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VOLKSWAGEN
HISTORY 1936 The Birth of a Company and its Name The Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (VAG), also known as Volkswagen Group or as VW, is an automobile manufacturer and mobility organisation based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany and is the pioneer brand within the Volkswagen Group, which contains the car brands Audi AG, Bentley Motors Ltd., Automobiles Bugatti SA, Automobili Lamborghini Holding S.p.A., SEAT, Škoda Auto and heavy goods vehicle manufacturer Scania AB. The Supervisory Board of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (VAG) has endorsed the creation of an integrated automotive group with Porsche under the leadership of Volkswagen. Volkswagen means "people's car" in German. Adolf Hitler had a keen interest in cars even though he did not like to drive, as he was especially inspired by the American automotive giant Henry Ford, who Hitler referred to as Heinrich Ford. In 1933, shortly after taking over as leader of Germany, he teamed up with Ferdinand Porsche to make changes to Porsche's original 1931 design to make it more suited for the working man. (Béla Barényi is credited with having conceived the basic design five years earlier.) Hans Ledwinka discussed his ideas with Ferdinand Porsche, who used many Tatra design features in the 1938 "KdF-Wagen", later known as the VW Käfer-or Volkswagen Beetle. When Chrysler brought out the 1934 DeSoto Airflow coupe, its design enabled Mr. Porsche to finalize his design of the Beetle. On 22 June 1934, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche agreed to create the "People's Car" for Hitler's mother. Prototypes of the car called the "KdF-Wagen" (German: Kraft durch Freude - "strength through joy"), appeared from 1936 onwards (the first cars had been produced in Stuttgart). The car already had its distinctive round shape and air-cooled, flat-four, rear-mounted engine. The VW car was just one of many KdF programmes which included things such as tours and outings. The prefix "Volks" ("People's") was not just applied to cars, but also to other products in Europe; the "Volksempfänger" radio receiver for instance. On 28 May 1937, the Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH was established by the Deutsche Arbeitsfront. It was later renamed "Volkswagenwerk GmbH" on 16 September 1938. 1945: British Army, Major Ivan Hirst The company owes its post-war existence largely to one man, British Army officer Major Ivan Hirst. In April 1945, KdF-Stadt, and its heavily bombed factory were captured by the Americans, and subsequently handed over to the British. Hirst painted one of the factory's cars green and demonstrated it to British Army headquarters. Short of light transport, in September 1945 the British Army was persuaded to place a vital order for 20,000. The first few hundred cars went to personnel from the occupying forces, and to the German Post Office. By 1946 the factory was producing 1,000 cars a month. Volkswagens were first exhibited and sold in the United States in 1949, but only sold two units in America that first year. On its entry to the U.S. market, the VW was briefly sold as a "Victory Wagon". Volkswagen of America was formed in April 1955 to standardize sales and service in the United States. Production of the Type 1 Volkswagen Beetle increased dramatically over the years, the total reaching one million in 1955. 1974 From Beetle to Golf/Rabbit Volkswagen was in serious trouble by 1973. The Type 3 and Type 4 models had sold in much smaller numbers than the Beetle and the NSU-based K70 also failed to woo buyers. Beetle sales had started to decline rapidly in European and North American markets. The company knew that Beetle production had to end one day, but the conundrum of replacing it had been a never-ending nightmare. VW's ownership of Audi / Auto Union proved to be the key to the problem - with its expertise in front-wheel drive, and water-cooled engines which Volkswagen so desperately needed to produce a credible Beetle successor. Audi influences paved the way for this new generation of Volkswagens, known as the Polo, Golf and Passat. The Volkswagen Polo was in fact simply a re-badging of the short-lived Audi 50, which had been hastily developed from a sedan design, the Audi 60. However, VW produced it shortly after the introduction of the Polo as the Volkswagen Derby. In the rear of the car can