Week 10 EOC -- Volkswagen

The term Volkswagen in German means family car, the fact that VW has presented itself this way since its start in the 1930s proves that a car company can remain true to what it is and what it believes and still create sellable, dependable vehicles. While they have extended their line beyond just the beetle and have entered into a little higher market with the Touareg SUV Volkswagen and remained pretty true to form, still offering very affordable cars that get great gas mileage and are dependable cars. Ten fun facts about VW, enjoy.

*The idea for the Beetle came from Adolph Hitler, who while in prison in 1924 following the unsuccessful putsch on the Federal German capital. Hitler conceived of an idea to solve Germany's unemployment problem, the Government would build special roads (autobahns) for motor vehicles. He would also mass-produce a car ( the peoples car, the Volkswagen ) which the average man in the street would be able to buy.

*The Design's for the Volkswagen were not finalized until 1933 and the Volkswagen finally saw the light of day in 1939

*Ferdinand Porsche, in April 1934 was given the important task of designing this special car within 10 months

*Audi and Volkswagens use the same parts bin

*The Karmann Ghia was first produced in 1956 to spice up the VW product line

*Volkswagen had innovative advertising campaigns, combining witty humor with simple facts.

*Volkswagens have been produced in Germany, Mexico, Brazil, and the USA. The US plant in Virginia closed in 1988.

*Brazil and Mexico still produce VW vehicles.

*Almost 22 million air cooled Beetles were produced before their discontinuation in 2003.

*On 24 May 2005 VW presented a Touran (it’s 100,000,000th vehicle) to the German President’s wife Eva Louise Köhler.

(sites used include, VW Fun Facts, Volkswagen Trivia, and Volkswagen-Talk.com)