VW Polo GTI and harder Golf GTI Wörthersee 09

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 20 May 2009 16:34 Volkswagen today unveiled two hot hatch surprises at the 2009 Wörthersee hot hatch festival: a potential Polo GTI and a harder, faster Golf GTI, likely to give clues to the R model tipped by CAR for launch later this year. Both models pictured here are concepts at this stage. The Golf GTI Wörthersee 09 edition gains cosmetic and modest engineering mods.

2008 EyesOn Design Awards

I was once told that the EyesOn Design Awards was initially conceived as an award by which a vehicle would be judged by visually-impaired individuals. The prerequisite for winning was that the beauty of a vehicle would have to be determined solely through the medium of touch. Though it may seem odd that the award is presented by the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology (DIO) - an internationally-recognized non-profit organization known for helping the blind and visually-impaired - it has since grown to become one of the most prestigious automotive design award ceremonies to date.

Audi A3 Saloon arrives in the UK from £24,275

The Audi A3 Saloon (pictured) arrives in the UK Audi isn’t afraid of covering every possible niche in its ambition to be the world’s top ‘Premier’ marque, so we now get a third body shape for the new A3 – the Audi A3 saloon. Designed to sell in markets that prefer a traditional 3-box car to a hatch – like the US and China – Audi still believes there’s a market for an A3 with a boot in the UK, so the new A3 Saloon arrives on sale with a choice, at least initially, of three engines – two petrols and a diesel. Cosmetically, apart from the addition of a boot, the A3 Saloon gets more pronounced curves, bigger wheel arches, new shapes on the bonnet, new bumper, new lights and a boot spoiler.