Previous generation of Volkswagen Group cars had mixed dashboards to be borderline perfect in terms of layout and user interface. It strikes just the right balance between buttons and screens, a feature that almost all Scoda, VW, Seat and other VAG cars had until the late 2010s or so. After that, VW began shoving nearly everything into the touchscreen in the name of minimalism. They wouldn’t call it cost-cutting.
But VW is aware that a large portion of its customer base prefers a more analog interface. Customers in Europe tend to favor “tactile controls, long-term durability, and driving dynamics.” It’s a different story in China, where buyers prioritize “AI-first, connected vehicles, with seamless voice control and smart cockpits.”
Comparing EV shoppers in Europe and China, VW’s combustion-engine cars have also largely abandoned physical buttons and knobs. The latest, wagon-only Passat is a clear example of how tablet-like displays have taken over dashboards in recent years. The similarly sized ID.7 Tourer electric wagon also keeps hard buttons down to a minimum.
In VW’s defense, it has promised a return to form. We’ve already seen tentative steps, with the Golf GTI and R reintroducing real buttons on the steering wheel. Additionally, future models will include tactile controls for frequently used functions. Earlier this year, the company’s design chief Andreas Mindt admitted that going screen-heavy was a mistake.
Since VW-badged cars are always twinned with other Group products to spread out costs, there’s a good chance that future models from Skoda, SEAT, Cupra, and the rest of the gang will also revert to proper dashboards. Including more separate controls will undoubtedly drive up production costs, which, logically, will be passed on to buyers. It’s a sacrifice some of us are willing to make.
Average age of an electric car buyer in Europe is 56, whereas in China it’s under 35 which answers the question of why cars developed by the VW Group in China aren’t sold in Europe. It all comes down to differing regulations, costs, and customer preferences.
Against the background of global turmoil, the fashion for the word Tariffs and pessimistic forecasts, it is surprising to hear about falling prices on the Azerbaijani market. But experts of automobile economy have found a positive and I can’t help but share it with you.
According to the State Customs Committee, 9,868 passenger cars were imported into the country in April 2025, of which 43% or 4,216 were equipped with hybrid engines. This is an impressive jump – 2.8 times more than the same period last year. Hybrid cars are entering the country at more attractive prices. In addition, the growing number of importers is creating healthy competition that is curbing price hikes in the market. Official statistics confirm a noticeable decrease in MRSP. If in April last year the average price of one hybrid car imported into the country was $29,272, in the same month of 2025 this figure fell by 28.7% and amounted to $20,875. A significant factor in the availability of hybrid cars is tax and customs benefits. Until January 1, 2026, the import and sale of hybrid cars with a production date of no more than three years and an engine displacement of no more than 2,500 cubic centimeters are fully exempt from value added tax. Although we should probably thank Chinese low-priced cars first of all (a decrease in the average price may also mean a shift of buyers’ interest from medium and high segments to low segments).
Among the cars that could have graced those legendary Turbo chewing gum inserts, the Mercedes-Benz Ponton holds a special place. Not because it was particularly exotic or flashy – quite the opposite. These were the workhorses of West German prosperity, the cars that rebuilt a nation and pioneered safety technology that we take for granted today.
Brief history about this unsung hero:
The Mercedes-Benz “Ponton” series is a range of sedans from Daimler-Benz, introduced starting in 1953, and subsequently nicknamed ‘Ponton’ (the German word for “pontoon”), referring to its ponton styling, a prominent styling trend that unified the previously articulated hood, body, fenders and runnings boards into a singular, often slab-sided envelope.
The name “Ponton” wasn’t even official – it was just what people called these cars because of their unified, boat-like body design. Mercedes never used the nickname themselves, but it stuck. And for good reason – these cars looked like nothing that came before them.
The revolution in a three-piece suit:
What made the Ponton revolutionary wasn’t immediately visible. The 1953 Mercedes-Benz W120, 1.8 L four-cylinder, four-door sedan, available as the 180 petrol and the 180D diesel became Mercedes’ first unibody production car, abandoning the traditional body-on-frame construction for something much more modern.
But the real genius was hidden in the engineering. Austrian-Hungarian engineer B?la Bar?nyi originally invented and patented the crumple zone concept in 1937 before he worked for Mercedes-Benz, and in a more developed form in 1952. The Ponton was where this safety revolution began to take shape.
