Otto Explains — Legendary Cars

The Legendary Cars That Defined Volkswagen

Short Answer

Six cars changed Volkswagen more than any others. The Beetle made it a car maker and an exporter, the Transporter of 1950 added a second model line, and the Passat of 1973 began the switch to water-cooled, front-wheel-drive cars. The Golf of 1974 replaced the Beetle and became Volkswagen’s core product, the Tiguan of 2007 made an SUV the brand’s best-seller, and the ID.3 of 2019 opened its electric era.

How did the Beetle make Volkswagen a car maker?

Volkswagen was founded in 1937 to build one car, designed by Ferdinand Porsche’s office from 1934; the history of Porsche tells that side of the story. The car combined a rear-mounted, air-cooled four-cylinder boxer engine with rear-wheel drive and a separate, load-bearing underbody. Series production of the Type 1, Volkswagen’s own name for it, began on 27 December 1945, and through the following decade it was Germany’s best-selling car, with around 40 percent of the market, while making Volkswagen West Germany’s biggest car exporter. On 17 February 1972, with 15,007,034 built, it overtook the production record of the Ford Model T. Its success also became a risk: after 1970 the rear-engined, air-cooled design lost its appeal, and Volkswagen had to replace it. The last Beetle, number 21,529,464, came off the line in Mexico on 30 July 2003.

How did the Transporter change Volkswagen?

The Transporter, Type 2, went into mass production in Wolfsburg on 8 March 1950 as Volkswagen’s second model series. It borrowed the Beetle’s air-cooled rear engine, with 25 hp, but had a reinforced chassis of its own and was built to carry goods as well as passengers. Demand was such that Volkswagen opened a new plant for it in Hanover in 1956, and the one millionth Transporter was built in 1962. With it, Volkswagen was no longer a company of one model.

Why did the Passat mark a turning point?

By then Volkswagen needed cars with water-cooled engines and front-wheel drive. The Passat, which went into production in Wolfsburg on 14 May 1973, was the first of its new generation built around them. To keep costs down it was based on the Audi 80, part of a modular kit of shared components that Volkswagen built up in those years, and it was the first Volkswagen with a name of its own, after the trade wind. Together with the cars that followed, it carried Volkswagen through the oil crisis of 1974/75. More than 34 million Passats have been sold since.

How did the Golf save and redefine Volkswagen?

When Golf production began in Wolfsburg on 29 March 1974, Volkswagen was posting losses and the Beetle’s time was running out; the press called the new car “the little saviour”. Styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro, with water-cooled front engines of 50 and 70 PS driving the front wheels, it led German new-car registrations from 1975 and founded the compact “Golf class”. On 25 June 2002 it overtook the Beetle as the most-built Volkswagen, with 21,517,415 cars, and its eighth generation premiered on 24 October 2019. Through the GTI of 1976 it also gave Volkswagen its sporty side.

Why was the Tiguan a turning point?

Volkswagen entered the SUV segment at the luxury end with the Touareg in 2002. The Tiguan, a compact SUV based on the Golf and shown in Geneva in 2007, took it to the volume market. More than 8.3 million Tiguans have been built since then, and it is now the best-selling model of both the Volkswagen brand and the whole Volkswagen Group. An electric ID. Tiguan is to join it from 2027.

How did the ID.3 start Volkswagen’s electric era?

Volkswagen had built small series of electric Golfs before, and the e-Golf followed in 2014, but the ID.3 was the first car of a family designed only for electric drive. Production began at Zwickau on 4 November 2019, in a plant converted to build only electric cars, and the ID.3 was the first model on the modular electric drive toolkit (MEB), which places a flat, scalable high-voltage battery in the floor. As in any electric car, the high-voltage system must never be opened or worked on by anyone but trained specialists. About 628,000 ID.3s had been delivered by February 2026, when an ID.3 became the Volkswagen brand’s two millionth all-electric car, and newer electric models now take established names such as the ID. Polo.

Why aren’t the Golf GTI or the Phaeton on this list?

Because this list is about the cars that changed the company, not its most admired models. The Golf GTI of 1976, the Golf R32 of 2002 and the Phaeton, which premiered in 2002, are among Otto’s ten iconic Volkswagens instead: they made the brand sportier or more luxurious, while the six cars above changed what Volkswagen builds and sells.

Common Questions

  • Why is the Beetle called the Beetle? “Beetle” began as a nickname. Volkswagen’s own designation for the car was Type 1, but the nickname soon became the name everyone used.
  • Was the Transporter based on the Beetle? Partly. It used the Beetle’s air-cooled rear engine, with 25 hp when production began in 1950, but it had a reinforced chassis of its own.
  • When did Volkswagen build its first electric car? Volkswagen built small series of electric Golf CitySTROMers decades ago. An electric version of the up city car in 2013 and the e-Golf of 2014 followed, before the ID.3 started series production of the ID. family in 2019.
  • Is the Passat still being made? Yes. The ninth generation appeared in 2023. In Europe Volkswagen offers it only as an estate, while Volkswagen Middle East relaunched the Passat as a saloon in November 2025.

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