The seventh generation of the Volkswagen Golf is on its way with the world premiere planned for the Paris Auto Show in the fall of this year. But you already know about that.

Chances are you are also aware about the fact that it will be the second VW Group model after the upcoming Audi A3 to make use of the company's highly flexible and more lightweight or MQB platform, as well as a new version of the 1.4-liter TSI petrol engine with a cylinder deactivation system to further improve fuel economy and CO2 emissions.

The Geneva Salon may not be the prime place for tuners, but it is one of the two most important motor shows in Europe together with the Frankfurt and Paris events that alternate each year, and as such, big players in the industry like ABT Sportsline always have something new to show.

At this year's event, ABT will debut several new tuned models including the Volkswagen Up! and Beetle, and the Audi AS6 Avant and QS3 crossover.

It won't be long before VW officially presents the 2013 Beetle Cabriolet, as according to sources, the world premiere is planned for the New York Auto Show this April ahead of an on-sale-date later in the year, but our scoop photographers snagged new shots of a nearly camouflage-free prototype while undergoing its final tests.

The test car seen in these photos featured a trick disguise around the headlamps, the lower part of the front bumper and the taillights to make it look like the older model.

Just like its predecessor, the new Beetle Cabriolet, also known as a Convertible in certain markets, comes with a traditional folding soft top and seating for four.

The new Cabriolet will have a stiffer body structure, resulting in less shake and improved handling.

First seen at last year's Tokyo Auto Show, the new VW Passat Alltrack is now available for order in select markets around Europe.

We revisit it today because the German automaker has seen fit to afford us with a new crop of images that show the high-ridding estate model in a different light.

The Audi A4 Allroad's more economical cousin gets all the usual bells and whistles expected from an estate model turned into a soft-roader.

Volkswagen is taking platform sharing to the next level with its brand-new Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) vehicle architecture that is flexible enough to be used in some 60 different models ranging in size from the VW Polo and Seat Ibiza to the next generations of the Audi TT sports car and the VW Passat.

We'll have the chance to see the first application of the MQB platform with the new Audi A3 hatch at next month's Geneva Auto Salon followed by the Mk7 VW Golf at the Paris Motor Show in September.

As evidenced by these spy photos, the German automaker has also began developing the MQB platform for the next iteration of the global Volkswagen Passat codenamed B8 (not to be confused with the North American market model) that is due in 2014.

The vehicle seen in these pictures is a test mule, meaning that VW's engineers have placed the body of a current Passat Estate on top of the new MQB platform, which features wider front and rear tracks.

Volkswagen has just released a new spot that employs the use of a Fast and Furious-style Honda CR-X de Sol from the mid-1990s to promote its revised 2012 Tiguan SUV and more specifically, its safety credentials. Obviously, the goal here is to draw the attention of a younger crowd.

You can watch it in the video that follows after the jump.

When it comes to sales, there's nothing like a good start to get the positive mojo going, especially when you're faced with a crisis in a large market such as Europe.

For the Volkswagen brand (we're talking about VW alone not the VW Group), 2012 started on slightly a positive note as the company reported worldwide passenger car sales of 419,200 units in January, which represents a 0.1 percent increase over the same month last year.

You may remember that at last year's Wörthersee fest in Austria, Volkswagen showed the Golf GTI Cabrio and Golf R Cabrio concepts. Today, we learn that there's a good chance that we'll see, if not both, at least one of the drop top models entering production.

The news comes from British car magazine Autoexpress that claims Volkswagen will introduce the production version of the Golf GTI Cabrio at next month's Geneva Motor Show.

If true, it could be the last version of the sixth generation Golf before Volkswagen lifts the covers off the new model at the Paris Motor Show this fall.

At the 2012 Chicago Auto Show, Volkswagen will reveal the most fuel-efficient version of the new Beetle in the States, the TDI, which is powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel engine producing 140 horsepower and 236 lb-ft of peak torque. The same powerplant is offered on the North American Jetta and Passat TDI models.

The diesel engine can be mated to either a six-speed manual gearbox or VW’s dual-clutch DSG six-speed automatic, with the German automaker predicting a fuel economy of 29 mpg city and 39 mpg highway.

That's a significant improvement over the base 170HP 2.5-liter gasoline engine that returns an estimated 22 mpg city and 31 mpg highway with a five-speed manual, and 22 mpg city and 29 mpg highway with the optional six-speed auto.

Volkswagen is no stranger to the art of designing snow sleds as the German carmaker has marketed some nifty pieces modeled after its automobiles over the past few years.

For 2012, the Wolfsburg-based company has released two new sleds that are currently available for order exclusively from its official German website.

At an event held today at its headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, Volkswagen revealed its new "Modularer Querbaukasten" or MQB platform that will form the base for the upcoming seventh generation Golf as well as a large number of other mainstream models.

The MQB is by far the most important platform architecture in the group, as it will be used in the next generations of the Volkswagen Polo, Beetle, Golf, Scirocco, Jetta, Tiguan, Touran, Sharan, Passat, and CC, as well as the soon-to-be revealed Audi A3, and all the other derivatives from Seat and Skoda.

