On some occasions, new gag cartoons have been created for book publication, as was the case with Think Small, a 1967 promotional book distributed as a giveaway by Volkswagen dealers.

Auto Union came under Daimler-Benz ownership in 1957, and was then purchased by the Volkswagen Group in 1964.

KdF was also responsible for the creation of the original Volkswagen (" People's Car "), a state-manufactured automobile that was meant to be cheap enough to allow all German citizens to be able to own one.

The Volkswagen Beetle was an icon of West German reconstruction.

The Volkswagen Beetle was an icon of West German reconstruction.

Four-wheel drive was also introduced to minivans in North America with the Toyota Van Wagon 4WD and the Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro.

Several members of the Porsche board objected ; their official objection was because they wanted Porsche AG to maintain some separation from Volkswagen.

Ferdinand lost his position as Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen, and Ivan Hirst, a British Army Major, was put in charge of the factory.

Ferdinand Porsche's grandson, Ferdinand Piëch, was chairman and CEO of the Volkswagen Group from 1993 to 2002.

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.

The two companies collaborated in 1969 to make the VW-Porsche 914 and 914-6, whereby the 914-6 had a Porsche engine, and the 914 had a Volkswagen engine, in 1976 with the Porsche 912E ( USA only ) and the Porsche 924, which used many Audi components, and was built at Audi's Neckarsulm factory.

In late 2005, Porsche took an 18. 65 % stake in the Volkswagen Group, further cementing their relationship, and preventing a takeover of Volkswagen Group, which was rumoured at the time.

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.

The 1973 oil crisis, a series of automobile-related regulatory changes enacted during the 1970s and a change of directors at Volkswagen made the case for a Volkswagen sports car less striking and the 425 project was put on hold.

Once in production, the 912E was powered by an 86 bhp 2. 0 L Volkswagen air-cooled engine, refined with a new Bosch L-Jetronic ( Air Flow Controlled ) fuel injection system.

Like its cousin, the Volkswagen Beetle ( which Ferdinand Porsche Senior had designed ), the 356 was a four-cylinder, air-cooled, rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive car utilizing unitized pan and body construction.

While the 356's body was an original design by Porsche employee Erwin Komenda, its mechanicals ( including engine, suspension and chassis ) were derived from the Volkswagen.

The first 356 was road certified in Austria on June 8, 1948, and used many Volkswagen parts for manufacturing economy.

The Volkswagen Beetle was chosen as it was the only one that elicited the crew to reach out and pet it.

The 356, however, had several evolutionary stages, A, B, and C, while in production, and many Volkswagen parts were replaced by Porsche-made parts.

On 13 August 2009, Volkswagen AG's Supervisory Board signed the agreement to create an " integrated automotive group " with Porsche, led by Volkswagen AG.

Volkswagen will initially take a 49. 9 percent stake in Porsche AG by the end of 2009, and it will also see the family shareholders selling the automobile trading business of Porsche Holding Salzburg to Volkswagen AG.

In its efforts to acquire a majority holding in Volkswagen AG, Porsche built up a large debt burden, aggravated by taxes due on very large paper profits from Volkswagen AG options.

Backed by Volkswagen Group expertise and investments, the design — both style and engineering — has improved greatly.

In 2011 Škoda sold a record number of 875, 000 cars, and it stated that it aimed to double its sales by 2018, as part of the Volkswagen Group's plan to become the largest car maker in the world.

* SDI ( engine ), a range of diesel engines by the Volkswagen Group for use in cars and vans

It has three cars in the top 10 list of best-selling cars of all time compiled by the website 24 / 7 Wall St: the Volkswagen Golf, the Volkswagen Beetle, and the Volkswagen Passat.

* Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley ( British ), Bugatti ( French ), Lamborghini ( Italian ), Škoda Auto ( Czech ), SEAT ( Spanish ), Porsche

In the competition for Škoda, Volkswagen was pitted against French car-maker Renault, which lost because its strategic plan did not include producing high-value models in the Czech factories: Renault proposed to manufacture the Renault Twingo city car in the Škoda factories.

A modern van-based Volkswagen Crafter ambulance of the South Bohemian Ambulance Service in the Czech Republic

International venues have included Germany at the invitation of Prof. Rita Süssmuth, President of the Bundestag ( the German Parliament ) and Daniel Goeudevert ( Chair of Volkswagen International ); Colombia, invited by the Mayor of Bogota ; and the Czech Republic, invited by Václav Havel, the ( President of the Czech Republic ).

All brands of cars imported and sold by AMAG except Porsche, belong to the international Volkswagen group ( Audi & Volkswagen in Germany, SEAT in Spain, Skoda in the Czech Republic ).

The Prague Marathon ( also known as Prague International Marathon ( PIM ) and Volkswagen Prague Marathon ) is held in the city of Prague Czech Republic each May.

# kickbacks to Volkswagen managers from bogus companies doing real estate business with Volkswagen, especially at the Czech subsidiary Škoda Auto ;

In more recent times, Winston Churchill's government privatized the British steel industry in the 1950s, and West Germany's government embarked on large-scale privatization, including selling its majority stake in Volkswagen to small investors in a public share offering in 1961.

The Chinese government decided to award this contract to Volkswagen, and instead gave Citroën the rights to the " compact car " segment, with what today is known as the Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile factory, producing over 100, 000 cars a year.

In 2009, Uhuru Kenyatta directed that government Ministers, along with Assistant Ministers and Permanent Secretaries, should turn in their Mercedes-Benz government cars for Volkswagen Passats.

' Time Magazine ' reported that, " Thanks to a government cost-cutting program aimed at saving taxpayers some $ 27 million, Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta announced this summer that government ministers, along with assistant ministers and permanent secretaries, must turn in their ubiquitous Mercedes-Benz for Volkswagen Passats, which not only cost about two-thirds the price of a new Benz in Kenya, but are, says the government, cheaper to run and maintain.

In November 1945 the French government invited Ferdinand Porsche to France looking to relocate the Volkswagen project as part of war reparations.

In 1948 Hirst recruited Heinrich Nordhoff to run Volkswagen GmbH and in 1949 ownership was handed over to the West German government.

In November 1945 the government invited Ferdinand Porsche to France to explore the possibility of relocating the Volkswagen project to France as part of the reparations package then under discussion.