VW: Ten Years to Cross the Starting Line

Founded in 1937 at Wolfsburg, by the German Labor Front, Volkswagen was designed by Ferdinand Porsche, a famous engineer, in 1936. Initially called the “Beetle”, reflecting its shape, it was renamed Volkswagen, meaning “People’s Car”. Later known as the “Bug”, it became Volkswagen’s hallmark product, and featured fuel efficiency, reliability and economical Volkswagen auto parts.

WW II forced the company to exclusively produce military vehicles in support of the German war effort. In 1945, as Volkswagen auto parts were ruined by bombing raids, Americans turned over the factory to British Army Officer Major Ivan Hirst. He ensured that Volkswagen auto parts would not be used to maintain military vehicles. To keep his promise, he painted one green to convince the British Army to place an order for 20,000 Volkswagens. Volkswagen auto parts remained operational. Volkswagen began production en masse in early 1946, becoming a key component of the German economic recovery.

Volkswagen Auto Parts: Image Is Everything

In 1949, only two units were sold in the U.S. Canada’s first order in 1952 totaled 143,075 units. This popularity warranted the construction of a Volkswagen auto parts manufacturing plant in Scarborough, ON (near Toronto). Located in New Jersey, Volkswagen of America was formed in 1955, standardizing U.S. Volkswagen auto parts sales and service.

Triggering this phenomenal growth were the ingenious advertising campaigns of New York advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach. Attractive art and witty copywriting made Volkswagen ads as popular as the car. One such campaign was the “Think Small” full-page ad, featuring mostly a blank page, with only a small picture of a Volkswagen. In 1968, Disney released the movie “Love Bug”, a film portraying “Herbie” as a Volkswagen with a mind of its own. These advertising campaigns effectively lured young, sophisticated consumers to associate with Volkswagen and Volkswagen auto parts, better known as the “Beetle”.

As Volkswagen auto parts became outdated during the 1960s and 1970s, innovative advertising and reliability significantly boosted sales and extended the life of the Beetle. Searching for a successor in 1964, Volkswagen acquired Auto Union (owner of the Audi brand). Ultimately, the Golf model would become the replacement for the Beetle.

In early 1972, Volkswagen auto parts surpassed the world record for production of a single make of car, previously held by the Ford Model T, at 15,007,034. By 1973, total production was over 16 million. In New Stanton, Pennsylvania, the first U.S. Volkswagen auto parts factory opened in 1978, specifically to produce the Rabbit (known as the Golf in Europe), and effectively becoming the Beetle’s successor.

U.S. Sales slumped over the 1980s and 1990s. Expanding its product line in the early 2000s, Volkswagen auto parts showed gains, based largely on the Audi brand. In 2003, the final Beetle was produced in Mexico, bringing the record-breaking total to 21,529,464. August 2009 brought fame, as Porsche merged with Volkswagen. This move, with its existing brands (Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini) made Volkswagen the largest automobile manufacturer in Europe. Later in 2009, Volkswagen auto parts overtook Toyota as the world’s largest car production manufacturing group. Volkswagen has become the mainstay of diversity and reliability with its products.

Enjoying diversity and reliability is easy with Volkswagen auto parts from www.all-volkswagenparts.com.