Response to a deleted comment that mentioned Volkswagen

This is not quite true as the postwar VW was quite a different animal in terms of both its production and distribution network than the KdF-wagen. To put it bluntly, the Third Reich's KdF-Wagen was a boondoggle. There was little thought put into making the program break even; let alone make a profit. The number of German subscribers to KdF savers was far less than anticipated and nary a singe car was delivered. There was a sense too that this particular Volksprodukt was a disaster waiting to happen. Robert Ley and his KdF agency took it over after German automobile companies and other governmental agencies rightfully passed on this "opportunity." Ley, who was not the most adept or realistic thinker in the Third Reich, was not the person who could have helmed this program into viability. The war actually saved the program from an embarrassing failure by providing a justification for non-deliveries and under-subscriptions. While it is unclear where the program was headed because of the war's intervention, the most likely model would have been the GDR's Trabant. Like the KdF-Wagen, the Trabis were produced by a state-run concern with little thought given to squaring pricing with availability. The result was that queues for the car stretched far longer than they should have, resulting in a car that was very out of date by the time it was delivered.

The postwar VW was a much more professional and well-thought out concern. The Beetle may have owed its engineering to the Third Reich, but the methods the postwar company used to get its automobiles to consumers were markedly different than the KdF-Wagen. VW's production strategies were likewise much more rational and sane compared to its predecessor. VW's General Director Heinrich Nordhoff management style was far more professional than that of Ley and his lieutenants. The Third Reich may have done some of the important legwork for the Beetle design as well as building the Wolfsburg production facility, but the hard work of setting up expanded production lines, distribution networks, and making the car profitable were all accomplished in the postwar period.