opGeneral Motors automotive brand names include:BuickGMCPontiacCadillacOldsmobileSaturnChevroletOpelVauxhall| TOP |WHAT'S NEW | COMPANY PROFILES | INDUSTRY TRENDS | RESEARCH | CREATIVE RESOURCES | ROADMAPauto@magazine.org | MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS OF AMERICAVOLKSWAGEN MOTOR COMPANYContents:Strategies | Advertising | Financials |Advertising/Promotion Agencies | HotlinksVolkswagen AG (VW) was founded in 1937 and is one of the world's largest car manufacturers. The company started its operations with the production of the by now famous "Beetle". In 1998 VW acquired the Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars group from Vickers P.L.C., but the brand name Rolls-Royce itself is owned by BMW (Germany). In 1999, the company manufactured a total of 4,869,203 motor vehicles, of which 61% were produced or assembled by foreign subsidiaries (breakdown by brands: Volkswagen cars 63%, Volkswagen commercial vehicles 4%, Audi 13%, Seat 11%, Skoda 8% & others, 1%).Although Volkswagen AG is headquartered in Germany, it derives most of its sales outside of its home market: sales in Germany were 24.23 billion Euro which was only 32.2% of 1999's sales. In 1999, sales in North America were up at a rate that was much higher than the company as a whole: in this region, sales increased 57.6% to 12.38 billion Euro. Volkswagen is America's top-selling European Brand. Volkswagen AG also experienced significant increases in sales in Asia/Pacific (up 23.9% to 2.37 billion Euro) . Although the company's overall sales increased, sales were not up in all regions of the world: sales in South America were down 30.4% (to 3.95 billion Euro) . Volkswagen has 17% of the market in Europe, a goodly number in an extremely competitive environment.In 1998, VW launched the new Beetle, which was introduced to the American market in the beginning of the year and to the Europe market at the end of it. VW has worldwide subsidiaries. Vehicle sales accounted for 81% of 1999 revenues; rental and l...
