Ferdinand Porsche was the founder of Volkswagen.

It is said that he was indeed a technical genius and was employed by a big number of car companies eg Austro-Daimler, Mercedes, Daimler-Benz to name but a few.

In 1930 he opened his own design bureau. In 1931 he asked his staff to start designing a car with a water cooled 3 cylinder engine. This should also have independent suspension and be capable of accommodating four adults. The main aim was to keep the costs as small as possible to make it affordable to the masses.

In 1932 he made Zundapp a partner. Originally three prototypes were produced  using his original design which was equipped with a new engine. However the engine turned out to have a severe cooling problem and melted after ten minutes of running. Zundapp decided to leave the project.

NSU a motor cycle manufacturer decided to join forces and a completely new cooled 4 cylinder engine was constructed. The engine was placed in the rear of the car to avoid the traditional transmission with a separate gear box, drive shaft and rear axle. Unfortunately due to the economical climate in Germany at that time NSU decided to withdraw and Porche was once again on his own.

In 1933 at the Berlin Motor Show Adolf Hitler announced his plan to manufacture a small car for the people of Germany. Porche and  Hitler were to join forces and a contract was signed in 1934. The prototypes were intended to be built by RDA, which was the German Auto Manufacturers Association. RDA were soon to realise that this had a chance to be successful and this they did not want. They deliberately delayed the project which made Porsche miss the deadline and thus made him lose the contract. However Hitler realised this and placed the entire project under government supervision. The 3 prototypes were delivered in October 1936.

To this day the VW has remained almost identical in design. It has a reputation for being a highly reliable car and indeed Volkswagen van leasing is a very popular choice as they have such a solid history behind them.

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