In his 1969 counterculture Volkswagen repair manual, How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-By-Step Procedures for the Complete Idiot, John Muir instructs prospective used VW buyers to " grok the car " before buying.

The Lada was envisaged as a " people's car " like the Citroën 2CV or the VW Beetle.

The possible reason was that they didn't want their crowning car to be powered by a variant of the lowly VW Golf engine.

Before the law requiring a mandatory crash test in 1970 there was a booming kit car industry in Sweden with most companies basing their kits on the VW Beetle chassis.

The Volkswagen Beetle, officially called the Volkswagen Type 1 ( or informally the Volkswagen Bug ), is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen ( VW ) from 1938 until 2003.

Each car included the 1. 6 engine, whitewall tires, a CD player with four speakers, chrome bumpers, trim, hub caps and exterior mirrors, a Wolfsburg emblem above the front trunk's handle, chrome glove box badge, body coloured wheels, tinted glass, a rear parcel shelf, and VW Ultima Edicion plaque.

Citroën probably gained former VW customers as the only other " retro alternative " economy car style of vehicle, the Volkswagen Beetle, was withdrawn from the European market in 1978, ( special order only from Mexico in the 1980s ), when it ceased production in West Germany.

Komenda developed the car body construction of the VW Beetle, the most built car body of the last century.

Erwin Komenda, Ferdinand Porsche's first car body designer, was forced to develop an all-new unitized bodytub structure since the flat floorpan chassis of the existing VW vehicles was unsuited to smooth movement through water.

Given these numbers, the VW 166 is the most mass-produced amphibious car in history.

The road car engine aspect of the business was split from the racing division following the sale of the engineering division of Cosworth to VW / Audi in September 1998 and renamed Cosworth Technology, before being acquired by Mahle GmbH in 2005.

VW POLO first successful frontal full car crash simulation ( ESI 1986 ).

The decision proved popular, at times becoming the most popular imported car in the United States ( after the VW Beetle ).

The Playpac, invented by Steven Whysel, was the answer to the needs of the growing horde of VW " Bug " and other small-car owners who wanted a hard-shelled camper, light enough to be pulled by a small car, with a private water closet, shower and the ability to sleep six.

Volkswagen's first car under the BlueMotion range is a modified 1. 4-litre VW Polo TDI with longer gear ratios, aerodynamic changes and lightweight alloys with low rolling resistant tyres.

The 76 ball is a very popular logo in the " Cult Style " of European car tuning ( especially on VW Golf Mk 1 GTIs due to the debut year of 1976 ), and is also used on many clothing items in Japan as of 2005.

The 1998 VW Lupo was a badge-engineered version of the stablemate 1997 SEAT Arosa. The car was available with a variety of engine sizes and trim levels, from budget models through to the hot hatch GTI variant.

The Volkswagen Gol is a subcompact car manufactured by Volkswagen do Brasil since 1980 as Volkswagen's entry-level car in the South American market — where it succeeded the South American VW Beetle ( Fusca ).

In the ' Campeonato de España de Rallyes de Tierra ' championship it was the SEAT Marbella Proto, a car powered by a 1. 8L 4-cylinder motor derived from the VW Polo G40 equipped with a compressor delivering a horsepower of 140 hp, under which SEAT won the 1988 championship title while in the next season Antonio Rius on the wheel of the Marbella won the two-wheel drive class.

The third generation of the Palio had huge sales numbers, even getting higher sales in some months than VW Gol, the Brazilian best-selling car for over twenty-four years.

Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, Mercedes, Vauxhall, Pontiac and BMW all fit Blaupunkt products into their cars, often branded with the car manufacturer's own mark ( e. g. The VW Gamma or Audi Symphony lines ), with Fiat using them, occasionally unbranded but generally unmodified.

The Volkswagen Type 3 ( sold as the Volkswagen 1500 and later the Volkswagen 1600 ) was a compact car manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen ( VW ), introduced at the 1961 Frankfurt Motor Show, Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung ( IAA ) and ultimately available in two-door notchback, fastback and station wagon variants.

The Apple I was Apple's first product, and to finance its creation, Jobs sold his only means of transportation, a VW van and Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator for $ 500.

However the Auto-Europa production was not dissolved as VW and SEAT continued with their own models.

The company has always had a close relationship with, initially, the Volkswagen ( VW ) marque, and later, the Volkswagen Group ( which also owns Audi AG ), because the first Volkswagen Beetle was designed by Ferdinand Porsche.

