A prophecy that did not quite come true
It was in the mid-sixties that Volkswagen dared to make the prophecy "Maybe all saloons will look like this in a few years' time".
The estate did indeed become popular in Europe, but it was to take more than a few years. In the meantime, the practical everyday companions have already been replaced by SUVs, and the proportion of estate cars in new registrations is steadily declining.
However, while the VW Variant was the right vehicle category, it did not succeed as well as hoped. Although the advertising touted it as "So beautiful; so natural; so spacious", the Volkswagen with its rear engine was certainly at a disadvantage compared to other estate cars. The prophecy "the future has begun for the VW Variant" was therefore only partly true; the estate concept was only really successful with the VW Passat from the mid-seventies onwards.
Here is the entire advertisement, which can of course also be found in high resolution in the Zwischengas picture archive :
