Since July of 1909, Audi, a German company, has marketed and sold a wide variety of cars to the public. Now owned by Volkswagen, Audi has had a rich history of ownership and diversity in the models that have made it to market. The company was started by a man by the name of August Horch. His last name, when pronounced, sounded the same as the English word “hark.” Hark, then translated into Latin, became the word Audi, or “to listen.” Thus, the Audi corporation was born.
After some disputes about the name of the company in its early days, Horch managed to have Audi produce four cars. Without model numbers, they were 2.6, 3.6, 4.7 and 5.7 liter engine driven vehicles respectively. It wasn’t until 1920, when Horch left his post as the CEO of Audi to take a position in the government’s transportation division, that Audi produced the first ever German production car: The Audi Type K. The Type K featured a steering wheel that was on the left hand side of the car to make traffic easier to see when overtaking other vehicles.
In the early 1930′s Audi merged with four other car companies to form one larger one called the Auto Union. As the Auto Union, all of the four indepdent auto companies produced cars and distributed them under the AU name. It was through this distribution process that the current Audi logo was formed. The symbolic four rings of Audi came from the same four ringed logo of the Auto Union who used the four rings to represent the unification of the four auto companies that made up the group. However, while the logo was invented as a unification of the makers, only racing cars made by the Auto Union sported the logo. All four independent companies still produced production cars with their own emblems on them.
After World War II the Auto Union was forced to disband as part of the reparations from the war. The company was wiped from the record books and it wasn’t until 1949 that Audi gathered together what was left of their bombed factories and started producing cars again. In the late 1960′s, Audi again merged with another auto group. This time however, they came together under the Audi brand name. They released their first car, the Audi 100 to the United States at this time. And having just been taken over by the other German car maker, Volkswagen, the Audi 50 became renamed as the Volkswagen Polo to be released Stateside.
Since then, Audi has focused on quality over quantity. They have only ever had a small market share, only reaching about 17% of the total German car output in the pre-World War II era. Their cars are aerodynamically sound and with an attention to detail, they have become a staple of the world’s luxury car market. From a small company in the early 1900′s to a full blown worldwide enterprise, Audi has broken records as both a racing team, rally team, and production car company.
Further Readings:
- Audi A4 4dr saloon 3.2 FSI Quattro SE Technical Specifications
- Audi A4 4dr saloon 2.0 T FSI Quattro S Line Technical Specifications
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