How an idea saved a car company and gave its name to a generation

2024-03-28 18:00:00

On March 29, 1974, a new era began for Volkswagen: a Golf model vehicle rolled off the Wolfsburg assembly lines for the first time. The angular compact car was supposed to replace the Beetle as the most successful automobile of all time.

Volkswagen was in financial trouble in 1974, primarily because of the oil crisis. The balance sheet showed a loss of 807 million German marks (412 million euros). The successful Beetle model, launched 36 years earlier as the KdF car during the National Socialist era and around ten years later, was a key driving force in…

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