Think about it – in 1953, when most cars were still built like tanks (rigid and unforgiving), Mercedes was already thinking about what happens when those tanks hit something. The Ponton introduced the concept that a car should sacrifice itself to save its occupants.
The taxi that conquered Germany:
The 180-190 four-cylinders were widely used as German taxis, and this tells you everything about their character. Reliable, economical, unpretentious. These weren’t cars for showing off – they were cars for getting things done.
The range was impressively diverse for its time. You could get a basic 180 with 52 horsepower that would do 126 km/h, or step up to the 220S with fuel injection and 100 horsepower that could hit 160 km/h. There were even elegant coupes and convertibles for those with more romantic inclinations.
Why this would have been perfect for Turbo:
In the original Turkish Turbo series, practical European cars were often featured alongside the exotic sports cars. The Ponton would have fit perfectly – it represented the new Germany, the economic miracle, the transition from wartime austerity to peacetime prosperity.
For Soviet kids in the 80s and 90s, seeing a Mercedes Ponton on a Turbo insert would have been fascinating in a different way than seeing a Ferrari. This was a car that actually existed in their world – you might spot one at the embassy district, or see it in a foreign film. It was aspirational but not completely impossible.
The lasting legacy:
The ‘Ponton’ saloons were the automaker’s main production models until 1959, adding up to 80% of Mercedes-Benz car production between 1953 and 1959. These cars literally built Mercedes-Benz as a volume manufacturer.
More importantly, they established safety as a Mercedes hallmark. Every time you see a modern car’s safety rating, every time you walk away from an accident that might have killed your grandfather, you owe a small debt to the engineers who designed the Ponton’s crumple zones.
Personal note:
I’ve always found something poetic about the Ponton. It’s not the most beautiful Mercedes, not the fastest, not the most luxurious. But it might be the most important. In our imaginary Turbo series, this would be the card that teaches you that sometimes the most significant innovations are the ones you never see.
The car on this imaginary insert would probably be a 1956 220S in that distinctive Mercedes silver, photographed from a three-quarter front angle to show off the unified body design that gave the car its nickname. The background would be simple – maybe the Mercedes factory in Stuttgart, or a generic European street scene.
Because that’s what the Ponton was about – being part of the everyday landscape while quietly revolutionizing everything.
Sweden-based Volvo Cars is eliminating 3,000 positions as part of a cost-cutting program as the automotive industry faces challenges from trade tensions and economic uncertainty.
The company said Monday that around 1,200 of the job reductions would come among workers in Sweden, with another 1,000 positions currently filled by consultants, mostly in Sweden, also slated for elimination.
The rest of the job losses would be in other global markets. Most of the jobs being cut are office positions.
“The actions announced today have been difficult decisions, but they are important steps as we build a stronger and even more resilient Volvo Cars,” said H?kan Samuelsson, Volvo Cars president and CEO.
“The automotive industry is in the middle of a challenging period. To address this, we must improve our cash flow generation and structurally lower our costs.”
The company, owned by China’s Geely, has 42,600 full-time employees.
Carmakers around the world are facing several headwinds, among them higher costs for raw materials, a diminished European car market, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of 25% tariffs on imported cars and steel.
Volvo Cars has its main headquarters and product development offices in Gothenburg, Sweden, and makes cars and SUVs in Belgium, South Carolina and China.
Subaru of America is hiking prices on several models, the company said on Monday, the latest automaker to pass along cost increases to consumers as their expenses rise from the Trump administration’s tariffs.
Subaru said in a statement that the increases were made in response to “current market conditions,” without citing tariffs or specific price actions.
“The changes were made to offset increased costs while maintaining a solid value proposition for the customer. Subaru pricing is not based on the country of origin of its products,” the company said in a statement.
Car company executives have recently shared with investors how much the levies will cost them this year, with some in Detroit saying they were expected to add up to $5 billion. While there has been some relief on duties imposed on foreign auto parts, U.S. President Donald Trump has maintained a 25% tariff on the 8 million vehicles the U.S. imports annually.
Ford Motor earlier this month raised prices on three models produced in Mexico by as much as $2,000, becoming one of the first major automakers to respond to Trump’s tariffs.
The Subaru price increases will add between $750 and $2,055 to vehicles depending on the model and trim, according to a notice posted on a dealer website. The price increases are expected to hit vehicles on dealer lots starting in June, according to the notice.
