In 1958 Porsche began a project numbered 728 for a revised Beetle. Two years later, a similar headline was used in an article in Der Spiegel weekly news. In 1957, an article with the title 'Is the Volkswagen dated?' appeared in the West German magazine Stern. īy the mid- to late-1950s, questions about the future of the Beetle began to be asked from outside the company.

The first EA47 prototype appeared in 1953 at least 11 more EA47 variations were built over the next three years. Essentially a rebodied Beetle, it never went into production. In 1952 the company built the EA41 in collaboration with Pininfarina. This work began during the tenure of Heinz Nordhoff, who was Director General of Volkswagen from 1948 to 1968. All of the internal projects' names started with 'EA', standing for 'Entwicklungsauftrag' and meaning 'Development assignment'. Volkswagen began producing prototypes of possible Beetle replacements as far back as the early 1950s, and may have received design proposals from Porsche earlier than that.

Successor to Volkswagen's Beetle, the first generation Golf debuted in Europe in May 1974 with styling by Giorgetto Giugiaro's Italdesign. It was noteworthy for signalling Volkswagen's shift of its major car lines from rear-wheel drive and rear-mounted air-cooled engines to front-wheel drive with front-mounted, water-cooled engines that were often transversely-mounted. The Volkswagen Golf Mk1 is the first generation of a small family car manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen.

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