In October 2008, Porsche announced its intent to raise its stake in Volkswagen AG to 75 % during 2009, and on 7 January 2009, Porsche's holding in VW AG was raised to 50. 76 %.

At the time, Volkswagen lacked an internal research and design division, and Porsche was doing the bulk of the company's development work, per a deal that went back to the 1950s ; in keeping with this history, Porsche was contracted to develop a new sporting vehicle with the caveat that this vehicle must work with an existing VW / Audi I4 engine.

After serious deliberation at VW, the project was scrapped entirely after a decision was made to move forward with the cheaper, more practical, Golf-based Scirocco model instead.

The Wizardmobile, constructed from the front halves of two VW Beetles, was also attacked and damaged.

Soon after, General Motors began offering automatic seat belts, first on the Chevrolet Chevette, but by early 1979 the VW Rabbit and the Chevette were the only cars to offer the safety feature, and GM was reporting disappointing sales.

The Sterling Nova Kit originally produced in the UK was the most popular VW based Kits being produced world wide and licensed under several different names with an estimated 10000 sold.

Villeneuve was seen driving a VW before stopping and saying at the camera that he has nothing against German guys ... much less for the " allemandes ", referring to the vehicle and German girls — a reference to his rivalry with Michael Schumacher and for the incident at the 1997 European Grand Prix.

Subsequently ( beginning in 1967 in Europe and 1968 in the United States ), VW offered an optional semi-automatic transmission — marketed as Automatic Stick Shift and also called AutoStick ) — which was a 3-speed manual coupled to an electromatic clutch and torque converter.

" The Ford company was offered the entire VW works after the war for free.

It was in 1948 when Wilhelm Karmann bought a VW Beetle sedan and converted it into a four-seated convertible.

Around 1973, all Brazilian Beetles ( 1300 and 1500 series ) were updated with the 1968-up sheet metal, bumpers, and four-lug rims ; although the five-stud rims and " bugeye " headlights were produced as late as 1972 ( the base VW 1200 and 1300 manufactured in Brazil was similar to the 1964 European / U. S. 1200 until the 1970 model year but came with vented wheels since the mid-1960s ).

It was last used in the Brazilian version of the VW Bus, called the " Kombi ", and was replaced by a 1. 4 L water-cooled engine with a front-mounted cooling system.

Starting with the VW 1500, in the mid 1960s the peak of their racing performance was achieved with the VW 1302S and VW 1303S ( known as the Salzburg Rally Beetle ) from 1971 to 1973.

They were very capable in the mountainous country there, that had lots of unsurfaced roads, just how capable was shown by the performance of the two wheel drive military Kübelwagen version of the VW Beetle.

In most ( VW ) applications, the readout in the instrument display changes to 6 5 4 3 2 1, and just like the automatic modes, the currently used gear ratio is highlighted or emboldened.

The use of Tatra's patented air cooling designs later became one of ten issues for which Tatra filed suit against VW.

For example, one such conversion was a 1970 Manx 2 on a 1961 VW chassis.

VW Beetle engine, one of the most prominent flat fours

The first one built in 1964, the Reva GT, was made with a fibreglass body on a VW Beetle chassis.

Auto Express magazine describe it as " Regarded as one of VW ’ s best-ever drivers ’ cars ".

The VW Scirocco from the 1970s is considered one of the benchmarks of today's sporty hatchbacks.

Bellof also contested three VW Castrol Europa Pokal races, of which he won one.

He drove to Sicily with one mechanic in a VW pickup, having entered the 1964 Mediterranean Grand Prix at the Autodromo di Pergusa.

The VW Doublecab is a one of many variants of the VW Eurovan and its predecessor the VW Transporter, identifiable by its crew cab-style pickup truck body, typically featuring two rows of seats, a single door only to access the rear seat ( usually on the curb side ) and drop-sides on the pickup bed.

He also drove in two races of German Formula VW and one race of Spanish Formula Three.

The GAF View-Master reel set for the film shows a still from a deleted sequence where one of Hawk's nightmares has him about to be treated by a pair of white VW Beetle doctors, who decide to " take his carburetor out and have a look at it ".

A stock 2012 VW Passat TDI equipped with an SCR that fulfils emissions requirements in all 50 states set the world record for longest distance on one tank of clean diesel fuel May 11, 2012.

Most film critics remarked that the series had run its course, with Leonard Maltin commenting that there was " one amusing scene where the VW turns matador ; otherwise, strictly scrap metal.