Audi Enthusiasts Learn About the History of This Auto Manufacturer

Audi is one of the premier and the most luxurious manufacturers of automobile systems in Germany. They are the producers of the Audi Cars which is a famous car in the world. Besides they believe in innovation too.

History and Origin: The origin of the company can be traced to 1899 and the founder is August Horch. The founder had problems with the company that he was working with. So he was forced to leave the company and he soon started his own brand under his own name. But copyright issues were raised and he was forced to remove the family name in his brand. There he christened the name as Audi for his automobile company. The word Audi actually means in Latin to listen.

They initially started with Audi 2612 cc and they subsequently increased the efficiency more and more. They were mostly used in sporting events. Thus the brand of cars started developing over time and today we are seeing an entirely different world of cars being manufactured by Audi!

Auto Union: An Auto Union was formed when Audi entered in to collaboration with Horch, DKW and Wanderer. This Union was responsible for the production of the Audi Badge that we see today. These were used in Auto Racing Cars with different brand names. As the technology became more and more complex, more and more models were designed. These engines were used by Germany in the Second World War. The other vehicle which was used for the same purpose is the Kraftfahrzeug (KFZ 11) or the Horch Type 80 which was again used by the military.

Audi Logo: The logo consists of four overlapping rings which represents the four marques of Auto Union. Their logo reflects the fact that they are merged with Horch, DKW and Wanderer. The logo is beautifully crafted in such a way that the first ring represents Audi, the second one represents DKW, third one represents Horch, and the fourth and last ring represents Wanderer.

Earlier Times: After the second world war the Auto Union was heavily bombed. The Audi factory then turned into the socialist company "VEB Automobilwerk Zwickau" (AWZ). Post the World War II, many companies like Volkswagen and others rose and started the Auto Union again. By 1960 customers were attracted towards Four Stroke Engines and they became popular. The brands like Audi 72, 75 were invented when Volkswagen renamed their brand as Audi. Until 1972 models from Audi like Audi 60, 70, 80 and Super 90 were developed and they came back again in to the picture very strongly.

In 1969, the Auto Union saw the entry of one more member NSU, which was one of the world's largest producers of motorcycles. They went on to produce new small cars which are light in wait and safe to drive but still had some problems in their rotary engines.

The Modern Audi: The period after 1970, especially years after the Second World War saw the emergence of Audi as a really competitive brand. It was first introduced in the United States in the post 1970 era. In 1968 saw the entry of the brand Audi 100. It was soon followed by another one in the name of Audi 80/Fox and Audi 50 in 1974. The Audi 50 was very popular in those days as it was invented on the basis of the Golf/Polo concept and it was a huge success all over the world because of its unique design and it is still very much remembered.

The inventions at that time and a proposal from a Chassis Engineer Jorg Bensinger, who promised to develop four wheel technologies. Soon it replaced the Audi brand cars and the racing cars too. The performance car which was developed in 1980 was named as Audi Quattro. Also it was the first German large-scale production vehicle which featured with permanent all-wheel drive through a center differential.

It is commonly referred to as Ur- Quattro in German, where Ur in German means original and unique. Also this prefix is used for other Audi Brands like S4 and S6 brands called as Ur4 and Ur6. These cars were used fro rallying and racing purposes and they soon became very famous. This marked not only the entry of Audi, but also advances in the Automobile World!

In 1985 the companies like NSU and the Auto Union fell and Audi came to be known as Audi AG. In 1986 the Audi 80 brand started developing a very good model which was famously called as the Grandfather's Image in those days. The great thing about that model is the fact that it sold extremely well in no time. However the engine in the car was not that great even though it had great interior design and good performance. So to counter the shortcomings, Audi came up with a new model Audi 90 which had a superior design and was regarded as a good and an efficient model.

In Early 1990s the sales of the model Audi 80 declined as it said that some basic construction problems was not like by the buyers. This according to a US survey was due to unintended acceleration which happened when the break pedal was pushed. Many say that this problem was mainly attributed to the closeness of the accelerator and the break pedal. However this problem was not raised in any of the European countries as they had the experience of driving in the cars like that and their counterpart's inexperience to drive in such cars.

However the aftermath was so severe that the US people did not buy Audi cars at all and the sales came down very badly. This led to the renaming of the affected model by Audi as 100/200, but the real name of the company was 5000. Audi had even planned to remove their models but sales went up again in the mid-1990s. The sales began to go on a upswing, thanks to a new model from them A4 in 1996 and the subsequent releases of the models like A4/A6/A8 series, which was developed in collaboration with VW and other sister brands of that time. So dozens of cars were coming from the innovative Audi.

Their Confidence to rule the world in automobile industry grew to such an extent that they started to claim world records, like Top Speed Endurance. The company had always maintained its premier racing game, The Silver Arrows. Even today their sales are in the skies as it is touching new heights day by day.

Audio enthusiasts visit our Audi forum to discuss topics from performance to styling of your favorite model.

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