2010 Detroit Autoshow VW Coupe Concept

As predicted earlier by this blog, VW has unveiled a coupe concept for this year's North American International Autoshow. The New Compact Coupe is a Jetta sized two door powered by a 150 horsepower 1.4 TSI gas engine in combination with a 27 horsepower electric motor. This combination results in 45 mpg on the EPA test. While VW has not confirmed that the Compact Coupe Concept will go into production, the concept previews the interior and exterior styling elements of the upcoming Jetta. The concept features a bespoke interior unlike the current Jetta which shares the Golf's interior. In fact, the coupe's interior is reminiscent of the interiors on the current generation Audi A4 and A5. The side profile also features a few elements that give it the appearance of the A5. The folks at VWvortex have created a great looking "pshop" of how they think the upcoming Jetta sedan will look like based of the concept's design elements. Take a look here.

2009 Sales in Review

The fact that 2009 was a terrible year for the auto industry is not secret, now with the year officially over we can tally up the total sales figures and see how bad it really was. In the end all but three automakers suffered sales decreases. Subaru, Kia and Hyundai all improved their sales significantly while Volkswagen, Audi and Ford were able to keep their sales declines below 15%. Even generally popular and healthy brands had lost as much as one third of their 2008 sales. The remaining brands for the most part have already been discontinued, or are hanging on in the US market by a thread.However, there is hope for the entire industry with most brands showing increases in December sales and total 2010 sales are expected to surpass those of 2009 easily. Unfortunately this might not happen quickly enough for some brands.



Lots of red for the automotive industry in 2009, click to enlarge.