German Car Zone

Audi's beginnings date back to the late 1800s. The name Audi is based on a latin translation of the last name of the founder August 'Horch', itself the German word for 'listen!'. Audi AG has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group since 1964. VW relaunched the Audi name when it was acquired as part of VWs purchase of the Auto Union and NSU Motorenwerke AG assets.

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (en: Bavarian Motor Works) was founded in 1916 for the purpose of building aircraft engines. After expanding to motorcycles in the early 1920s, the first BMW automobile was produced in 1928. BMW Group currently owns MINI and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

Karl Benz was granted a patent for the world's first motor car in 1886. In 1901 Daimler acquired the rights to the name Mercedes. In 1926 Daimler and Benz merged. In 1998 Daimler-Benz AG bought Chrysler Corporation to form DaimlerChrysler AG. In May 2007, DaimlerChrysler sold Chrysler Corp. In October 2007, DaimlerChrysler was renamed Daimler AG.

In 1931 the Porsche marque was established in Germany by Ferdinand Porsche, Jr., and in 1948 the first automobile to wear the Porsche name, the 356 Roadster, was produced. The 911 was introduced in 1963, and is still in production today.

VW started as a dream of Ferdinand Porsche. He had a vision about building a car that everybody could afford. Today, Volkswagen AG also owns Audi, Bentley Motors and Bugatti, among others.

Adam Opel GmbH (a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors) has been around for a long time. Mr. Opel, who started out making sewing machines in 1862 and bicycles in 1886, has been making cars since 1899.