Viral marketing has become the new way for car companies to promote their autos. In fact, many car commercials show only some, or in this case, none of the vehicles being produced. The trick is to promote an interesting public exhibition of art/music/oddities, what have you – get people interested and have them visit your website, which leads you to the cars. Pretty swift, eh?!

Well, Volkswagen has joined with rolighetsteorin.se and created The Fun Theory – an exhibition of public “fun-art” – which includes one of our favorite new viral videos: piano stairs. We have to question their use of public transit stairways – you want people check out cars, not their local subway system. Still, enjoy the video and share!

Motor Trend reports the rumor that Volkswagen is in the early stages of creating a New Beetle MK II. This new design is inspired by the Volkswagen Golf. By the images, it has the same oval shape as we have become so familiar with the Beetle design. One of the biggest differences is the lack of the Beetle’s signature wheel fenders. Instead, the Baby Beetle takes on smaller car design influences to appeal to economic friendly compact car seekers.

In the same report, it is also speculated the Beetle will arrive in 2010 with a hybrid version in the works.

Now, as we all know, Volkswagen has launched the new line of Rabbit models. The reworked Volkswagen Golf has raving reviews, as people are demanding smaller, economical, socially acceptable cars. However, the 2008 Rabbit must cope with a much different set of challenges than its predecessor.

A new bread of competitors:

The Ford Focus, Suzuki Reno, Nissan Versa, Kia Optima, Saturn Ion, Mazda3, Scion xB, and Volvo C30 are a number of cars within the same range around today that weren’t around in 1984. Since there are so many compact vehicles alike, Volkswagen has positioned itself to appeal to users interested in performance and style. A little pricier than most of its competitors, Volkswagen seems to pull more money from wallets in general. The Rabbit’s starting price is listed at pricy $15,600 for the two-door, and $17,575. But a fully loaded 2 door can be upward of $20,000+, a far cry from its lower priced competitors.

The hefty price tag places the Volkswagen Rabbit more in line to compete with the Volvo C30 1.0. However, there is a large jump in price compared to the C30 2.0 edition (starting $25,700).

Overall, the Volkswagen Rabbit is a mix between style, performance, and luxury to place it among the top of its class. Volkswagen is hoping a new name for it’s once Golf line and a new look will invigorate sales to younger urban consumers.