Wednesday, January 21, 2009

VW Parts for the "People Car"

True to its name, Volkswagen produced the best-selling car of all time, the Beetle. Volkswagen's history goes back to Ferdinand Porsche's vision of producing a vehicle that every working man can afford. This idea was not a new one but previous attempts to realize it had failed. The VW Schwimmwagen was an amphibious vehicle used extensively by the German army. After the war, Volkswagen's first customer would ironically be the British who needed light transport and ordered 20,000 units. Volkswagen sold only 2 cars when it started exporting to America but clever advertising campaigns popularized the brand immensely. In 1973, sale of the Volkswagen Beetle exceeded the 16 millionth marks replacing the Model T as the best-selling car in the world. It was also named fourth most influential car of the 20th century by the Global Automotive Elections Foundation. Later versions of the Type 1 sold poorly and Volkswagen purchased Audi/Auto Union to help the company create a new breed of VW vehicles. Ferdinand Porsche had an impeccable reputation as an automobile engineer, heading his own consultation firm and previously serving as chief designer of Lohner, Austro-Daimler, Mercedes, Daimler-Benz and Steyr. When Hitler expressed his desire to produce a car that would serve the needs of the average German.
the car should be a five-seater, have a cruising speed of 100 kmh, get 40 miles to the gallon, be air-cooled, and be priced below 1000 Marks. Ferdinand Porsche accepted the challenge even though he was sure that a car could not be made that cheaply: the cost of Ford's mass produced models at the time was roughly the equivalent of 2,600 Marks.

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