plainly be seen that panels are added to the Polo structure to make a "three-box" design of saloon (sedan), or saloon with a boot or trunk. The Volkswagen Passat (Dasher in the U.S.), introduced in 1973, was again simply a fastback (available as either a hatchback or with separate boot) version of the Audi 80, using identical body and mechanical parts, and the Audi 80 was later produced on the same line in Wolfsburg as the Passat. Estate/wagon versions were offered for overseas markets, however, for two years, if British and South African customers wanted an estate/wagon version, they had to go considerably up-market and buy the Audi 80 GL estate. However, the pivotal model which would turn Volkswagen's fortunes emerged as the Volkswagen Golf in 1974, marketed in the United States and Canada as the Rabbit for the 1st generation (1975-1985) and 5th generation (2006-2009). This was a car unlike its predecessor in most significant ways, both mechanically as well as visually (its angular styling was designed by the Italian Giorgetto Giugiaro). Its design followed trends for small family cars set by the 1959 Mini - the Golf had a transversely mounted, water-cooled engine in the front, driving the front wheels, and had a hatchback, a format that has dominated the market segment ever since. Beetle production at Wolfsburg ended upon the Golf's introduction, but continued in smaller numbers at other German factories (Hanover and Emden) until 1978, but mainstream production shifted to Brazil and Mexico. The Relationship with Porsche, and the "Volkswagen Law" Volkswagen has always had a close relationship with Porsche, the Zuffenhausen-based sports car manufacturer founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche, the original Volkswagen designer. The first Porsche car, the Porsche 64 of 1938, used many components from the Volkswagen Beetle. The 1948 Porsche 356 continued using many Volkswagen components, including a tuned engine, gearbox and suspension. The two companies continued their collaboration in 1969 to make the VW-Porsche 914 and 914-6, whereby the 914-6 had a 6-cylinder Porsche engine, and the standard 914 had a 4-cylinder Volkswagen engine, and in 1976 with the Porsche 912E (USA only), and the Porsche 924, which used many Audi components and was built at an Audi Neckarsulm factory. Most 944s also were built there, although they used far fewer VW components. The Porsche Cayenne, introduced in 2002, shares its entire chassis with VW Touareg and Audi Q7, which are built at the Volkswagen factory in Bratislava. In September 2005, Porsche announced it would increase its 5% stake in Volkswagen to 20% at a cost of €3 billion, with the intention that the combined stakes of Porsche and the government of Lower Saxony would ensure that any hostile takeover by foreign investors would be impossible.[14] Speculated suitors included DaimlerChrysler, BMW, and Renault. In July 2006, Porsche increased their ownership again to 25.1%. 1960 The Cult status of the Beetle Like its competitors, the Mini, the Citroën 2CV and the Fiat 500, the original-shape Beetle long outlasted predictions of its lifespan. It maintains a very strong following worldwide, being regarded as something of a "cult car", owing to its 1960s association with the hippie movement. Currently, there is a wide array of clubs that are concerned with the Beetle. The fans are quite diverse. Looks include the resto-look, Cal Look, German-look, resto-Cal Look, buggies, Baja Bugs, old school, Disney's Herbie the Love Bug replicas, ratlook, etc. Part of their cult status is attributed to being one of a few cars with an air-cooled, horizontally-opposed engine design, and the consequent ease of repair and modification, as opposed to the more conventional and technically complex watercooled engine design. The original flat-four boxer design had less than 200 moving parts. In the late 1990s, a group of Volkswagen enthusiasts formed "Volkswagenism", a satirical religion based on owners' devoted loyalty to both the Beetle and the company. Under the leadership of founder Jason Gaudet, this "religion" has gained notoriety through radio, television and print coverage from around the world...turning ordinary fans of the car into Volkswagenists. By 2002, over 21 million Type 1s had been produced. And they were also called bugs because of this model. On 30 July 2003, the last Type 1 rolled off the production line in Puebla, Puebla, Mexico. It was