Subaru imports 45% of its U.S.-sold vehicles, according to 2024 data from research firm S&P Global Mobility. Its affordable Forester model is one of a handful of lower-cost vehicles set to be most affected by tariffs. The SUV is getting a price hike of between $1,075 and $1,600 depending on the trim, the dealer notice said.
This hobby started in 2016 and slowly run for three series of self made very simple analogue of Kent’s Turbo gum inserts. Since wagonlog was in stasis for 4-5 years I moved it to my blog and it is still in progress (Currently on number 131). No one asked to repeat all these staff in English but I do.
The first wave, 1-50 (2016-2018).
It was just introduction with small note about Turbo series itself:
Turbo was a chewing gum, the first releases (presumably before 1985) with peach flavor, subsequent releases were with fruit flavor and aroma — produced by the Turkish company “Kent Gida”, containing inserts with photographs, usually of cars or motorcycles. It was extremely popular among children and teenagers of the late USSR, Russia, CIS countries and Poland in the late 1980s – early 1990s. Not a small piece of information about brilliant 1957 Mercedes Benz 220s on picture.
Short info about this classic:
The Citro?n SM is a very unusual car and it honored in 1971 with third place in the European Car of the Year competition, and next year in 1972 it received the title of Car of the Year in the USA according to Motor Trend magazine, which was an unprecedented achievement for a non-American car at that time. The SM was produced from 1970 to 1975 and was a prestigious and expensive coupe (or rather, a three-door hatchback stylized as a coupe), combining technical characteristics close to the level of Gran Turismo, with the comfort of a luxury car. In 1968, Citro?n bought out Maserati along with its engine developments and from a technical point of view, the SM was a combination of a very advanced front-wheel drive platform for that time with a “branded” hydropneumatics suspension created on the basis of Citro?n DS units and a high-potential V6 engine developed by Maserati with a volume of 2.7 or 3.0 liters, including a version with fuel injection.
And so on..
The third number with 2017 Lincoln Continental, the last 10th generation of iconic American series. On that moment I did not realized that Ford Motors cancel the Continentals after 2020 as well as most sedans switching to trucks and SUVs. So in 2016 I mentioned nothing about car itself but pointed out again Turbo hobby concept:
There are actually quite a lot of people nostalgic for the famous Eastern European Turbo chewing gum inserts from the 20th century. They still collect, exchange, discuss, sell and buy pictures of cars. The rarest numbers of the first series on Ebay cost some fabulous money, and the preserved (and apparently slightly dried) chewing gums are even more expensive. Subsequently, many copies and imitations were released, which can even now be found in retail, but they certainly will not repeat the success of the legendary products of the Turkish company Kent. The pictures that are published here will not come across you in gum or anywhere else. This is just the author’s hobby.
Very brief information about the car named after the founder of Ferrari:
The nostalgic series of designer inserts in Turbo continues. Today the legendary Ferrari Enzo
The car was produced from 2002 to 2004. The model was built in honor of the company’s founder – Enzo Ferrari. A total of 400 cars were produced.
The first wave started a little boring I know
This exact car interesting for Soviet people of 80s who could see it in famous TV show (miniseries). 1971 Pontiac Grand Ville was filmed in the 5 episode TV show called “The Mirage” (Mir??a) adaptation of James Hadley Chase “The World in My Pocket” by Latvia’s Riga Film Studio in 1983. This Pontiac was restored and was driven around Latvia at least in 2017. IMCDB link. BTW later some other movies and TV cars will be presented in this series.
Sorry no brands, plants, type of cars and other details provided by the State Statistics Committee. All we know is count and split by type of vehicles.
In January-March 2025, 1,302 passenger cars and 28 trucks were produced in Azerbaijan.
Compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, the production of passenger cars increased by 2.1 times, while the production of trucks decreased by 86%
As of April 1 of the current year, the stock of finished products was 134 passenger cars and 15 trucks, respectively.
During the reporting period, 124 tractors were produced in the country, which is 25.3% less compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.
Recall that last year 5,998 passenger cars and 697 trucks were produced in the country.
I came across an interesting post on Reddit. Some statements there are controversial, but overall the trends are described well. I used to follow the market through the eyes of BestSellingCars, the information on which was taken from an unclear place. Someone privately provided it to Matt, having access to some inside information on dealers. It reflects only sales of new cars, which are inferior to the import of used cars (at least they used to be inferior). I also got information from fragmentary data from the State Statistics Committee.
