 Chevrolet Parts Interchange Book / Catalog / Original 48 47 46 42 41++ on 2040-parts.com

New VW Beetle gets new engines

Volkswagen has finally made the new VW Beetle available with the 2.0 litre TSI petrol and 2.0 litre turbodiesel engines. When we reported the other day that the new VW Beetle Convertible was arriving at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November we did say that VW were about to announce the arrival, finally, of the 2.0 litre TSI petrol and 2.0 litre TDI diesel for the Beetle to make it a bit more appealing. It seems VW must have been listening as they’ve now announced that you can grab a new Beetle with either the more powerful petrol or the diesel engine, which should help sales of the new Beetle.

First Sight: Skoda Octavia

The new Skoda Octavia was unveiled earlier this week in the Czech brand's museum at its home in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic. Car Design News was in attendance to check out the third generation of what the company calls ‘the heart of Skoda'. The new Octavia is the fourth model in the Volkswagen Group to be built on the new MQB (Modularer Querbaukasten) platform.

E85 makes inroads on cost and availability

Three years ago, we embarked on a Midwest road trip in search of what was then the Holy Grail of fuel: E85. Our findings weren't too positive--there were far more E85-compatible vehicles on the road in 2006 (5 million) than there were E85 pumps to fuel them (about 700 out of some 200,000 fuel stations nationwide). In addition, those burning the mix of 15 percent gasoline and 85 percent ethanol were paying a pretty penny for their earth-friendly ways, losing about 15 percent in fuel economy while often paying the same price as for regular unleaded.