car number 21,529,464, and was immediately shipped off to the company's museum in Wolfsburg, Germany. In true Mexican fashion, a big celebration and a mariachi band serenaded the last car in the 68-year-old history. The last car was nicknamed El Rey, which is Spanish for "The King", named after a legendary Mexican song by José Alfredo Jiménez. The last 3000 type 1s were called the "Última Edición" or the last edition. In the United States, Volkswagen enthusiasts frequent large Volkswagen-themed car shows, especially in the summer months. Many of these shows feature camping, a car show called a "show 'n' shine", drag racing, parts swap meet, raffles, burnout contests, and other events. Die-hard and loyal "VW-heads" or "Dubbers" attend these shows regularly, often traveling 500 miles (800 km) or more (even abroad) to attend their favorite event. In the winter, a group of drivers of the "Splitscreen" bus model (1951-1967 Microbuses, trucks, campers, and panel vans) drive from Willits, California, to Mount Shasta, California, largely on unpaved back roads. This event is called the "Mt. Shasta Snow Trip Challenge" and is a good example of VW enthusiasts' trust in the durability of their 40-plus-year-old cars. 1938-2003 The VW Beetle History The Volkswagen Beetle or Bug is a small family car, the best known car of Volkswagen, of Germany, and almost certainly the world. Thanks to its distinctive shape and sound, and its reliability, it now enjoys a "cult" status. The Beetle was in production from 1938 until 2003, interrupted only by the Second World War. Over 21 million Beetles were produced. The "Beetle" name was not originally given to the car. Inside Volkswagen, it was simply the "Type 1" until the 1968 model year (August 1967), when, for the first time, the German brochures used the name "DER K?FER" on the front cover and inside. The Beetle name was later reused when the New Beetle was introduced in 1998. History The origins of the car date back to 1930s Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler's desire that almost anybody should be able to afford a car fitted with a proposal by car designer Ferdinand Porsche, although Hitler himself played some role in the car's shape and, possibly, nickname. Dissatisfied with the initial design of the car's front end (and perhaps caught up in the 1930s' mania for all things streamlined) Hitler penned a more rounded shape on a napkin and handed it to Porsche with the instructions, "it should look like a beetle, you only have to look to nature to find out what true streamlining is." The intention was that ordinary working Germans would buy the car by means of a savings scheme. Prototypes of the car called the KdF-Wagen (German: Kraft durch Freude = strength through joy), appeared from 1935 onwards?the first prototypes were produced by Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart. The car already had its distinctive round shape (designed by Erwin Komenda) and air-cooled, flat-four, rear-mounted engine. However, the factory (in the new town of Kdf-Stadt, purpose-built for the factory workers) had only produced a handful of cars by the time war started in 1939. Consequently the first volume-produced versions of the car's chassis (if not body) were military vehicles, the jeep-like K?belwagen (approx. 52,000 built) and the amphibious Schwimmwagen (approx. 14,000 built). Deliberately designed to be as simple as possible mechanically, there was simply less that could go wrong; the radiator-less air-cooled 985 cm? 25 hp (19 kW) motors proved especially effective in action in North Africa's desert heat. A handful of civilian-spec Beetles were produced, primarily for the Nazi elite, in the years 1940-1945, but production figures were small. In response to gasoline shortages, a few wartime "Holzbrenner" Beetles were steam-powered with wood burning boilers under the hood. In addition to the Kubelwagen, Schwimmwagen, and a handful of others, the factory managed another wartime vehicle: the Kommandeurwagen; a Beetle body mounted on the 4WD Kubelwagen chassis. A total of 669 Kommandeurwagens were produced until 1945, when all production was halted due to heavy damage sustained in Allied air raids on the factory. Much of the essential equipment had already been moved to underground bunkers for protection, allowing production to resume quickly once hostilities had ended. Much of the Beetle's design was inspired by the advanced Tatra cars of Hans