It's back. The legendary two-door Volkswagen Scirocco makes its comeback at the Geneva Motor Show.

34 years after the first model was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, VW is presenting a new Scirocco for a new era at the same venue. Now as then, the coupé is inspired by the idea of creating a sports car for every day of the year at affordable prices. And that is the essence of the Scirocco: the combination of top technology and low running costs, performance and comfort, a spacious interior and a sporty design.

"What we have done with the Scirocco is to put the kind of sports car in our showrooms that people have dreamed of owning," reckons Volkswagen Group's Chairman of the Board, Martin Winterkorn.

"A dream that a good deal of motorists — in spite of all the high-end engineering we have integrated — can actually afford."

Featuring adaptive chassis control and seven-speed DSG, the Scirocco will be launched Europe-wide in the third quarter of 2008 with prices in Germany starting at €21 750. Other countries will follow over the course of the next year.

Green power

With its Golf TDI Hybrid, also revealed at Geneva, Volkswagen combines a diesel engine, an electric motor and seven-speed DSG technology. On show for the first time ever, the concept car consumes a claimed 3.4 litres of diesel per 100 kilometres. The full-hybrid car can be run either in internal-combustion mode only or in mixed operation — the combination of TDI and electric motor.

The car is also designed to run on emissions-free electric power only.

Power transmission to the front axle is managed by a seven-speed DSG gearbox. In city traffic, the automatic stop-start system will even switch off the turbo-diesel when the vehicle is stationary.

Meanwhile, the Passat Estate TSI EcoFuel being premiered in Geneva may run on natural gas but features a powerful 110kW TSI engine that consumes 5.2 kilograms of gas per 100 kilometres. The Passat and the Passat Estate TSI EcoFuel are due to be launched on the market around year-end.

BlueMotion

Volkswagen is continuing its BlueMotion campaign in 2008. The latest model in the series is the Sharan BlueMotion on display for the first time at the Geneva show. With an average fuel consumption of 6.0 litres of diesel per 100 kilometres, the Sharan BlueMotion uses 0.7 of a litre less than the "conventional" model. By the same token, CO2 emissions are reduced from 177g/km to 159g/km.

The seven-seater van, with up to 2610 litres of cargo volume and a permissible gross vehicle weight of 2510kg, is driven by a 103kW TDI engine complete with a diesel particulate filter (DPF).

Go Golf

Featuring permanent four-wheel drive, the Golf Estate TDI 4Motion has been designed to enable as much as 100 percent of the engine torque to be transmitted to the rear wheels should extreme circumstances require.

The 4Motion system is coupled with a 77kW TDI engine that accelerates the Estate from 0 to 100 km/h in 12.9 seconds on to a top speed of 185km/h. It consumes 6.0 litres of diesel per 100 kilometres.