A key feature of the platform is its flexibility in terms of wheelbase length, track width, wheel size and seating positions. Other dimensions such as the distance between the pedals to the wheel center are always the same and provide a unified front-end system.

Admittedly, Volkswagen's advertising agency had some pretty big shoes to fill with its 2012 Super Bowl ad after last year's game day commercial "The Force", which has since garnered some 50 million views on the company's own YouTube channel alone, but we're not so sure it has succeeded with the "The Dog Strikes Back".

The German company aired today the extended 75-second long spot online with the 60-second version of the ad running in the second quarter of the Big Game on February 5.

It’s no secret that Volkswagen has wanted to add Porsche to its portfolio for quite some time now. After Porsche tried to acquire the VW Group without any success, the two companies decided in 2009 to complete a merger until the end of 2011.

The plan, however, was put on hold after lawsuits followed in the U.S. and Germany by Porsche shareholders who claimed that the latter had attained a debt of €10 billion (US$13 billion) in acquiring the majority of VW’s common stock.

The strong economic growth in the Asia region continues to interest the Volkswagen Group, which has decided to begin “Semi Knocked Down” [SKD] assembly of its T5 Transporter passenger and Multivan commercial vehicles in Indonesia

The German firm will assemble the T5 models in Indonesia for the local market together with the importer Garuda Mataram Motor.

The Greater Manchester Police (GMP) in the UK has launched an official investigation to find out how one of its officers wrecked a brand new Golf R hatchback, which was on loan by Volkswagen for testing purposes, during a trial run on public roads at 2am in the morning.

In European trim, the £31,000+ Golf R gets a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four with 270-horses and is capable of reaching a top speed of 155mph (250km/h) while completing the 0-62mph sprint in 5.7 seconds.

According to the preliminary police report, the officer was out testing the Golf R along with a fellow officer in an unmarked Audi, when he lost control of the Volkswagen at a roundabout in Wharfside Way, Trafford Park. The crash was so severe that the 40-year old police officer had be cut from the wreck by firefighters.

The man suffered some back injuries and was hospitalized but has now been released.

In Europe, the most popular model in terms of sales in 2011 was the aging Volkswagen Golf with 485,547 units followed by the VW Polo and the Ford Fiesta, while in the United States, Ford's F-Series took first place with 584,917 units and was trailed by the Chevy Silverado and the Toyota Camry.

In China, while the overall top sellers continue to be commercial microvans, the bestselling passenger model for 2011 was the Buick Excelle with 254,000 units, according to data provided by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

After a three-year hiatus, the most famous rally in the world, the Rallye Monte Carlo, has returned to the WRC calendar. As it was the 80th event, the Automobile Club de Monaco, which organized the race, decided to design a route that combined memories of past years with demanding stages.

The 2012 Monte Carlo rally started on January 17 with a ceremony north of Monaco, in the city of Valence. The real action, which consisted of 430 kilometers (267 miles) spread over 18 special stages, begun three days later, on January 20.

Volkswagen has made the new Up! city car a little more practical with the presentation of a five-door model that will go on sale across Europe early this summer.

The new addition to VW's New Small Family, which is the internal name for the model series, keeps the same 2.42 m (95.3-in.) long wheelbase and 251-liter boot as the three-door model.

On Thursday, General Motors reported global sales of 9,025,942 units in 2011, up 7.6% over 2010, which makes it the world's largest automaker in terms of volume.

Earlier this month, the Volkswagen Group announced that it sold a total of 8.16 million vehicles, up 14.3 percent compared to the previous year, which puts the German automaker in second spot - or so we thought.

You see, today, Volkswagen is questioning GM's numbers and of course its crown as the bestselling automotive group in the world. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the German company argues that unlike GM, it's numbers don't include sales of its affiliates such as MAN SE and Scania AB, in which VW has majority-ownership stakes.

The sixth generation of the Volkswagen Golf is in its final year with a replacement due to be unveiled at the upcoming Paris Motor Show this fall, yet it still managed to sell more cars than any other model in Europe in 2011 for a third year in a row, according to data provided from JATO Dynamics.

Volkswagen delivered 484,547 units of the Golf in 2011, down 1.6% over the previous year. The German company also took second spot with the Polo that sold 356,490 cars, up 0.5%, while the Ford Fiesta with 348,465 sales (-13.3%), the Opel / Vauxhall Corsa with 313,325 units (-1.7%) and the Renault Clio with 294,172 (-13.1%) complete the Top 5.

We should note that all Top 10 best-sellers came from either German (7 models) or French (3 models) brands.

JATO Dynamics says that outside the top ten, certain models performed much better than their predecessors did including Peugeot’s new 508, which saw its sales rise almost three times achieved by its predecessor, the 407, in 2010, the new Ford C-Max/Grand C-Max, Citroën C4, BMW X3 and Kia Sportage.