Volkswagen
Volkswagen (VW) is the original and top-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, the largest German automaker and the second largest in the world. Three VW cars are among the top ten best-sellers of all time: the Golf, the Beetle, and the Passat.
The German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) founded VW in 1937, when the German auto industry manufactured mostly luxury models. At that time, most Germans hardly could afford anything more than a motorcycle. Only one German in 50 owned a car. Ferdinand Porsche, a designer of high-end vehicles and race cars, tried for years to interest a manufacturer in a small family car. He built a car with an air-cooled rear-mounted engine, torsion bar suspension, a beetle shape, and a rounded front hood for aerodynamic effect necessary with the small engine.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler demanded production of a basic vehicle that could transport two adults and three children at 60 miles per hour. The private industry, however, could not create a car for the price Hitler wanted, so he sponsored a state-owned factory to produce Porsche’s design. This factory produced only a few cars by the time the Second World War started in 1939.
Volkswagen of America formed in 1955 to standardize sales and service in the USA. The first shipment of cars for Volkswagen Canada reached Toronto in early December 1952. Although the public knew it as the Beetle, to the manufacturer it was officially the Type 1. The car was outdated by the ’70s, however, American exports, imaginative advertising and a reputation for reliability helped sales surpass those of the previous record holder – the Ford Model T. By 1973, total production was over 16 million.
In 1964, Volkswagen purchased Auto Union and in 1969 NSU Motorenwerke AG. The former owned the historic Audi brand, which Volkswagen revived and developed as a luxury brand. NSU technological expertise in front-wheel drive and water-cooled engines enabled VW to survive when demand for its air-cooled models declined in the 1970s. VW ownership of Audi paved the way for a new VW generation of Passats, Sciroccos, Golfs, and Polos as successors to the Beetle.
The 1973 VW Passat was a fastback version of the Audi 80 with many identical body and mechanical parts. In 1974, the Scirocco followed, as did the Golf model which was marketed as the Rabbit in the USA and Canada between 1975 to 1985. Its design followed a trend for small family cars set by the 1959 Mini, a transversely-mounted, water-cooled engine in front driving the front wheels. Beetle production phased out after introduction of the Golf.
In the 1980s, VW sales in the USA and Canada fell dramatically as the Japanese and the Americans competed with similar products at lower prices. In 1980 sales in the USA were 293,595, in 1984 they were down to 177, 709, between 1985 and 1986 they rose to 200,000, but then resumed their downward trend.
In the late 1990s, a gradual change in the company’s product line occurred as Audi elevated itself to the same level as BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Volkswagen moved up to fill the market void left by Audi. This move upward continued with the Golf Mk4 in 1997. Its chassis spawned other cars, the Bora (Jetta sedan in the USA), New Beetle, Audi A3, Audi TT, and Škoda Octavia. The Polo was smaller and the Passat larger than the Golf. The Scirocco and Corrado were both Golf-based coupes. Volkswagen’s North American fortunes improved after the third-generation Golf and Jetta models became available there. Introductions of the New Beetle and the fifth-generation Passat were major boosts to the brand.
In the late 1990s, VW acquired three luxury brands, Lamborghini, Bentley/Rolls Royce, and Bugatti. Volkswagen relinquished control of Rolls Royce to BMW and retained Bentley while BMW established a new Rolls Royce brand. Bentley’s future at VW seems bright after an investment into both the factory and new models launched the Bentley Continental range, resulting in record-breaking sales of 10,000.
Volkswagen, in 2005, maintained North American sales of 224,195, and the sales momentum continued into 2006 at 235,140, up 4.9 percent over 2005 despite an overall slump in North American car sales. In favorable reviews for the most recent VW cars, Consumer Reports named the GTI as the top sports car under $25,000, Car and Driver named it one of the “10 Best,” Automobile magazine called it “Car of the Year,” and a 2008 Motor Trend comparison ranked the mid-size Passat first in its class.
