Anorak Corner 4 - VW Phaeton boot hinge

The Volkswagen Phaeton may be a sales flop, but it's a fabulously well engineered sales flop.


There's no better evidence for that than the car's elaborate boot hinges. I bet these things cost quite a few bob to make - seems a pity to hide them away really. If I had a Phaeton, I'd probably spend all my time opening and closing the boot in order to admire them.

DSG goes seven speed

Volkswagen has just announced a new seven-speed version of the marvellous DSG gearbox. There's a fair amount of technical detail to this but the headline seems to be that this is a simpler, lighter version of the DSG for cars with up to 170 horsepower; VW says that it will first be paired with the 1.4 litre TSI petrol and 1.9 litre TDI diesel engines.

The first-generation DSG is so good it will have been hard to improve upon - the main benefit seems to be that this should extend the benefits of DSG to a wider range of cars.

Blast from the past 1 - Volkswagen 'Fridolin'

The Volkswagen Fridolin was produced in comparatively small numbers between 1963 and 1973 for the postal services of Germany and Switzerland.

It was a bit of a mish-mash, using parts from several other Volkswagen models of the time. The engine and gearbox came from the Beetle, the floor-pan from the Karmann Ghia sports car and much of the bodywork was borrowed from the original VW van. The headlights came from the VW Type 3 saloon/coupe.

Snapped this particularly fine example on VW's stand at this year's Techno Classica classic car show in Essen last month.

I don't think anyone has ever worked out why it gained the nickname Fridolin (a German man's name).