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The fifth-generation Golf is now available in Europe, and the GTI boasts a 2.0 L Turbocharged direct injection engine. The current Volkswagen Golf was launched in late 2003, came runner-up to the Fiat Panda in the 2004 European Car of the Year, and has so far spawned the new generation Seat Toledo, Skoda Octavia and Audi A3 hatchback ranges as well as a new mini-MPV, the Seat Altea. However, it was beaten into third place for the 1998 European Car of the Year award by the winning Alfa Romeo 156 and runner-up Audi A6. The fourth incarnation of the Golf arrived in late 1997, its chassis spawned a host of other cars within the Volkswagen group—the Volkswagen Bora (the sedan, still called Jetta in the USA), Volkswagen New Beetle, Seat Toledo, Seat Leon, Audi A3, Audi TT and Skoda Octavia.

This time the sedan version of the Golf was badged Vento in Europe (but Jetta in the USA). The previous two versions had lost out to the Citroën CX in 1975 and the Fiat Uno in 1984. In 1991, Volkswagen launched the third-generation Golf and it was third time lucky when the Volkswagen Golf was voted European Car of the Year for 1992. The second generation Golf hatchback/Jetta sedan ran from late 1983 to late 1991.

Its chassis also spawned the Scirocco coupe and Jetta sedan. There have been five generations of the Volkswagen Golf, the first of which was produced from the summer of 1974 until the end of 1983, sold as the Rabbit in the United States. While Volkswagen's range of cars soon became similar to that of other large European car-makers, the Golf has been the mainstay of the Volkswagen lineup since its introduction, and the mechanical basis for several other cars of the company. Beetle production continued in smaller numbers at other German factories until 1978, but mainstream production shifted to Brazil and Mexico.

Its design followed trends for small family cars set by the 1959 Mini and 1972 Renault 5—the Golf had a transversely mounted, water-cooled engine in the front, driving the front wheels, and had a hatchback, a format that has dominated the market segment ever since. This was a car unlike its predecessor in most significant ways, both mechanically as well as visually (its angular styling was designed by the Italian Giorgetto Giugiaro). Production of the Beetle at the Wolfsburg factory switched to the VW Golf in 1974, marketed in the United States as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the 1970s and as the Golf in the 1980s. Audi influences paved the way for this new generation of Volkswagens, known as the Polo, Golf and Passat.

The Ingolstadt-based firm had the necessary expertise in front wheel drive and water-cooled engines that Volkswagen so desperately needed to produce a credible Beetle successor. The key to the problem was the 1964 acquisition of Audi/Auto-Union. The company knew that Beetle production had to end one day, but the conundrum of replacing it had been a never ending nightmare. The Type 3 and Type 4 models had been comparative flops, and the NSU-based K70 also failed to woo buyers.

Volkswagen was in serious trouble by the end of the 1960s. The US Thing version only lasted two years, 1973 and 1974, due at least in part to Ralph Nader's automobile safety campaigns. The military version was produced for the NATO-era German army (Bundeswehr) during the cold war years of 1970 to 1979. In 1973, Volkswagen introduced the military-themed Thing (Type 181) in America, recalling the wartime Type 81.

VW expanded their product line in 1967 with the introduction of several Type 3 models, which were essentially body style variations (Fastback, Notchback, Squareback) based on Type 1 mechanical underpinnings, and again in 1969 with the relatively unpopular Type 4 (also known as the 411 and 412) models, which differed substantially from previous models with the notable introduction of unibody construction, a fully automatic transmission, electronic fuel injection, and a sturdier powerplant. By 1973 total production was over 16 million. During the 1960s and early 1970s, although the car was becoming outdated, American exports, innovative advertising and a growing reputation for reliability helped production figures to surpass the levels of the previous record holder, the Ford Model T. Not until 1998 and the Golf-based New Beetle would the name be adopted by Wolfsburg.

Despite the fact it was almost universally known as the Beetle, it was never officially known as such, instead referred to as the Type 1. Production of the Type 1 Volkswagen Beetle (German: 'Käfer', US: 'Bug', Mexican: 'Vocho', 'Vochito', French: 'Coccinelle', Portuguese: 'Carocha', Brazilian: 'Fusca', Danish: 'Boble, Folkevogn', Polish: 'Garbus') increased dramatically over the years, the total reaching one million in 1954. market, the VW was briefly sold as a "Victory Wagon". On its entry to the U.S.

