This Day in History: German automaker Volkswagen was founded on this day (May 28) in 1937 by the German Labor Front, a Nazi labor union. In the early 1930s cars were a luxury: most Germans could afford nothing more elaborate than a motorcycle. Only one German out of 50 owned a car, so the VW project was set up so that regular Germans could afford one. Today, VW's biggest market is in China, which delivers 40% of its sales and profits.
The German term Volk translates to "people", thus Volkswagen translates to "people's car".
When the VW Beetle was introduced in the States in 1949 only two were sold in the first year.
"The Beetle with the license plate “LMW 28IF” on the cover of The Beatles' Abbey Road album was sold at an auction for $23,000 in 1986. It is now on display at Volkswagen's AutoMuseum at the company’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany...In the original Transformers cartoon, Bumblebee transformed from a VW Bug. The car was changed to a Camaro for the live-action movies." Source
"Contrary to media reports, VW isn’t bringing back the Microbus – just as it never brought back the Beetle, either. It did bring back a car that looked like the Beetle, back in the late’ 90s. But that’s about all it had in common with the Beetle people remembered from the ‘70s, which was the last time VW sold the real – as opposed to “new” – Beetle here in the U.S. (VW was able to continue selling the real Beetle for another 30 years in Mexico, where people were freer to buy the kinds of cars they wanted to buy – as opposed to here, where people are free to buy the cars government allows them to buy.) The car that looked like a Beetle but which was really a re-bodied Golf sold ok at first and then not so well, after awhile." Source
No comments:
Post a Comment