The Spirit of VW: 50 reasons why we love them

By Vaughan Grylls

A fascinating exploration of VW, one of the most revered and enduring international car brands, with dynamic photography and insightful text that explains why we love them and why you should want to own one.
With a second-to-none reputation for reliability, innovation and style, Volkswagen is one of the world's best-loved car manufacturers. From the adorable and unforgettable Type One, otherwise known as the Beetle or Bug, which reached huge heights of popularity in the 1960s, to today's groundbreaking hybrid and electric vehicles, good design has always been at the forefront of VW's philosophy.
This fascinating book, written by a long-time VW fanatic who is also an expert in art and design, traces the development of Volkswagen design throughout the years, examining the most exciting and stylish models – not only the Beetle but the huge range of family cars, camper vans, SUVs and modern city cars the company has produced throughout the years, and not forgetting the iconic Golf GTI.
The perfect gift for the car aficionado in your life, whether they own a VW or not, this fun and quirky book explores everything that's great about this classic brand.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Batsford
• Release date: May 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9781849949552

Vaughan Grylls

Vaughan Grylls is an artist and writer. He was educated at Goldsmiths and at the Slade and has taught at Reading, Cambridge and Williams College in the US, at several other colleges and universities in the UK. He was Director of two British art schools but is now retired. He has published a number of photographic books and an account of his life in British art schools ‘I Brought this in Case: the 1960’s, Four Art Schools and Me’.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

The Spirit of VW

This is not a technical book. It is about Volkswagen, a German company that, more than any other car manufacturer, has led the development and quality of European design and engineering and been at the forefront of its successful export throughout the world.

It started in 1934 with the idea of a car for the people. The German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, instructed engineering professor Dr Ferdinand Porsche to design a car for Germans who couldn’t afford a car. Apart from being cheap to buy through savings stamps, it had to be economical to run, utterly reliable, hold a family of five, be air-cooled so you didn’t have to garage it in winter to avoid the engine freezing up, and be capable of zipping along Germany’s new autobahns at top speed all day. Nothing like this had ever been done before. It was a tall order, although Porsche had blueprints to go on – a proposed car designed in 1925 by Austro-Hungarian Béla Barényi, and advanced designs by German-Jewish engineer Josef Ganz.

The car that Porsche put into mass production was called the KDF Wagen or ‘Strength Through Joy Car’. Thanks to the Second World War, production switched to military versions: first the Kübelwagen, followed by the Schwimmwagen, the purpose of which speaks for itself.

After the war, the largely ruined VW factory found itself in the British zone of occupation. A British army officer, Major Ivan Hirst, was put in charge of the site. The name of the location of the factory and the town for its workers became Wolfsburg, named after the nearby Wolfsburg Castle.

Illustration

The KDF Wagen, advertised in the 1930s.

Hirst tried to tempt each of the British car manufacturers to take VW off his hands as war reparations, but not one was interested. Said their joint official report: ‘… the vehicle does not meet the fundamental technical requirement of a motor-car … it is quite unattractive to the average buyer … To build the car commercially would be a completely uneconomic enterprise.’

Hirst eventually found the answer in his deputy, the former manager of a pre-war Opel factory, Heinz Nordhoff, who had hated the KDF Wagen, regarding it as an unattractive yet dangerous rival. Nordhoff would make the Beetle, or Bug as it became known in the US, the most successful car ever, with over 21 million built.

How did such an ugly little bug become the motoring smash hit of the world? Four reasons:

Firstly, it wasn’t expensive.

Illustration

The 2021 electric ID.3.

Secondly, it was built to a superior standard of strength, finish, reliability and longevity. Most cars, apart from the very expensive, felt flimsy by comparison. They just couldn’t match that satisfying clunk when you shut your VW’s door.

Thirdly, the German-invented autobahn. The VW was originally designed to cruise at 62mph (100 km/h), but by 1953, thanks to a slightly increased engine size, it could hammer away all day and night at up to 70mph (110 km/h). Top speed was autobahn cruising speed. No car, other than the most expensive, could do that. Why? Simply because, as there was no autobahn network outside Germany, there was no call for a cheaper car to be able to do it. In 1958 Britain even a mid-market car, such as a Morris Oxford, was only designed to tootle along at around 55mph (88 km/h), with an occasional burst of speed, just enough to overtake groaning lorries on the country’s narrow roads.

Lastly, VW’s success was built on its astonishing penetration of the crucial American market – the first foreign car manufacturer to achieve this. Volkswagen’s advertising agency’s witty approach to selling the VW in the US became the Madison Avenue benchmark for brilliance.

Yet by the early 1970s, VW’s reliance on its flagship Beetle and its air-cooled derivatives was running out of road. Although VW’s glamorous cousin, the niche Porsche, would continue with air-cooled, rear-mounted engines until 1997/98, it was time for VW as a mass-producer to face the fact that the spread of autobahn networks outside Germany had led to the development and mass-production of reliable, high-performing conventional cars that were cost-effective and far more pleasant to drive. And, most worryingly, Japanese cars were starting to best VW in the US market.

The signs came early. By the late 1960s, cost-cutting measures appeared. To address decreasing profit margins, economies had to be found that did not compromise VW’s legendary build quality. Upholstery now only came in black, while bright fittings inside and out began to disappear. It was as if VW’s cars were returning to their pre-war utilitarian origins.

Eventually VW had to grasp the nettle – the phasing out of air-cooling and rear-engine mounting. In 1973, VW launched the Passat, a mechanically identical car to their Audi 80 (VW had acquired Audi in the previous decade), which had been unveiled the previous year. It was sold as the successor to VW’s Type 3 and 4 sedans. But the world was waiting for the big one, and this was something VW simply could not dodge. In 1974 VW launched the Beetle’s replacement – the Golf (the Rabbit in the US) – while holding its breath, because this could be make or break.

They needn’t have worried. The Golf was also a smash hit. It replaced the Beetle as Volkswagen’s iconic car. Although there would be many me-too examples from rival manufacturers, especially of its Golf GTI and R models, the Golf led the field.

In 2015, VW had to hold its breath again. The diesel emissions scandal almost engulfed the company, especially in the litigious