Apart from the introduction of the Type 2 commercial vehicle (van, pickup and camper) and the Karmann Ghia sports car, Nordhoff pursued the one-model policy until shortly before his death in 1968. In 1949 Hirst left the company, now re-formed as a trust controlled by the West German government. Heinrich Nordhoff (1899–1968), a former senior manager at Opel who had overseen civilian and military vehicle production in the 1930s and 1940s, was recruited to run the factory in 1948. From 1948, Volkswagen became a very important element, symbolically and economically, of West German regeneration.

In Italy it was the Fiat 500. In France Citroën started the 2CV on a similar marketing concept. Ford representatives were equally critical: the car was "not worth a damn". If you think you're going to build cars in this place, you're a bloody fool, young man." (In a bizarre twist of fate, Volkswagen would manufacture a locally built version of Rootes' Hillman Avenger in Argentina in the 1980s, long after Rootes went bust at the hands of Chrysler in 1978—the Beetle outliving the Avenger by over 30 years).

After an inspection of the plant, Sir William Rootes, head of the British Rootes Group, told Hirst the project would fail within two years, and that the car "is quite unattractive to the average motorcar buyer, is too ugly and too noisy .. Famously, all rejected it. It was offered to representatives from the British, American and French motor industries. It was still unclear what was to become of the factory.

The car and its town changed their Second World War-era names to Volkswagen and Wolfsburg respectively, and production was increasing. By 1946 the factory was producing 1,000 cars a month, a remarkable feat considering the factory was still in disrepair: the damaged roof and windows meant rain stopped production; the steel to make the cars had to be bartered for new vehicles. The first few hundred cars went to personnel from the occupying forces, and to the German Post Office. Short of light transport, in September 1945 the British Army was persuaded to place a vital order for 20,000.

Hirst painted one of the factory's cars green and demonstrated it to British Army headquarters. Since it had been used for military production, and had been a "political animal" (Hirst's words) rather than a commercial enterprise, the equipment was in time intended to be salvaged as war reparations. At first, the plan was to use it for military vehicle maintenance. The factory was placed under the control of Oldham-born Hirst.

In April 1945, KdF-Stadt and its heavily bombed factory were captured by the Americans, and handed to the British to administer. The company owes its postwar existence largely to one man, British Army officer Major Ivan Hirst (1916–2000). War meant production turned to military vehicles, the Type 81 Kübelwagen utility vehicle (VW's most common wartime model) and the amphibious Schwimmwagen . None were actually delivered to holders of the completed saving stamp books, though one Type 3 Cabriolet was presented to Hitler on his fiftieth birthday, in 1938.

The new factory in the new town of KdF-Stadt, now called Wolfsburg, purpose-built for the factory workers, only produced a handful of cars by the time war started in 1939. It was one of the first to be designed with the aid of a wind tunnel; unlike the Chrysler Airflow, it would be a success. Erwin Komenda, the longstanding Porsche chief designer, developed the car body of the prototype, which was recognizably the Beetle we know today. The VW car was just one of many KdF programs which included things such as tours and outings.

The car already had its distinctive round shape and air-cooled, flat-four, rear-mounted engine, features similar to the Tatra. Prototypes of the car called the KdF-Wagen (German: Kraft durch Freude = "strength through joy"), appeared from 1936 onwards (the first cars had been produced in Stuttgart). Volkswagen honored its savings agreements after World War II; Ford, which had a similar "coupon" savings system, reportedly did not. The intention was that ordinary Germans would buy the car by means of a savings scheme ("Fünf Mark die Woche mußt Du sparen, willst Du im eigenen Wagen fahren" - "Save five Marks a week to drive in your own car"), which around 336,000 people eventually paid into.

Hitler's changes to the original design included better fuel efficiency (to make it more economical for the working man), reliability, ease of use, and economically efficient repairs and parts. Adolf Hitler's desire that almost anybody should be able to afford a car coincided with this design—although much of this design was inspired by the advanced Tatra cars of Hans Ledwinka. Though the origins of the company date back to the 1930s, the design for the car that would become known as the Beetle / "Käfer" date back even further, as a pet project by car designer Ferdinand Porsche (1875–1951). .

It forms the core of Volkswagen AG (VWAG), one of the world's four largest car producers. Volkswagen, [literally: "people's car"] (also known as VW) is an automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Germany. Lamborghini —bought in 1998. Bugatti—name bought in 1998.

Bentley—bought in 1998 from Vickers along with Rolls-Royce -cannot produce cars using the Rolls-Royce marque because the trademarks went to BMW. Škoda—bought in 1991. SEAT—majority owned since 1987. NSU—bought in 1969 by Volkswagen's Audi division, a brand not used since 1977.

Audi (the former post-WWII Auto Union/DKW)—bought from Daimler-Benz in 1964.