Date:         Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:35:17 -0800
Reply-To:     Bernie <berniej@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Bernie <berniej@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Germany VW war
In-Reply-To:  <c3f.62c98ae5.3867ca34@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252

Plant was offered to British, American and French.

The car, and its town changed their Second World War-era names to
"Volkswagen", and "Wolfsburg <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfsburg>"
respectively, and production was increasing. It was still unclear what was
to become of the factory. It was offered to representatives from the
British, American and French motor industries. Famously, all rejected it.
After an inspection of the plant, Sir William
Rootes<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Edward_Rootes,_1st_Baron_Rootes>,
head of the British Rootes Group <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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
… If you think you're going to build cars in this place, you're a bloody
fool, young man".[*citation
needed<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed>
*] In an ironic twist of fate, Volkswagen would manufacture a locally built
version of Rootes's Hillman
Avenger<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillman_Avenger>
 in Argentina <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina> in the 1980s, long
after Rootes had gone bankrupt at the hands of
Chrysler<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Corporation> in
1978—the Beetle outliving the Avenger by over 30 years.

Ford representatives were equally critical: the car was "not worth a damn,"
according to Henry Ford II <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford_II>, the
son of Edsel Ford <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel_Ford>, although he did
reportedly look at the possibility of taking over the VW factory, but
dismissed the idea as soon as he looked up Wolfsburg on the map and found it
to be too close for comfort to the East German border.

In France <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France>,
Citroën<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn> started
the 2CV <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_2CV> on a similar
marketing concept. Meanwhile, in Italy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy>,
the Fiat 500 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500> "Topolino" was
developed.