Then I abandoned this idea, even though I have slightly more data, coming into contact with the largest platform for ads for the sale of cars. The latest data on BestSellingCars, by the way, is also for 2022. It seems obvious to me that Chinese brands dominate among new cars now, the import of used cars from Korea has grown a lot. The State Customs Committee reports on figures, but not on brands and models, without even specifying where the vehicles are imported from:
Azerbaijan imported 16,758 vehicles in January-February 2025, which is 26% more than in the same period last year. The total value of vehicles imported into the country was $288,940,130 (an increase of 16.7%). The average price of a car was $17,251 The largest number of vehicles were passenger cars and other motor vehicles for the carriage of passengers – 15,309 thousand units (an increase of 27.3%) with a total value of almost $256 million (an increase of 17.6%). Average price of a car is $16,717 Of passenger cars, in particular, 7,577 thousand hybrid cars were imported during the reporting period (an increase of 2.9 times) for the amount of 146 million US dollars (an increase of 1.8 times). Average price of a car is $19,303 In addition, over 2 months, the number of imported electric cars amounted to 309 units (a decrease of 42.9%) for the amount of 12,839,900 US dollars (a decrease of 1.9 times). Average price of a car is $41,553
Turbo.az shares information about the most popular car dealerships operating on their site, as well as official dealers. This is not about sales, but about ad views, but it is still very interesting (data for 3 months of 2025):
In the year to March 31, the average price of a used Tesla fell 7.03% in the U.S. and 17.3% in the U.K., industry data suggests.
The falling prices reflect higher-than-ever trade-in rates.
Demand for new Teslas is also weak and could get worse if tariffs induce significant price increases.
As a glut of traded-in vehicles hit the market, prices for pre-owned Teslas have dropped in the U.K. and U.S.
The price drop further complicates Tesla’s business prospects as the firm faces plummeting global sales and supply chain uncertainty amid an escalating trade war.
Used Tesla Prices Fall Faster Than Other Brands
According to data from CarGurus, the average price for a second-hand Tesla in the U.S. fell from $31,590 on March 31, 2024, to $29,370 a year later
The 7.03% decline is much steeper than the 2.72% average observed across brands and models.
Cybertrucks faced the most severe price drop of more than 54% year-over-year.
Despite Elon musk’s prediction that Tesla would sell 250,000 Cybertrucks per year, the company has sold just 46,000 since they hit the market in 2023.
Tesla in the U.K.
The decline was even more pronounced in the U.K., where the average price of a second-hand Tesla fell 17.3% from ?26,895 to ?22,213.
As Tesla doesn’t sell Cybertrucks outside of North America, the model with the steepest price decline in the U.K. was the Model Y, which saw an average price reduction of 22.55%.
Overall, pre-owned vehicle prices fell a little over 4% in the country, CarGuru data reveals.
When it comes to new Teslas, the U.K. has bucked the wider European trend for declining sales. Yet the increase is down to an uptick in electric vehicle (EV) sales across the board.
Looking at all EVs sold in the country, Tesla has actually lost market share.
Tariffs To Impact New Tesla Prices
While the cost of used Teslas has fallen, new vehicles are expected to rise in price once the full impact of recent U.S. tariffs is factored in.
Like most automakers, Tesla relies on international supply chains that will incur significant new taxes under Donald Trump’s latest tariff regime.
An analysis by Barron’s estimates that new import duties will cause the average cost of a Tesla made in the U.S. to rise by $4,000, or 11%.
The looming price hike comes at a bad time for Tesla, which has suffered a dramatic drop in sales as more buyers boycott the company over CEO Elon Musk’s politics.
In the first quarter of 2025, Tesla sold just 336,681 units, its worst performance since 2023 and nearly 80,000 fewer EV than rival BYD
Between the growing boycott movement and weaker demand for EVs generally, the firm has lost market share in almost every market.
Electronics giant Foxconn wants to sell EVs in America. It may even partner with Nissan, Honda or Mitsubishi to pull it off.
Contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn already builds 40% of the world’s consumer electronics, including things like the Apple iPhone and Microsoft Xbox. Now, it wants to get into the EV game, with a host of software-defined electric cars planned for launch. The company is aggressively pursuing partnerships with companies like Honda, Mitsubishi and Nissan to make its plan work. If you’ve heard of Foxconn, it’s probably because of the iPhone. Officially known as Hon Hai Technology Group, the Taiwan-based firm is the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, building everything from Apple’s ubiquitous smartphone to Amazon Kindles and Nintendo Switches. Now, it wants to sell you an electric vehicle.
We already knew the company was eyeing an EV play, Foxconn has wanted to do that for years now. But at a recent press conference with automakers attended by Automotive News, the brand laid out its vision for a full line of EVs, with some sold in the U.S. Production will start in Taiwan, but the goal is to eventually set up U.S. manufacturing, Foxconn executive Jun Seki told the group.
Local production will be important. Though headquartered in Taiwan, Foxconn is best known for its giant manufacturing footprint in mainland China. While Taiwan receives support from the U.S. and is closely linked to it economically, Washington and other governments have tried to choke the spread of Chinese EVs into the global market.
Products will include a midsize crossover, a compact crossover, two vans and a midsize sedan. The crossovers are slated to come to the U.S. A key part of Foxconn’s plan will be working with partners as a contract manufacturer, as it does in the electronics business. But Foxconn here seems set to design and build the products, then offer them as pre-made, ready-to-sell vehicles for interested manufacturers.
Currently, one brand is at the top of its list. Foxconn has been pursuing Nissan aggressively. Though it does not plan to acquire the company, it sees the brand as a key part of its push into the automotive space. Nikkei has also reported that Foxconn is trying to win Honda’s business, while Seki confirmed it is already working with Mitsubishi. The company offered no specifics on what that partnership looks like.
Among my strange hobbies, there is one brought from my childhood that haunts me obsessively. I can’t even call it purely nostalgic. As the mass of nostalgic affairs after some memories dissipate – an indulgent smile, a slight sadness, some associative rows. But with Turbo it is somehow different for me.
But first I have to tell very young readers what Turbo is. If your first association with this word is with Turkish chewing gum and pictures with cars, you can skip this paragraph. So, in 80’s – 90’s, Turkish Kent company produced different chewing gums along with other food products and it coincided in some strange way with the shortage and the resulting greedy-guts behavior in the socialist camp countries. That’s why one of the series of chewing gums with automobile inserts (wrappers) got to all sorts of Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and the former USSR and became not only popular, but also surpassed the popularity in the homeland. However, in Turkey too there is nostalgia for Turbo and references to this brand will definitely be found in all kinds of digests, such as “top 100 nostalgic things from childhood”. Gum was first brought by “speculators” (early form of self-employment in USSR) and semi-legally in all sorts of retail outlets (for example, I remember a table near the department store in Baku). And quite expensive. However, I will stop price disputes here at once, because it is a very controversial and debatable topic and it is not correct to compare the price of bread and milk of that time and today with imported, not always legal goods. But for sure the margins of gummies were quite high.
Later Turbo and dozens of other chewing gums, mostly Turkish from Kent, Ulker, Bifa, Dandy, Baycan, etc., flooded into “commercial” stores, stalls, tents. Here are some names from those years that you might remember too – Lazer, Final, Bombibom, CinCin, Minti, ??psevdi (aka Love is…), OtoMoto. I, like almost everyone else, was a fan of Turbo and twice collected liners (the first collection was stolen in my school), but the years went by, adulthood, foreign cars began to drive on our roads, gum became quite cheap and cars were not so attractive anymore.
But in adulthood I became interested in Turbo again, and thanks to the Internet not only saw all the missing pictures, including the legendary first series 1-50, which did not come to our country, but also read a lot of interesting things on the subject. Fortunately my hobby remained rather passive – I didn’t start collecting pictures again, buying rare unopened gum at auctions, etc. My nostalgia is limited to posting on my blog photoshopped cars that I find interesting, sometimes accompanied by historical comments. Some of them could never be portraited on original Turbo even if they were quite old, some were and linked to the pictures of Turkish wrappers.
Wandering around the internet you can realize that there are a lot of people passionate about Turbo, but as I think everyone has their own references and passions for this media fetish, not like me.
Wagonlog rested a bit. Meanwhile the whole “Guilty pleasure” hobby of making own nostalgic pictures replaced to La Vida Bloga and moved forward. But here I would like to restore it and translate/adapt all those cute and ugly stories. Not images:)
