. . For the last sixty years, the German product that has been presented as reliable at a reasonable price, and has come to sum up the German engineering to much of the world, is the V.W. Beetle.

It was Germans who made the first internal-combustion engines in the 1880s, and Germans, notably Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz, who built the first working motor cars. Ordinary Germans were not, to begin with, the beneficiaries of this new engineering prowess. Daimler Benz made fine cars, but they were limousines for the rich. . . Page 345

When he came to power in 1933, Hitler was appalled that German car ownership was so low, although the Weimar government had been working to change this and had already started planning the Autobahn network. Morotizing Germany, the Nazis decided, should be a key policy. It would show the strength of the regime, as well, of course, as keeping people happy, and providing that Germany was a match for the United. So Hitler told Ferdinand Porsche to design a robust, easy-to-maintain, reliable car which could be mass-produced for a nation that had very little spare cash. . . . Page 347