Volkswagen completed its takeover of Porsche today, acquiring the remaining 50.1-percent of the sports car maker and completing a seven-year dance between the two companies that could lead to more shared technology and bring VW a step closer toward global supremacy. The move will take effect on August 1.

"The course we are following makes strategic sense and will bring sustained benefits for all stakeholders, it creates transparency as to future developments, and lays the foundations for swiftly intensifying cooperation between Volkswagen and Porsche AG,” said CFO Hans Dieter Pötsch. “For Volkswagen, our sound financial and liquidity position and maintaining our strong rating are also important."

So what does it all mean? More...

Volkswagen locked nine apprentices in a room with a Golf GTI last October, and the result is the Golf GTI Black Dynamic that debuted today at the 31st annual GTI Meeting at Wörthersee in Austria.

Tasked with producing their idea of a classic sports car, the apprentices squeezed 150 extra horsepower – or Pferdestärke (PS) in Germany, which translates literally to “horse strength” – out of the 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine, and replaced the exhaust, brakes and suspension with sportier components.

What really makes the GTI Black Dynamic stand out is the team’s design work, which doubles down on the car’s reputation as a sports hatch for young drivers with a heavy tuning hand.

Thousands of VW enthusiasts from across Europe are expected to attend the show in Austria this week, so why not roll out a car that embraces the customization spirit of its biggest fans? The show is all about celebrating the GTI in all its forms, and the Black Dynamic certainly does that.

Full press release below: More...

Sales of Volkswagen passenger models in the U.S. rose a whopping 38.0% through the first four months of 2012, the automaker announced today. Volkswagen sold 131,900 vehicles to customers from January to April, compared to 95,600 for the same time period in 2011.

Worldwide, Volkswagen sales increased by 9.4%, from 1.66 million vehicles in 2011 to 1.81 million in 2012. Their biggest regions included a 103% sales increase in Russia, a 55.7% sales increase in Eastern Europe and a 13% sales increase in China.

Things were a bit slower elsewhere, with a 0.6% sales increase in South America and a 5.1% sales decline in the struggling economic market of Western Europe. More...

China is more car-hungry than ever, with an upper class that is still growing at a phenomenal rate. So you’d better believe that automakers bring out their best and brightest to the annual Beijing Auto Show, and this year is no exception. Check out our list, in alphabetical order, of the eight best new models an concepts debuted in Beijing since the show opened over the weekend.

Audi L e-tron: The A6 is the best-selling Audi model of all in China’s luxury-obsessed market, so it made perfect sense for the four rings to introduce their first electric luxury car in Beijing. The L e-tron is powered by a parallel hybrid 2.0 TFSI engine producing 211 hp and a 95-horsepower electric motor, and can run solely on electric power for more than 49 miles. The L e-tron is an encouraging precursor to the electric R8, A1 and A3 vehicles that Audi will produce in the near future.

Bentley Mulsanne Diamond Jubilee Edition: Bentley will build 60 examples of the Mulsanne Diamond Jubilee Edition in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday, one for each year of her rule. It’s certainly a vehicle fit for royalty. Designed and hand-constructed by the Bentley Mulliner division, the Diamond Jubilee Edition features bespoke gold-stitched headrest embroidery and a rear picnic table with gold overlay – in case the standard Mulsanne is too understated for your tastes. China is now Bentley’s largest market and we can expect to see many more debuts here in the future. More...

Few Americans will remember this past April 17—a.k.a. tax day—fondly. But 48 years ago, April 17 marked the debut of the Ford Mustang at the World’s Fair in New York. The original pony car had a 101-horsepower, 170-cubic-inch inline six under the hood, with two V8s—a 164-hp 260 or a 210-hp 289—as options. First-day sales totaled 22,000 units. Read autoMedia's test drive of the 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca edition.

Modern cars are so well insulated that some drivers no longer hear those big engines they paid for, so some carmakers are “enhancing” the sound of their engines. The new BMW M5 plays the sound of the engine through the stereo system, and the Ford Mustang GT’s exhaust system has a resonator pipe between the engine and the firewall, while the Boss 302 gets a second set of exhaust pipes behind the rocker panels.

Proving that the Internet is good for more than cat videos, the readers of automotive website Jalopnik helped catch two suspects in a fatal hit-and-run after police posted a picture of a part that fell off the fleeing vehicle in hopes of identifying it. Within minutes Jalopnik readers determined it had come off an early 2000-era Ford F-150 pickup. The tip led Virginia police to the suspects. The police cited Jalopnik’s readers as “critical” to solving the case.

Germany, meet America. Volkswagen Chattanooga CEO Frank Fischer has expressed his discomfort with a bill in the Tennessee state legislature that would allow employees to keep guns in their cars on company property while they’re at work. "That's a sort of thing that makes us a bit nervous," he told the Associated Press. "We would not welcome people being able to carry weapons on factory grounds, probably just as little as the state House or Senate would like people to enter their building armed." The NRA, which says vehicles are an extension of private property no matter where they’re parked, is backing the bill. More...

Shelby 1000 Photo Tricks: Since the invention of Photoshop, seeing is no longer believing, but someone at Shelby American didn’t get the memo. The maker of the soon-to-be-released 950-horsepower Shelby 1000 sent out a couple of photos of the car lifting its front wheels in what appeared to be a power-induced wheelie. But sharp-eyed car guys all over the Internet noticed right away something wasn’t right, mainly the rear tires, which don’t seem to be under load. Shelby American later admitted the fakery and blamed it on the photographer.

VW Group Makes Offer for Ducati: Going from rumor to press release in two weeks is Audi’s interest in buying the Ducati motorcycle brand. An Italian newspaper reports that the Volkswagen Group has offered 750 million Euros for the bike builder many call the Ferrari of the two-wheel world. Most interesting little known fact to emerge from the bid is that about 7 percent of Ducati is owned by the Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan, where instead of giving you a gold watch when you retire, they toss you the keys to an 1199 Panigale.

2013 Ford Explorer Sport: Soccer practice starts in half an hour and you’re running behind—what do you do? If you have a 2013 Ford Explorer Sport, you hit the gas and light up the 350-horsepower EcoBoost Twin-turbo V6. The AWD sport-ute will come with a terrain management system for different surfaces, a paddle-shift six-speed automatic, and a towing capacity of 5,000 pounds. More...