New Cars: Volkswagen to Bring Back Scirocco/GM Boosts Warranty Protection

While paging through the current issue of Road & Track magazine over the weekend, I came across this photo/illustration of a possible new offering from Volkswagen. The related write-up talks about plans to bring back the sporty VW Scirocco to the U.S. market which would be good for VW since the Scirocco was pretty good seller in the 70's and 80's.

Judging by the photo, the new Scirocco, planned for introduction in 2008, would be a good looking ride. However, the article mentions the estimated starting price will be under $30,000 with power ranging from 115 to 200 bhp. With those numbers, I hope that starting price would be well below $30k and not just $5 below. I wouldn't pay $29,995 for a so-called sports car that only packed four cylinders and 115 horses.

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General Motors has announced its new 100,000 mile limited powertrain warranty for up to five years on all 2007 model cars, SUVs, and light duty trucks. For most models, this is a big increase from the former three year/36,000 mile or four year/50,000 mile warranties previously offered. GM says it now offers the best warranty coverage in the industry.

“We’ve been telling everyone how strong GM’s cars and trucks are in terms of value, design, quality and durability. Now we’re going to back it up,” Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said. “This new warranty, combined with GM’s outstanding quality, competitive pricing, relevant technologies and a strong new lineup of cars and trucks, provides motorists with an unprecedented level of value and peace of mind.

According to GM, the new 100,000 mile warranty covers 900 components related to the engine, transmission, transfer case (if applicable) and final drive assemblies on all 2007 Chevrolet, Pontiac, GMC, Buick, Saturn, Cadillac, HUMMER, and Saab cars and light trucks sold in North America. Bumper-to-bumper protection for non-powertrain components remains at current levels which include four year/50,000 miles for Buick, Cadillac, HUMMER and Saab; three year/36,000 miles for Chevrolet, Pontiac, GMC and Saturn.

GM vehicles are certainly looking better these days. The new GMT900 trucks (Chevy Silverado/GMC Sierra) and SUVs (Chevy Tahoe-Suburban-Avalanche/GMC Yukon/Cadillac Escalade), Pontiac's Solstice and Saturn's Sky and Aura models are hot looking cars to me. If they all drive as well as they look, get the fuel economy that GM boasts and quality improvements are strong, things could start looking up for the world's largest automaker. I certainly hope so, for my mother's sake. She's a GM retiree and needs her checks!

Oh, Good Evening!