Passat

At the end of summer 1969, Gerhard R. Gumpert - Volkswagen's Italian importer - had been asked by Kurt Lotz, CEO of the German manufacturer, to explore the various opportunities offered by the Turin Motor Show to find someone who could help relaunch the brand with two new cars: the first model would be for the mid-size sector, with a newly-designed 1500 cc engine (the Passat, with either two or four doors), while the second model would be the one to take over from the Beetle and this would be the Golf.

On a style level, the model fell "victim" to several modifications, a compromise between the formal issues expressed on some of the research models carried forward by Giugiaro for the Audi and Volkswagen brands: initially, it was conceived as a version of the Golf but in a larger form (a change dictated by the desire to create a family identity between the two models). With the changes in Volkswagen's senior management and the arrival - at a time of economic crisis - of the new President Rudolf Leiding, the project was dramatically revised.

The range would see the fusion of the platform, the front end, and the door seal proposed for the Audi 80 with the rear boxes of the first "Maxi Golf" project and the rear windscreen ribs of the Golf and the Scirocco. Despite development and production complications, the Passat was a resounding commercial success: from 1973 to 1980, in the sedan and station wagon versions, over 2 million units were produced.