VW's Newest SUV It's a Golf Plus...but, wait, it has 4MOTION! Based on the Golf Plus, Volkswagen's newcomer will go head-to-head with the Volvo V50 AWD when it hits showrooms next year, and will be priced around $30,000. No word yet if the Golf SUV will reach the U.S.
The prototype-expected to be called the Cross Golf-has wider, beefier wheel arches, modified bumpers, and a revised front end. Changes to the nose are likely to include Passat-style headlamps, plus a chunky off-roader-style bumper complete with grilles over the foglights and a raised air intake.
The Cross Golf rides 60mm higher than the Plus. It's also likely to have underbody and sump guards for protection when off-roading, while the four-wheel-drive setup will be based on that of the Golf 4MOTION, which distributes power evenly between the front and rear. Engines should include 1.6 and 2.0L FSI petrol units and 1.9 and 2.0 TDI turbodiesels.
VW's excellent DSG gearbox is likely to be an option. A hot Cross Golf hasn't been ruled out; the 4WD system could be combined with either VW's proven 2.8L V-6 powerplant, or the 198-bhp 2.0 FSI turbo unit from the Golf GTI. Look for the Cross Golf at this year's Frankfurt Motor Show. - Brenda Priddy & Company
In our haste to prepare 13 issues a year, we sometimes do make mistakes. When we listed the contact information for Rize Industries in "Sky-High Four-By," Volume 31, No. 5, page 104, we inadvertently left our readers with no way of finding Rize correctly. To find some of the most innovative lift kits out right now, go to:
Rize Industries Dept. TR 919 El Cajon Blvd. El Cajon, CA 92020 (877) 740-3463 www.rizeind.com
Chevy HO! Cubans have been keeping their Chevys, Fords, Studebakers, and Hudsons running with prayers, cafecito, and cannibalized Russian Ladas ever since the United States cut trade ties in 1961. The result is probably one of the greatest collections of classic American iron in the Western Hemisphere, two examples of which rest at the bottom of the Florida Straits.
This '51 Chevy pickup powered a homemade boat, as Luis Grass and his wife and son tried to illegally emigrate from Cuba to Florida-until the Coast Guard captured them, sank the classic truck-boat, and shipped the Grass family back to Cuba where they were paid a visit by the Cuban cops. Immigrants who try to enter the United States illegally by sea are allowed to stay if they manage to reach our beaches, but usually are sent back home if intercepted en route.
Of course, anyone with the pluck to drive a 50-year-old pickup across the ocean wasn't going to be discouraged by the Coasties' large-caliber guns or by Cuban law enforcement. So, they rigged up a floating Buick and tried again in 2004. Once again, they were captured by the Coast Guard, which sank the boat-Buick after shipping the Grass family to the American outpost in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where many would-be Cuban refugees are held in legal limbo as the U.S. government determines their immigration status. After the United States decided that the Grasses could reasonably expect to be persecuted by the Cuban government should they be repatriated again, they were released to Costa Rica, which agreed to take them in.
Not satisfied to live in Central America, the Grass family entered America the other way: across the border with Mexico, riding a bus and hitchhiking into Texas in March of this year. There, they were held by U.S. authorities until being released two weeks later. The Grasses then moved to Miami. They will be allowed to apply for permanent residence next year.