In the middle of the 1980s, Volkswagen threw a bunch of money into building a studio and producing a mock news program, apparently to educate dealers on its new cars. I dug it up on YouTube and now we must discuss it!
This clip is actually quite informative, if a little bizarre. The “anchors” go through new specs, how the cars are produced, service interval highlights, the works.
This seems like a lot of effort in the name of hyping products to dealers, but, it happened! Maybe it’s not as jazzy as the Wendy’s Cold Drinks Training video, but VW’s 20-minute fake newscast has to be up there among the great cheesiest corporate educational campaigns of the rad era.
Then again I’m a sucker for anything ’80s Volkswagen. Enthusiasts can look back fondly on what the legendary Wolfsburg brand produced throughout the decade. Who wouldn’t want to play around on a curvy road with a 16v Scirocco? They also might commiserate over the shortcomings of Bosch CIS fuel injection, but not without a sense of pride.
The Mk2 platform was worth all the production and hype, too. It was an excellent follow-up to the iconic Mk1, with better suspension engineering, more powerful engines, even better reliability, and clean, beautiful design to tie it all together. Clean, original examples are nearly unobtanium, especially the GTI, especially with a 16v under the hood.
Anyway, as for the promo vid, the hosts and voice-over made me chuckle. Leave it to VW to produce something very factual and well-produced that’s also incredibly dry and cheesy. There are no credits to prove it, but I’m willing to bet they commissioned Kraftwerk to do the soundtrack. After watching this clip in its entirety, I suddenly have the urge to go aimlessly drive southern California’s freeway system listening to this.
Wait, did you enjoy that promo clip so much you want to keep watching extremely dated Volkswagen “behind-the-scenes” videos from decades ago? OK, fine, here’s a bonus Golf assembly line tour. Enjoy another 20 minutes of old Vdubing:
