About Volkswagen Cars
Volkswagen, forever known as the "People's Car" was founded on May 28th 1937, or rather "Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagen mbH" company was created. It was a year later in 1938 that they changed their name to "Volkswagenwerk GmbH". Its headquarters were in Wolfsburg, a city that was made especially for Volkswagen workers who at the time were mass producing Hitler's dream German car for the average person, the car was designed by Ferdinand Porsche.
However, at this time WWII started and the plant had to start making vehicles under the VW logo for the army of the Third Reich. It was only after the war that the plant at Wolfsburg became controlled by the British and under Major Ivan Hirst's supervision they could once again start car production and namely that of the Type 1, or the Beetle as it became fondly known all around the world.
Initially, the Beetle did not sell well abroad, however, after a successful advertising campaign, it did gain in popularity with the younger people in society and managed to sell 1 million models by 1955. They had also managed to introduce the Type 2 to complement the Beetle, this car was known as the VW Bully and was a people carrier.
During the 1960s and the 1970s, the Beetle continued to sell well and make profits despite at the time becoming obsolete. The main reason for its popularity was due to it being exceedingly reliable and easy to maintain while at the same time using low fuel consumption. By 1972, Volkswagen had sold over 15 million Beetles making it the world's most popular car, a record which still stands today.
However, despite the huge success of the Beetle, Volkswagen knew that in the 1970s they needed to come up with a new model to replace the now ageing Beetle. They used the knowledge from Audi Auto Union, which they had invested in during the 1960s and created new front-wheel drive vehicles that featured water-cooled engines.
This then resulted in 1974, the first Volkswagen Golf being made which became an instant success. In America and Canada, this was known as the Rabbit. They also produced the Scirocco that same year. In 1976 they produced the Polo for the small car market and this again proved to be hugely popular, especially in Western Europe.
During the next decade, Volkswagen upgraded and made improvements on all of their previous older models and continued with their global expansion. This time they took over Seat, a Spanish car maker and Skoda Auto which was a Czech-based motor company.
In the 1990s they produced their third generation cars giving them a better standard and quality. They also started to slowly introduce new luxury models such as the Touareg, an off-road vehicle.
Volkswagen now like many other car manufacturers are trying to break into the hybrid car market as well as making cars with low CO2 emissions and using fuel-efficient technologies.