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Would you rather watch your parents buy a Porsche or a Lamborghini? Or maybe a Bugatti?? Well, it doesn't matter to you, because your parents are anyway not letting you drive it, but it doesn't matter for any of the companies either. And that's because all of them are owned by Volkswagen, a budget car company started under Hitler's Nazi government. So the question is, how did VW pull this off and acquire all the exclusive brands you can think of? THE START: It all started with Ferdinand Porsche. In 1931, with prior work experience with Mercedes started his own car design firm alongside a JEWISH co-founder, Adolf Rosenberger. They didn't make cars themselves; they designed them for other companies. Six years later in 1937, the Nazi Party's German Labour Front wanted to build an affordable car for everyday Germans. As a result, they started Volkswagen (People's Car in German) and hired Porsche's firm to design it. The result? The VW Beetle. An instant hit. Then WW2 happened. Mr. Porsche, along with his son and son-in-law, got arrested by French authorities for their role in designing German war machinery. His son Ferry was released after 6 months and used that time to design the Porsche 356, marking the start of Porsche AG, a car maker. After the two bombs dropped, the other two bombs being VW and Porsche continued to grow and went on shopping. The Acquisitions: 1964: Audi (then Auto Union GmbH) - Daimler-Mercedes sold Auto Union because it was struggling. - VW's initial plan was to use their factories to make more cars. - But Auto Union secretly designed the Audi 100 under the supervision of Ludwig Kraus, Technical Director. - VW loved it, and this marked the start of Audi. 1994: Škoda - Škoda was a Czech government-owned company and they chose VW as the buyer since VW promised to preserve their legacy. 1998: Bentley and Rolls-Royce (kinda) - VW paid £430 million (compared to BMW's £340 million offer) to Vickers, thinking they were buying both Bentley as well as Rolls-Royce. - BMW secretly owned the Rolls-Royce name and logo through their airplane engine subsidiary. - BMW owned Rolls-Royce plc (Airplane Engine Business), which owned the rights to the Rolls-Royce name and trademarks. - Thus VW got the factories, while BMW got the trademark to sell Rolls-Royce. BMW launched their own Rolls-Royce cars in 2003. 1998: Lamborghini (via Audi) - Lamborghini was founded in 1963 by Ferruccio Lamborghini. - After bankruptcy in 1973 and again in 1978, Chrysler bought it in 1987, then sold it to Southeast Asian investors in 1994. - VW finally bought it in 1998 for $110 million. 1998: Bugatti 2008: Scania (truck and bus maker) 2012: Ducati FERDINAND PIËCH: Ferdinand Piëch was the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. He began his career at Porsche and later joined Audi in 1972 due to family politics. By 1988 he became Audi's CEO, and VW's CEO by 1993. (continued in the comments)