Auto News 5

Miles: 19,500
Months in Fleet: Eight

According to the Wolfsburg grapevine, the Volkswagen Group is set to increase its 19.9 percent share in Suzuki by ten percent annually over the next four to five years. What for? We've already learned that VW might be interested in building a low-cost, Japanese version of the Up! but now it seems that the Germans are also eyeing Suzuki's crossovers, particularly the next generation of the SX4.

The last place one would expect to find devotion to a two-decade-old, iron-block six-cylinder engine is Volkswagen. The company has developed a line of powerful turbocharged, direct-injected four-cylinders, but VW remains committed to an aging engine that defies easy categorization: the VR6.

If you think about it, it's really quite surprising that we, as a country, love the Volkswagen Jetta as much as we have. It's been VW's most successful car here for thirty years, and yet it's been an afterthought this whole time. Take a Golf -- one of the most popular cars in the world, but never embraced by the U.S. public -- add a trunk, and voila, you have a bestseller.