The Fox by Audi

Though it was voted “Car of the Year” by three journals when it came out, the now-rare Audi Fox seems to have fallen through the cracks among vintage car enthusiasts—it definitely isn’t the most popular of Audi models. The Fox was built in-house in Germany and debuted as the Audi 80 in Europe in 1972, where it received critical acclaim. When it came to Australia and the United States in 1973, it was marketed as the Audi Fox.

The Audi Fox was significant, because it helped revive Volkswagen, which had been in a financial down swing since the end of the 1960s. The Audi 80/Fox helped set the stage for a range of successful front-wheel drive, water-cooled cars like the Golf, Jetta, Passat/Dasher and Scirocco.

During the 1970s, art director/designer Helmut Krone (1925-1996) was behind the look of the Audi brand (as well as the Volkswagen “Think Small” advertising campaign). For the Audi Fox advertising campaign featured below, Krone created a very smart, fun, and beautifully designed campaign for Audi, which highlights all of the positive aspects of this little car. It’s too bad the European markets, who knew this car as the Audi 80, missed out on this fun campaign.

Ads/brochures found via Allan Peters, Tenth Letter of the Alphabet, Fine Grains, Vintage Ad Browser, Old Car Manual Project, and Amazon.