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.

Porsche's sport coupes which were originally based on Volkswagen parts and platforms continue to use the classic rear engine layout ( which later became water-cooled ) in the Porsche 911 series, which remains competitive in the second decade of the 21st century.

The DAF and KdF's most ambitious program was the " people's car ", the Volkswagen, originally a project undertaken at Hitler's request by the car-maker Ferdinand Porsche.

Some manufacturers ( originally Lancia, and more recently Volkswagen with the VR6 engine ) have attempted to combine advantages of the straight-and V configurations by producing a narrow-angle V ; this is more compact than either configuration, but is less smooth ( without balancing ) than either.

Before the Volkswagen Rabbit, the North American version of the Golf, was introduced in GTI form in September 1982 with, American manufacturers already offered sporting versions of their own hatchbacks including the 1981 1 / 2 Dodge Charger 2. 2 with and in the 1983 Shelby Charger, and the 1980 Chevrolet Citation X-11 originally with.

A range of Turbocharged Direct Injection ( TDI ) diesel engines was available, including a version of Volkswagen Group's 1. 9 TDI engine, originally sold as a " Cupra 4 TDI ", with 4WD, that was sold for one year only, and only in certain countries, then passed to " Evolution " series, then " Top Sport ", and later rebranded as the " FR " (' Formula Racing ').

Its name originally denoting a power output of, the Audi 100 was the company's largest car since the revival of the Audi brand by Volkswagen in 1965.

The fastback version, the Volkswagen TL, fared somewhat better, remaining in production from 1970 to 1976, originally as a 2-door and later as a 4-door version.

It was originally based on the engineering concept of the Volkswagen Golf Mk1, and is applicable to either front-or four-wheel drive vehicles, using only front-mounted transverse engines.

The Can-Am racer-inspired gull wing doored sports car was a glass fibre bodied vehicle based on the Volkswagen Beetle, and was originally intended purely for Pearce's own use but nearly entered production as a kitcar in 1972.

The 2. 9-litre engine, as destined for the Corrado, was originally designed to benefit from a dual-tract variable-length inlet manifold-called the VSR (), and made by Pierburg for Volkswagen Motorsport.

The Citation ( originally to be named the " Condor ") and its X-body siblings ( Buick Skylark, Oldsmobile Omega, and Pontiac Phoenix ) were among GM's first front wheel drive compact cars, following the trend of front drive compacts such as the Honda Accord and Volkswagen Dasher.

The Volkswagen Bus was originally available with three rows of bench seats seating up to nine passengers, but since then most minivans have been configured to seat seven or eight with front bucket seats.

In the Italian market, originally only the Volkswagen built TD24 was to be offered, with, but soon the V6 also became available and a 2. 0-litre turbo ( B200ET ) Italian tax special was also added in 1986.

Volkswagen began its involvement in Ireland when in 1949, Motor Distributors Limited, founded by Stephen O ' Flaherty secured the franchise for the country at that year ’ s Paris Motor Show.

* Wolfsburg: founded in 1938 to host the factories for the newly built Volkswagen

Wolfsburg was founded on 1 July 1938 as the Nazis ' Stadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben (), a planned town around the village of Fallersleben to house the workers of the new Volkswagen factories, which were built to assemble the Volkswagen Beetle " people's car " and remain there today, although Beetle production there ended in 1978 ( it was transferred to Mexico for the final 25 years ).

* Wolfsburg: founded in 1938 to host the factories for the newly built Volkswagen

The ACEA has its predessor in the CMMC ( Comité des Constructeurs du Marché Commun ) founded in October 1972 by French ( Citroën, Peugeot, Renault ), German ( Mercedes, Volkswagen ), Italian ( Fiat ) and British ( BLMC ) manufacturers.

OSEK was founded in 1993 by a German automotive company consortium ( BMW, Robert Bosch GmbH, DaimlerChrysler, Opel, Siemens, and Volkswagen Group ) and the University of Karlsruhe.

However, just as the car was about to be launched, well founded rumors appeared concerning the then imminent take over of cash strapped NSU by Volkswagen: even before the take over had been made public, the K70's future was threatened by management concerns that the K70 was too close in size and price to the recently launched Audi 100.

The Nazi " KdF-Wagen " (" Strength through Joy-Car ") project ground to a halt before serious production had started because of World War II, but after the war, the Volkswagen company would be founded to produce the car in the new democratic West Germany, where it would be a success.

In the late 1990s, the LIN Consortium was founded by five automakers ( BMW, Volkswagen Audi Group, Volvo Cars, DaimlerChrysler ), with the technologies supplied ( networking and hardware expertise ) from Volcano Automotive Group and Motorola.

The city of Wolfsburg was founded in 1938 as Stadt des KdF-Wagen to house autoworkers building the car which would later become famous as the Volkswagen Beetle.

AMAG Automobil-und Motoren AG is a Swiss car importer and dealer for Audi, Volkswagen, Skoda, SEAT and until about mid-2008 Porsche cars founded on January 3, 1945, by Walter Haefner.