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  • Auto Union - Auto Union 1000 Universal S
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Auto Union - Auto Union 1000 Universal S

Auto Union
Auto Union 1000 Universal S
1964
verkocht / sold / verkauft
Margin
Light blue/creme white
981cc 3 cylinder 2-stroke
44 BHP

Rare Auto Union (DKW 3=6) 1000 Universal 

Auto Union AG, Chemnitz, was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony, during the Great Depression. The company evolved into present-day Audi and is now a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group.

After the war:
With the Red Army quickly advancing on Zwickau immediately after the war, and faced with the prospect of trying to salvage what was left of the company Auto Union's executives had no option but to flee and re-establish the company on Western side of the partitioned Germany. Thus a new Auto Union company was launched in Ingolstadt, Bavaria with loans from the Bavarian state government and Marshall Plan aid.

The reformed company Auto Union GmbH was launched on September 3, 1949. Only the DKW brand survived in postwar West Germany, continuing DKW's tradition of producing front-wheel drive vehicles with two-stroke engines. This included production of the small but sturdy DKW RT 125 W motorcycle and a delivery van known as DKW Schnellaster. Many employees of the Saxony factories in Zwickau (Audi and Horch factories), Chemnitz (Siegmar plant, former Wanderer) and Zschopau (DKW Motorcycle factory) came to Ingolstadt and restarted the production.

In 1950, after a former Rheinmetall-Borsig factory in Düsseldorf-Derendorf was established as a second assembly facility, the company's first post-war car went into production: the DKW Meisterklasse F 89 P, available as a sedan/saloon, a station wagon and the four-seater convertible built by Karmann.The F 89 were based on the DKW F8 (motor) and the DKW F9 (coachwork) pre-war constructions.

In response to pressure from Friedrich Flick, then their largest single shareholder,Daimler-Benz acquired 87% of Auto Union in April 1958, taking complete control in the following year. In 1958 it saw the return of the Auto Union brand, represented by the Auto Union 1000, a small saloon. At the same time the 1000 Sp, a stylish coupé, was produced for Auto Union by the coachbuilder Baur at Stuttgart. Under Daimler-Benz ownership the company invested heavily in the Ingolstadt plant. Car production at Düsseldorf was ended, and the plant became the centre of production for Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles like the Mercedes-Benz L 319 - a role which it continues to the present day. The DKW and Mercedes brands were able to establish a greater presence in the North American market by an agreement with the Studebaker-Packard Corporation in 1956 which through 1964 was the only distributor in the United States. Because of SPC's large network of dealers, the Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz brands were able to expand much faster in the US markets. Many dealers today can trace their origin back to being Studebaker-Packard dealerships.


Auto Union 1000 Sp 1958 - 1965
However, as prosperity began to return to West Germany, and as West German products gained valuable currency through export to the rest of Europe and North America, Daimler became increasingly worried that Auto Union's only market for its two-stroke products, without massive investment, would be impoverished East Germany. Two-stroke engines became less popular towards the middle of the 1960s as customers were more attracted to the more refined four-stroke engines. They began selling shares, which with the agreed help of the West German Government, were acquired by Volkswagenwerk AG.

In 1964, Volkswagen acquired the factory in Ingolstadt and the trademark rights of Auto Union. A programme that Daimler had initiated at Auto Union created a range of cars that would subsequently provide the basis for Volkswagen's line of front-wheel-drive models, such as the Audi 80 and Volkswagen Passat. At the time a new model, internally designated F103, was under development. This was based on the last DKW model, the DKW F102, with a four-stroke engine implanted and some front and rear styling changes. Volkswagen abandoned the DKW brand because of association with two-stroke engines, effectively leaving Volkswagen with the Audi brand. The new model was launched in September 1965 as simply the "Audi." The name was a model designation rather than the manufacturer, which was still officially Auto Union. As more models were later added to the Audi range, this model was renamed Audi 72.