A Few of European Origin Great Cars

They are synonymous with sleek, they are the epitome of cool, a car that turns heads on the road. They are not only good lookers, but most of them are just as good under the hood. They are available as second hand cars on BEFORWARD or can be imported new. However, most people do not know the origins of the cars that we see on the roads today. While everyone knows that Toyota is Japanese, how many people know that Chery Tiggo is Chinese, or that Hyundai (pronounced H-U-N-D-A-Y, like Sunday) is from South Korea….? You get the drift now. Let us look at a few brands.

Audi

Audi is a product of Audi AG, a German company that manufactures cars under the Audi umbrella. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi is majority owned. The four circle logo is meant to have each circle representing each of the companies that were the originators of the parent Auto Union.

Audi is a luxury car maker. Everyone of their car oozes class and style. They are not cheap, but then, if you can have the features that are equal to the amount of money that you pay… you will not complain. Audi has been featured in many films like Taken as well as in Transporter 3.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is mostly associated with the Beetle, simply because that as a design of its own kind back then. It really did resemble a beetle! Today’s Beetle is sleeker, more beautiful and fast. Volkswagen is ranked among the most reputable car manufacturers in Europe, Germany in particular, others being Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz. Volkswagen has the biggest assembly company (Wolfsburg) and the highest merchandising car (Golf) in all of Europe.

Passat, Golf and Beetle have been listed as the best-selling cars of all time, and guess what, they are all from the Germany manufacturer. This is no surprise since the term “Volkswagen” means people’s car and it seems that truly, people have fallen head over heels in love with this name.

Skoda

Did you know that Skoda is part of the larger Volkswagen Group? Well yes, but it hasn’t always been that way, at least it wasn’t when in 1895, Vaclav Clement and Vaclav Laurin, a bookseller and a mechanic from the Czech Republic founded Skoda. They begun by making bicycles and later moved on to cars, buses and trucks, eventually producing aircraft engines. A century later, Skoda joined the bigger Volkswagen bandwagon and with that union, the company grew to become one of the biggest and most reputed car producers in Europe. So, the next time you se Skoda on the road, know it is Czech.

Volvo

Most motor enthusiasts online remember the Jean Claude Van Damme splitting stunt for the Volvo ad which caught many motor enthusiasts attention. However, stability under high speed, as demonstrated in the YouTube video that went viral in hours, is not all there is to Volvo. Volvo is derived from a Latin word, which loosely translates to ‘I roll.’ The Volvo was first created in April 1927.

Surprise Surprise…Volvo is a Swedish car maker based in Gothenburg, but owned by the Chinese Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Got you there…didn’t we. While reputed as a prime auto maker, Volvo has supplied compact cars, wagons, buses, trucks and crossover luxury SUVs all over the world for many years. They adopt technology and have been on the frontline for amazing designs that incorporate lane departure warning systems, parking assist and other technologies.

Rover

This is the father of the famous Land Rover. Making the long and amazing history short… Rover was established in 1878, later sold to Leyland, eventually to Ford to the present day Land Rover subsidiary of Jaguar Land Rover overall owned by the Tata Group.

Since the Rover has evolved to modern day Land Rover Discovery, Range Rover and other exquisite designs for urban and off-road driving, it has become the second best known, after the English Premier League, English-origin brand name in the world. Well… of course there are other English-made greats, but the Land Rover is one of the greatest of all time.