Auto Union DKW F102 History

Launched in March 1964 (two-door; four-door from January 1965), the DKW F102 was an entirely new design, replacing the Auto Union 1000's late-1930s-derived body with a contemporary unibody structure featuring large glass areas and minimal chrome — a modern look that placed it squarely in line with European compact car fashion of the mid-1960s. It retained the DKW two-stroke three-cylinder engine and front-wheel drive, but was marketed under the Auto Union name, making it one of the last cars to carry either badge.

Volkswagen's 1964 takeover of Auto Union changed the F102's destiny. A successor was planned under the DKW name but, owing to reliability concerns with the two-stroke and the arrival of a new four-stroke engine, VW made a decisive branding choice: the dormant Audi name was resurrected instead. In September 1965 the reworked car launched simply as 'Audi' (the F103), marking the end of the DKW era and the beginning of the modern Audi brand.

By March 1966, 52,753 F102s had been produced. The model is historically significant as the direct ancestor of the modern Audi lineage — the platform, body shell, and engineering lessons learned from the F102 fed directly into the F103 and all that followed.