50 GL

STORY

Launched in 1974, the Audi 50 (Typ 86) was the first small car from a German manufacturer, arriving just after the 1973 oil crisis made compact, efficient cars newly appealing. Sold only in Europe, it introduced Audi to the supermini class.

The Audi 50 was the blueprint for the structurally almost identical Volkswagen Polo, which launched about seven months later as a rebadged version of the same hatchback. The cheaper Polo quickly outsold it, and Audi discontinued the 50 in 1978 to concentrate on larger, more premium models, but the car's DNA lived on in the Polo and, decades later, in the premium A3.