Book review:

«Getting the Bugs Out „ The rise, fall and comeback of Volkswagen in America'

The New Beetle and the comeback of Volkswagen of America (VWoA) has to rank among the genuine business success stories of the past decade.

David Kiley, the Detroit bureau chief of USA Today, sets out to tell the story of the VW comeback in great detail in his new book Getting the Bugs Out (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 286 pages, $27.95) and largely succeeds in a brisk, no-nonsense style that sticks to the basics.

In Kiley's view, the VWoA comeback began when a team of designers from the Volkswagen studio in California, led by J Mays, pulled one of the great "Hail Mary" plays in automotive history - the roll-out of the Concept 1, a carefully stylised version of Volkswagen Beetle at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, 1994.

The appearance of Concept 1 created a buzz around the VW product line for the first time in years, reversing the downward spiral that had brought Volkswagen of America to the edge of doom. The publicity generated by Concept 1 was probably worth $500 million to VW, Kiley estimates.

Indeed, by the time the VW took the wraps off the new rendition of one the auto industry's most durable designs, VW's long-suffering North American operations had been watching its sales steadily dwindle for nearly two decades. The company's once loyal dealers had dropped or were thinking of dropping the VW franchise and there was some serious talk around the industry that VW might be forced to follow the lead of its French rivals Renault and Peugeot and pull out of the huge U.S. market.

The Concept 1 gave VWoA time and space in which to reorganise and Kiley tells the story of how the company capitalised on a break, which VW "had made for themselves."

Getting The Bugs Out is organised like a three-part play. The first act involved the appearance of the Concept 1, while the second act revolved around Ferdinand Piech, VW formidable chairman, who eventually blessed the launch of the New Beetle even though he had reservations about the car's engineering and road-worthiness. As Kiley rightly observes, Piech's reservations led directly to substantial improvements in the car that made it all the more appealing when it reached the showroom. The success of the New Beetle didn't hinge on the cute bud vase on the dashboard, reasons Kiley " the solid engineering Piech championed was decisive in winning the hearts and minds of a whole new generation of buyers for VWoA.

The final act of Bugs revolves around VW's hunt for a new ad agency. For reasons that escape people both inside and outside the auto business, car companies never change ad agencies. By the mid-1990s Doyle Dane Bernbach had been worked as VW's ad agency for nearly 40 years. Over the years, DDB had created some legendary campaigns for the German automaker but by 1995 the partnership was exhausted, according to Kiley.

Key VW of America executives in Auburn Hills began to push to replace DDB with the winner of the resulting review, a firm now called Arnold Advertising of Boston, which has gone on to create some memorable ads for the VW in recent years. Arnold's "Driver's Wanted" campaign artfully appealed to the thirtysomething buyers that have flocked into the company's rebuilt showrooms in the past few years.

Kiley's narrative tells the story of Volkswagen's comeback - sales are up again this year despite the recession - in a crisp fashion and the book contains enough gritty detail and inside anecdotes to keep it interesting, even for a readers who might think they already know the story. Getting The Bugs Out offers a great look at a company under duress that managed to turn around its fortunes by concentrating on the basics like design, engineering and advertising.