Ledwinka. Tatra sued, but the lawsuit was stopped when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. The matter was re-opened after WW2 and in 1961 Volkswagen paid Tatra 3,000,000 Deutsche Marks. The Volkswagen Company owes its post war existence largely to one man, British army officer Major Ivan Hirst (1916?2000). Post-war, he was ordered to take control of the heavily bombed factory, which the Americans had captured. He persuaded the British military to order 20,000 of the cars, and by 1946 the factory was producing 1,000 cars a month. The car and its town changed their Nazi-era names, to Volkswagen (people's car) and Wolfsburg. The first 1,785 Beetles were made in a factory near Wolfsburg in 1945. Production of the "Type 1" VW Beetle (German: "K?fer"; US: "Bug"; French: "Coccinelle"; Italian: "Maggiolino"; Mexico: "Vocho"; Brazil: "Fusca"; Spanish: "Escarabajo"; Dutch: "Kever"; Portuguese: "Carocha") increased dramatically over the years, the 1 millionth car coming off the assembly line in 1954. During the 1960s and early 1970s innovative advertising campaigns and a glowing reputation for reliability and sturdiness helped production figures to surpass the levels of the previous record holder, the Ford Model T, when Beetle No. 15,007,034 was produced on February 17, 1972; by 1973 total production was over 16 million, and by 2002 there had been over 21 million produced. Faced with stiff competition from more modern designs?in particular economical Japanese autos in the US?sales began dropping off in the mid-1970s. There had been several unsuccessful attempts to replace the Beetle throughout the 1960s; but the Type 3, Type 4 (411) and the NSU-based K70 were all failures. Finally, production lines at Wolfsburg switched to the new water-cooled, front engined, front wheel drive Golf in 1974, a car unlike its predecessor in most significant ways. Beetle production continued in smaller numbers at other German factories until 1978, but mainstream production shifted to Brazil and Mexico; the last Beetle was produced in Mexico in mid-2003. The final batch of 3,000 Beetles (officially named the Sedan in Mexico) were sold as 2004 models and badged as Ultima Edicions, with whitewall tires, a host of previously-discontinued chrome trim, and choice of two special paint colours taken from the New Beetle. Production in Brazil ended in 1988, then re-started in 1993 and continued until 1996. Volkswagen sold Beetles in the United States until 1978 and in Europe until the mid-1980s. Independent importers continued to supply several major countries, including Germany, France, and the UK until the end of production in 2003. Devoted fans of the car even discovered a way to circumvent US safety regulations by placing new Mexican Beetles on the floor pans of earlier, US-registered cars. The end of production in Mexico can be blamed primarily on the Mexican government's decision to gradually outlaw the use of 2-door cars as taxi cabs (the Beetle's core market in latter years.) In addition, Volkswagen, now Germany's largest automaker, has been attempting to cultivate a more upscale, premium brand image, and the simple Beetle, with its $7000 base price, clashed with VW's new identity, seen in the Touareg and Phaeton luxury vehicles. Like its competitors the Mini and the Citro?n 2CV, the Beetle has been regarded as something of a "cult" car since its 1960s association with the hippie movement; and the obvious attributes of its unique and quirky design. From 1968 to 1997 a white Beetle with racing numbers and stripes named "Herbie" played a starring role in The Love Bug series of Disney comedy films. A yellow Wunderk?fer, called DuDu, appeared in a series of German films for children. 1998 The New Beetle At the 1994 North American International Auto Show, Volkswagen unveiled the J Mays-penned "Concept 1", a concept car with futuristic styling deliberately reminiscent of the original Beetle's rounded shape. Strong public reaction convinced the company to move the car into production and in 1998 Volkswagen launched the New Beetle. The New Beetle is related to the original only in name and appearance: under the hood, it is a modern car in every way, based on the Volkswagen A platform. In stark contrast to the original, the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety gave the New Beetle among the best safety ratings in its class at the time of its launch.
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