Volkswagen’s management and supervisory board have long been dominated by Ferdinand Piech, who is a descendant of Ferdinand Porsche. His style has been criticized by many but no one has ever accused him of not thinking big. When he announced the Autostadt project in Wolfsburg, many thought it crazy but probably less expensive than some of his other plans (or follies depending on your point of view).
Autostadt is a huge Volkswagen theme park next to the large VW factory in Wolfsburg. It has a number of exhibitions halls and museums dedicated to the various brands that makes up the Volkswagen Group – including in addition to Volkswagen itself Audi, Seat, Skoda, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Bugatti.
The complex also has the excellent Ritz Carlton hotel and a range of fine restaurants. We were somewhat pressed for time so we only ate at the main self-service restaurant, which had a Bavarian and more Mediterranean section. The food was surprisingly good and fairly priced.
While waiting for the delivery time of our car, we took advantage of jumping the queue for the factory tours – just show the paper confirming you are picking up a car and you may casually proceed to the front of the line. Unfortunately, the tour itself was somewhat disappointing. You proceed in a special narrow train-like bus from Autotstadt to the factory. En route, you see some facilities including the two glass towers where cars are stored through an automated parking system until ready for delivery. Rather than visiting the factory where the cars are put together, the part that I was interested in, the tour only the section of the factory where the body parts are stamped into doors, roofs, etc. Although interesting to these inside of a factory, it was a tad boring seeing only doors coming out of a heavy machine rather than actual cars rolling off the factory floor.
We only had time for one further hall where we saw a fine movie on the ceiling of the circular venue. After that we headed to the delivery center where a huge shop is available with all kinds of VW memorabilia as well as some safety equipment that you are required by law to have in your car at all times but which for some odd reason manufacturers are allowed to deliver your car without. Our new car had both emergency triangle and first-aid kit – someone must have slipped up.