This should not work. It definitely should not work.

Volkswagen’s latest generation Polo has arrived. Ryan Hirons headed to Hamburg to try it out.

Volkswagen is enticing Irish drivers to trade in their old diesel models with incentives of up to €6,500 to buy a new car.

It has been pretty obvious for some time now — to me anyway — that the VW ‘dieselgate’ scandal was going to have a massive and very positive effect on two companies within the Volkswagen Group.

A US federal judge has approved a 15 billion dollar (€13.4bn) court settlement of most claims against Volkswagen over its emissions-cheating scandal.

THE cultural impact of the legendary mock rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap has been exemplified by the phrase “these go to 11” which emerged in a scene where the unfailingly dim guitar player, Nigel Tufnel (played by Christopher Guest), gives a tour of his stage equipment to the director of the movie, Marti DiBergi (the wonderful Rob Reiner).

IT MATTERS little right now that Jaguar sells a mere fraction of the numbers racked up every year by its luxury rivals at Audi, BMW and Mercedes.

The pace of change mainly in product development at Volvo is pretty astonishing right now. 

It is an appropriate time, I suppose, to be writing about Volkswagen as just last week the Germany Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) approved the technical solutions for over 800,000 vehicles affected by what Volkswagen describes whimsically as the “diesel issues,” writes Declan Colley

There are cars out there which consistently and mysteriously fly under the radar of a majority of buying customers.

The names Peter Schreyer and Luc Donckerwolke might not mean much to the average Joe or Josie, but in the world of automotive design, they are hallowed legends.

This reviewing business being the subjective thing it is, you occasionally come across cars which either please you greatly on your initial encounter or, as is often also the case, cars which leave you stone cold right from the get-go.

Colin Murphy has been back raking over the coals of the banking crisis, with his latest play, Bailed Out, in effect, the sequel to Guaranteed, the story of how Ireland toppled into insolvency.

With its fresh look and pretty architecture, there’s little doubt the Audi Q3 is one of the more eye-catching members of the increasingly numerous compact SUV segment or, to be more specific, the premium compact SUV segment.

THE dash by car companies to get into the burgeoning small capacity petrol engine segment in recent years has been quite remarkable, with Ford leading the pack but chased by every substantial manufacturer on the block (pun intended). 

WHEN it comes to dumb product names, the automotive industry has had its fair share of gems.

AFTER the fall of the Iron Curtain, I was invited, with other Irish motoring hacks, to the Czech Republic by Skoda. The company was then a source of massive local pride, even if it was an automotive joke elsewhere.

THE Seat Alhambra is one of the most underrated of cars: it is a practical and useful family wagon, a dark horse on the MPV market.

ALTHOUGH still regarded by many as pretty much the poor relation in terms of the VW Group, Seat has been one of the slow burning improvers across Europe in numbers of cars sold and the brand is slowly building the sort of popularity which can only bode well for its future.

FOR a variety of reasons Examiner Motoring, along with our colleagues in various national newspaper titles, doesn’t vote in any Car of the Year contests, but we do have our own zealously studied and dictatorially awarded annual COTY prize.

IT IS funny how in life that sometimes you go out of your way to try and be helpful to someone, but end up being vilified in return.

IS SKODA losing the plot? The Czech marque has blitzed the Irish market in recent years, and has become a favourite with all manner of drivers — families, farmers, taxi-men, and so on — with a range of cars that punched above its weight.

REGULAR readers will know of my general distaste for hybrid cars. It is a personal thing and not something I expect everyone to agree with, but the bottom line is that I don’t like them.

REGULAR readers will know of my general distaste for hybrid cars.

ALMOST €140 million was spent by investment firm Blackrock International Land this year while it sold off assets worth almost €37m.