9781422278208

INTRODUCT ION

recession hit and labor strikes in the steel industry put a crimp in automotive production. The Soviet Union had beaten the United States in the space race and suddenly the good life was beginning to change. Still, American cars remained the same. The 1958 Buick Limited typified General Motors’ philosophy that bigger was better. As long as there was more horsepower under the hood and more chrome plastered on the outside, what could go wrong? The problem was that the buying public was beginning to weary of the onslaught of such excess. Cleaner, more lithe lines in design were sought. Quicker handling, better braking ability, and the luxury of driving a car to the market and back without a stop at the gas station became more and more desirable. Volkswagen had been in America for ten years before American automakers saw the need for a light, economical compact car. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler also began to view Volkswagen as a threat as VW sales continued to climb at a steady rate. U.S. Beetle sales leaped from a modest 33,662 in 1955 to 84,677 in 1959 and 112,027 in 1960. The Microbus—an odd duck from the moment it hit U.S. roads in 1950 with two sales—saw total production rise from 49,907 (3,189 sales in the U.S.) in 1955 to 121,453 (32,423 sales in the U.S.) in 1959. Detroit would soon enough get the message that change was needed. Rambler had been making small cars for years, but sales had always been mediocre. Studebaker was first out of the gate with a new compact car, the Lark, in 1959. Ford followed with its Falcon in 1960, along with Chevrolet’s Corvair and Plymouth’s Valiant. Unfortunately for Detroit, however, the horse was already out of the barn door, and Volkswagen would survive them all as sales continued to skyrocket. What was the driving force behind the plain-Jane Beetle? Mid-sixties Falcons and the Corvair were certainly more sporty and offered many more options than the bug. Marketing played a huge part in winning the confidence of American buyers. Volkswagen knew its bug was ugly, yet instead of tinkering with its design the company exploited its looks with self-deprecating advertisements. What could be more appropriate than having actor Dustin Hoffman, in the early sixties, hawking the Volkswagen? Still, while Volkswagen was telling its buyers that beauty was in the eye of the beholder, it gave them alternatives, just in case the buyer didn’t think that good looks were not as subjective as Volkswagen had suggested. VW came up with not only the Microbus but the Karmann Ghia (its design, oddly enough, executed by Chrysler’s Virgil Exner) and the Type III Notchback, Squareback, and Fastback models. By the end of the sixties Corvair was gone. The Valiant and the Falcon soon followed. The Beetle had nearly another decade to go in the United States, though production in Mexico continues to this day. Volkswagen saw the future and seized it. Detroit saw the future and wanted to cling to the past. VW continues to be a leader in automaking, but is no longer king. Yet it opened the door for Japanese imports and forced U.S. automakers to reexamine their product. It took the oil crisis and subsequent gasoline shortages in 1973 to wake Detroit up and fully embrace the compact car, but it was the specter of Volkswagen at its heels that changed the face of the American automobile.

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The 1996 GTI came with a wide variety of options including a 5-speed manual transmission or automatic transmission.

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